Valencia coach Ruben Baraja is happy coming up to a year in charge.

Baraja was speaking ahead of the weekend's clash against Las Palmas.

He said: "Physically, I have more grey hair. It has been an intense year. There is an important difference between when you take a team on the fly and try to adapt to the competition and another when you start from scratch in a preseason.

"There are goals that we are working on and now we are working on things that we did in the preseason. Football is a lot of grinding and making your concepts sink in. Last year we had to get results without barely being able to work. Now I think we are growing. We have generated very good feed back with the players.

"They tell us things that happen in the games and the team is convinced of what we do. My goal now is to try to maintain that competitive tension and this match against Las Palmas is very difficult. With things different from Almería, but we are going to face a team against which we have to adapt.

"Every game is an ambition, a constant challenge to consolidate things."