Valencia fans used to be those white elephant fans (the sleek sexy kind) who wouldn't blow hot and cold with each toggle of the switch. For all the resentment behind even that disastrous Ronald Koeman era, I still remember the matches themselves had the fans quite unequivocal in their adoration of a series of performances that were in all fairness quite stunning in their intricacy and corresponding ineffectiveness. Especially ironic since at the same time neighboring fans at the Madrigal were berating their team for slipping to 7th in the table... yes the same team that was playing in the 3rd division just a few years prior... We were a hybrid cosmic body that orbited Valencia neither with the frothy-mouthed ruthlessness of Madrid fans, nor the stony silent monocled opera watchers of Barcelona, nor of course the happy go lucky "woohoo we're 17th..." low standard penurious optimism of Racing, Betis, Levante etc (more on Levante later...I mean WATHEFFFF are they shooting up this season???) - instead the strange resonance of a club that was big, successful, and talented enough to have the highest of expectations, and a fan base that was curiously forgiving of players who eventually realized mid-leap about the impossibility of the expectation-ledge and then air-cycled, blow-jet-propelled, and furiously grappled their way to a ledge only 2km away from the original.
This season should for all counts be the same, in fact a few dollops more leniency wouldn't be completely out of place considering the departures, formation changes, and debt (not to mention the mental trauma of having to watch hordes of Indians swarm out of airports like locusts from the book of Revelations, holding notes taken from that gay Hrithik movie). But ever since they socked it to Barca (which frankly they do every year...only this time they took a point), there suddenly seems to be an unrest in the Mestalla - like Grimm and his fisherman's wife I unwittingly associated with Barca... The Bilbao game at Mestalla had jeers in the first half, not monkey chants at Miguel hopelessly panicking on the ball...but jeers!!! You know the locusts aren't the only portents of apocalypse when fans would rather jeer central midfielders for a backpass than talentless Rightbacks who take my "Hybrid-Orbital" a little too literally. Granted they should have won the game 4-0 by halftime, and instead were facing a 0-1 defeat till Banega released Soldado at the death with a pass that should get physically manifested and cryogenically preserved for future generations (but instead will get pipped by Silva's last pass...because he plays in the EPL...).
Also granted it comes on the back of losing to Sevilla after threatening to win 5-0, a 1-1 draw with Mallorca, and a narrow 1-0 against Granada that should have been won by a basketball score.... Did I mention we're pretty much out of the Champions League, and still without a stable Midfield formation while our pennyless beggar city rivals sit atop thhe league....but still we remain loyal and HOLY SHIT WTF are Che upto, Booooooooo!! ... Maybe we isn't so hybrid after all...best get used to it, it feels like yet another one of "those seasons"... where we contemplatively swirl the dust at our feet, yearning for golden days past and building castles of possession-directed pass-completion-derived intricacy-ratio-functional metrics of League-victory in the clouds of power-slam clothesline eye-poking last minute goal driven Madrid championships... yes you heard it here first... Madrid to win Liga. {{shoots self}}
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