Branislav Ivanovic To Valencia Is Absolutely Not Happening

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There was an amusing rumour going around earlier (thanks, Twitter) that suggested that Valencia were preparing to make a bid for Chelsea centre/right back Branislav Ivanovic. Obviously, this would be somewhat annoying if true. Last weekend aside, Ivanovic is a fantastic, versatile  defender whom we're lucky to have on the squad, and it'd be massively irksome if he left. Of course, it seemed rather unlikely that the Serbian would be on the way out of the club for the same reasons that Alex isn't going to be sold - Chelsea simply don't have enough centre back cover to justify unloading one of their backups. This rumour barely needed debunking, in other words.

But it's nice to have some confirmation of things anyway, and reports out of Spain (actual ones, this time) are saying that Valencia are now finished in the transfer window after signing right back Antonio Barragan and won't be bringing more players in:

El Valencia ha cerrado el fichaje del lateral derecho del Valladolid Antonio Barragán. El jugador, de 24 años, se formó en las categorías inferiores del Sevilla, pero aún en edad juvenil fue contratado por el Liverpool. Barragán firma por cinco temporadas y el Valencia pagará por él 1,5 millones de euros... Con su fichaje, el Valencia cierra su plantilla para esta temporada.

Source: AS.

Translation:

Valencia have completed the signing of right-back Antonio Barragan from Valladolid. The player, 24, was formed in the lower categories of Seville, but even in youth was hired by Liverpool. Barragan has signed a five-year contract; Valencia will pay him 1.5 million euros per season... With his signing, Valencia closes its squad for this season.

So, there you have it. Valencia aren't bringing anyone else in, which means that those Branislav Ivanovic rumours are totally, 100% bogus. This is a bogusness shift of 0.01%, mind, because it was pretty clear that they were already really silly, but still, it's nice to have confirmation that the totally insane isn't going to happen. It's also good to know that a group stage opponent in the Champions League won't be doing anything surprising to improve their squad. After selling Mata to Chelsea, this Valencia team is much light on attacking threats (although I do like Pablo Hernandez and Sergio Canales).