No. I’d stomache a 2 min sub appearance at the end of the match, if and only if we have soundly beaten Cardiff. He’s not a club legend, and personally I think he should have gone 5 years ago, and the fact that he’s been AWOL and back home for most of the season whilst he’s club captain is appalling.
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No. I’d stomache a 2 min sub appearance at the end of the match, if and only if we have soundly beaten Cardiff. He’s not a club legend, and personally I think he should have gone 5 years ago, and the fact that he’s been AWOL and back home for most of the season whilst he’s club captain is appalling.
Yeah, hopefully he gets a start. Deserves a good send off.
I do as well.
I don't think he wants to be a legend. He did hand back the no 7 shirt after all. Some players do not like the limelight.
The quality of his crossing and service to the likes of Rooney and Van Persie was excellent and we still got some of that when he moved further back. His acceleration up until recently was still superb not just the speed reached but the first 5 yards which are in the head.
A bit like Gary Neville in that little niggles have made it difficult to get any physical consistency. Really sad to see him go but if he continues playing and finds himself injury free then he could be a crucial leader and guide for an emerging team.
I expect him to come on for 10 minutes or so at the end of the match. I'll be very surprised if he doesn't feature at all.
Nope.
Why?
He deserves a send off unlike Young. Atleast this guy gave us a few good consistent seasons. He played his part in two title wins. The first one where he destroyed Ashley Cole in a title decider.
He was decent defending wise as full back, but didn’t have a clue on how to attack. Sterling couldn’t get any change off him whenever he played Valencia.
That was years ago now. He was a good winger for us. He became a good full back, but he was done over 12 months ago. We had home games last season where his teammates were ignoring him as a passing option, due to the inevitability of the Valencia shuffle and pass back inside. He hasn't been able to get close to the first team for the last four months, despite our dire performances. The guy has shown no real drive to get himself to the standard of fitness required. His captaincy of the club through this difficult period has been non-existent.
Any time he spends on the pitch could be better spent assessing players for next season or inspiring a youth player by providing him with an opportunity. Antonio Valencia can feck off. If he was worthy of a send off, he'd be getting a testimonial. He's nothing other than a burden at this point. The decent thing for him to do would be fall on his sword make clear to the manager that he has no right to be on that pitch on Sunday, depriving someone else more worthy of the opportunity. Antonio Valencia is the perfect personification of the mediocrity and lack of leadership that currently pervades United.
In reference to Young, Young's professionalism is never in doubt. He too was a top full back last season who earned the place in a team that reached the semi-final of the World Cup. Sadly, he's regressed this year somewhat, but he has maintained his fitness and given all in each and every game. Whilst Valenica has been no where to be seen, Young has fronted up in front of the camera post match and in press conferences to take responsibility for his part in sub-par performances.
100% agree with you. I nearly just replied ‘this’ but couldn’t bring myself to do it... good post.
Play the kids.
We should be looking to the future, not celebrating a somewhat okay past.
Give him a send off before the game or something, not just chuck him on when he's not played for months.
But playing him is also a sign of waving goodbye to the past. What's 1 meaningless game on last day of season going to do for the kids anyway?
This place has become something else. We have to get rid of everyone reminiscent of the past. Might as well stop playing in red as we've been awful playing in red this season.
I'd like to see him get a run out anyway he deserves it the man broke bones for Utd but nah "lets play the kids" who cares about players that actually helped us win trophies.
We play him if he wants to play. Dead rubber match that means nothing, Valencia deserves a last hurrah in a United shirt. Fantastic servent of the club and an efficient player in his prime.
There's still something riding in this game. If we win and Arsenal fail to beat Burnley away, we finish 5th instead of 6th. Which means we qualify for the EL groups, instead of having to play knock-out qualifiers in July.
I'd bring him on as sub last 30 mins if we're winning and the game is comfortable.
Nobody cares about the Europa. I would have no problem in playing the youth team in that in July of that is what happens. Also I couldnt care less if we get knocked out of that straight away
Who gives a feck. He's still capable of doing a good job at right back against fecking Cardiff.
Exactly.We need to get the 3pts in this game and we should even if a few youngster start.
The club cares, it's revenue. Nobody cares that you don't care.
The club gives a feck. Based on what I saw of him last few times he played, he wasn't good enough to play at EPL level any more. Fecking Cardiff, like any club at this level, has players that can fecking run.
Going to miss this guy. Great mentality and a true warrior. Done a lot for us over the year. I think he will be missed even more sadly when we bring in worse replacement and make our right side even worse 
.
.Good luck to Valencia. He always gave his all, and was always respectful. Lately not good enough, but everything comes to an end.
Wish him happiness in his future endeavours.
Wish him happiness in his future endeavours.
Fair play to him and all but not a loss to United. Been crap for years.
Funnily enough he was no worse than Young so I think jel hel be fine.
And Cardiff aren't EPL level, funnily enough. He will be fine, and the opportunity cost is feck all to be honest. It's the Europa Cup.
