Alemany: "Both Ferran Torres and Kang In will be fundamental in VCF's future"

Amongst the subjects that Valencia CF director general Mateu Alemany addressed on Thursday in his thorough press conference was the development of two VCF Academy products who enjoyed summer success: Under-19s European Championships winner Ferran Torres, and Under-20s World Cup standout Kang In.

“It’s important to talk about these two,” said the VCF spokesman. “We’re talking about two players in different situations, who have different evolutions in terms of the time they have had and the minutes they have played.”

“Both Ferran Torres and Kang In, in the opinion of the club’s sporting management, are players who will be fundamental in the future of Valencia CF. Both will be very important in the medium and long term for Valencia CF. The important question here is evaluating, based on the level of competition on the team, what their contribution is going to be. Almost more important than this is seeing and determining what the best thing for them is,” he continued.

“The consolidation of their talent and experience will depend on the decisions that are taken now. Both have the capacity to be starters for Valencia CF and will be so -of that I have no doubt. We all like to see players of their quality come up from the VCF Academy, and I’m the first person to like that, but we are talking about a very high level of demand. We don’t know if, with our order of priorities, giving minutes to academy players is what we need. What we need is the Champions League.”

Alemany added that the commitment to the pair is a firm one, saying “The big leagues in Europe are England, Spain and Italy. In those leagues, from the '2001 Generation', Kang In was the player who had the most minutes for his club. That's including small clubs and Champions League clubs. Of the '2000 Generation', Ferran Torres was either the player with the third or fourth most minutes. I'm bringing this up because of when people talk about our confidence in them. Having said that, for me it is fundamental to evaluate and establish what each of the next steps will be with these players.

“It might be that they stay part of the squad, or they might not. The steps will be made in order to make their development as players as fast as possible. There are historic cases, in which very important players at Valencia CF had to go out on loan first. I don't know if these players will go out on loan, but we have them in mind and we have an objective view of them.”