Time to be the vultures on Valencia?

During the January transfer window City made a joint approach for Valencia's Davids Villa and Silva. They were, according to Daniel Taylor, "the first players Hughes identified when the Abu Dhabi United Group told him he could target virtually any footballer in the world." We offered £100million for the pair, Valencia asked for £135m and Garry Cook walked away. This story was rather buried during the Kaká collapse/Robinho walk-out drama but if you believe Daniel Taylor (and you should) it's fascinating stuff.

The two factors making such an unlikely deal possible are the financial strength of City and the financial ruin of Valencia. And the latter is starting to look much worse - Sid Lowe reported on guardian.co.uk on Monday of the crisis facing Valencia, who have won none of their last seven games (since the players were last paid).

Last week, Bancaja decided they'd had enough. Owed €240m, they took over the club with the backing of [former President Juan Bautista] Soler (still the majority shareholder), appointing Javier Gómez as executive director and going over the head of [recent President Vicente] Soriano, whose 10% share package leaves him impotent and soon to be replaced. Gómez has already announced a policy of austerity. In short, administration without the administrators. Cutbacks and sales are guaranteed; payment for the players still are not forthcoming and nor is a buyer for either stadium. Far from hitting rock bottom last night, Valencia's troubles might have only just begun. Losing Villa for three weeks is no big deal; losing him for good most certainly is. And even that might not be enough for them to win their fight for survival.

From a selfish point of view this is only good news. Vicente Soriano may have been able to turn down £100million for Villa and Silva, but will the men from Bancaja? It's not very nice to play the vulture in situations like this. Not much would have had to have been different for us to go down in 2006/07, in which case Wardle could only have sold Richards, Johnson, Hart and Sturridge in order to keep a Thaksin-less City afloat. But someone's going to have to buy David Villa and David Silva: why shouldn't it be us?