He’s a lot worse than Young and hasn’t played for 4 months. Finish 5th and we don’t have a Europe League game in July!!
As club captain Valencia has pissed off home for most of the season, zero leadership. Do not get the sentamentality for such as average player. Play Laird or play Dalot, players that have a future here. No time for someone who has been stealing a living for far too long.
He has not. He played very well for the first 2/3 of last season. It is mainly this season he hasn't even played.
Probably one of my favourite United players in SAF later years.Sure he wasn't as fancy or technically gifted as Ronaldo,Nani or Giggs but he showed just as much determination and commitment for the club,especially in these indifferent times.
Pissed off home? He'd have done whatever he did after gaining permission from the manager. The way he's ridiculed here as a thief is a joke, he's been a fantastic servant and always there when called upon. Sure he's over the hill but it's not his fault the club kept rolling his contract to play him at right back because they were too lazy to find a new one.
Channel your anger at the right people rather than pointing to players who have been fantastic servants for us. He won't throw the game and going by Young in previous games he was never as bad as Ashley has recently been. That's for damn sure.
Of course he got permission from the manager, there was no implication he went AWOL. However, it’s not what you expect from your captain, the teams most senior player. A team devoid of leadership, and the club captain is half way round the world. That’s not acceptable and certaintly not indicative of a ‘great servant’.
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Hopefully he will get good send off tomorrow. 10 years at the club and IIRC he sacked his agent as he didn't want to move.
Limited player. Hasn't put in a decent cross that I can remember despite trying 50 times a game
What do you mean it's not what you expect from your captain? He'd clearly been told by Ole he's not in his plans and Ole pursued with Ashley as Captain whilst Valencia went home to continue rehab and maintain freshness for the next season. He likely gave Valencia time to sort his own affairs and negotiate with other clubs if required.
You are seriously deluded if you think Valencia pissed off and thought United would break down without him. The guy was phased out well before Ole - Mourinho stopped playing him first. Over the 10 years he's been a fantastic servant for the club, that's undeniable and not worth any debate from my end.
Not looked worse than Young. Okay. I’ll let you live in that fantasy world you have constructed, it must be fun there.
Of course the club wouldn’t break down - but I expect the captain of our club to show some leadership, or perhaps he should have done the right thing in either relinquishing the captaincy or leaving in January. He’s been incredibly lucky that Utd have been in a state of perpetual rebuild over the past 6 years, and survived through luck and the fact that the only right sided players we have bought in 7/8 years are Zaha, Darmian and Dalot. He’s been the captain of Man Utd and been paid handsomely for it, and given absoubtly nothing in return over the past 12 months, and was woefully not good enough before that. He’s not the only one (obviously).
However, any decent full back will show us what we’ve lacked these past 5 years.
If we had Valencia of even 2 seasons ago playing this year we would have prob got top 4. Can't believe people seriously think Young is a better full back than him.
Valencia regularly dominated his opponent, his rubbish crossing seems to have skewed people's perception of him as a player. Last player I liked at the club tbh.
Valencia regularly dominated his opponent, his rubbish crossing seems to have skewed people's perception of him as a player. Last player I liked at the club tbh.
To be fair his positioning is probably worse than Young’s but his speed and strength often bailed him out but I think he and Young are tied for some of the worst defending I’ve seen at fullback for United.
After a dodgy start his positioning vastly improved. It seemed to be any time he did get caught out positionally after that It was roared from the rooftops.
I said it before but would love someone to show our win rate with and without Valencia playing over his time spent at Full back. I think you would find we won much more, percentage wise, when he played.
Young was far better than Valencia this season. Even Young the last two months (where he's been terrible) has been better than Valencia was earlier in the season. Young was also better last season and arguably the second half of 16/17, albeit at leftback. Obviously before that Valencia was better though.
Genuinly cant understand why there seems to be negativity around this guy . Over the last ten yrs hes been a great servant for Utd , others in the team should take note . Ive admired him as he never seems to give up . Injuries and age caught up with him as they do with most players . If even half of your guys had the same level of commitment to the club , you would have already secured a champions league spot.
Not sure I would agree with his positioning improving and the lapses in concentration were criminal. Like that time he just watched Hazard pull off him and then he put in a light jog knowing he’d screwed up.
Been a few moments like that. He was great with play in front of him but any half decent inbehind him and it was like he had the blinkers on. Great in a 1 on 1, but his contribution going forward was just woeful and in that Ashley Young beats him as there is at least a slim chance that Young will get a cross past the first man.
The season before that he was terrible as well, when we had Zlatan. Saw someone put up something about Valencia the fearless attacker. Watch that season and you can see the fear as he would just pump long diagonals in stead of pushing for the line and whipping a cross in.
Anyway he was solid enough and you knew week in week out he would deliver a solidly average performance but he should have been replaced 3-4 years ago but there is no denying the man was a solid servant for the club.
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