Valencia's cohorts at the club includes Patrice Evra, with whom he can communicate in Spanish, and the Portuguese-speaking contingent of Luis Nani, the Da Silva twins and Anderson, though the impression that he has changed clubs but not lives is reinforced by the fact that his contact with his Latin American friends at Wigan – Maynor Figueroa, Hugo Rodallega and Hendry Thomas – is as great as ever. "I also watch the Wigan matches," he says, with a grin. "Nothing's changed. I'm quite happy, I go to the same restaurants with the same friends."
The one change he cherishes is that Ferguson does not seem quite so struck by his passing resemblance to Michael Jackson as his previous bosses – not least Jewell, who once joked that, if things didn't work out at Wigan, Valencia could always double up as a Jacko lookalike. "My first, second and third managers told me this but I look at myself in the mirror and honestly can't say I look like Michael Jackson," grins Valencia. The words of a player who considers himself his own man – mi propio hombre, as he calls it – and not a pale imitation of a global superstar.
Said Valencia: "English lessons are suddenly taking up a much bigger part of it. At Wigan there was a lesson every week, here at United it's almost every day. They didn't tell me to step them up: it was my decision. I know it's very important to communicate. Family is an important part of my life. We – my girlfriend Zoila, my daughter Domenica and I – have moved to be nearer United's training ground. But other than that life's not changed all that much. I still like to go to the same restaurants with my old mates from Wigan – Maynor Figueroa, Hugo Rodallega (above) and Hendry Thomas. Pau Brasil in Manchester's Northern Quarter is one we like. I'm missing Ecuador less and less. My family are often over but I do miss an Ecuadorean dish called ceviche – it's raw fish with lemon. You can't get that here. I can't complain about the English food, though. I do like the chicken and pasta now.
