[Pat Murphy]

Valencia To Drastically Reduce Squad

New Valencia coach Unai Emery is going to bide his time before deciding which players he needs to off-load from the club during the summer period , with up to 18 set to leave.

Los Ché currently have a squad of 40 professionals, but the trainer only requires 22 or 23 for the start of the season at the end of August and is working out who will go.

One player set to make Emery's job slightly easier is Marco Caneira, with him on the verge of a €1m move to Sporting Lisbon after several days of negotiations look to have borne fruit.

Valencia have accepted that they may have to cash in on one of their star names in order to balance the books and David Silva, David Villa and Joaquín have all been linked with moves away.

Emery is not keen to see any leave, although he has admitted that Silva is the most likely, and will only make concrete decisions when the squad return to training on July 14.

Until then virtually every player has a price because Valencia's debt needs to be reduced and new sporting director, Juan Sánchez, is in continuous consultation with the board about the problem.

Patience is now the keyword at Mestalla, however, and it could be that a batch of players will not be moved on until after the club's pre-season tour of Holland at the end of next month.

Lucas Brown, Goal.com

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