The next wave: 3 Valencia players set to shine before inevitably being sold

The fruits of Valencia's considerable development efforts hang ripe and tempting for Europe's elite. It has been this way for a decade.

With the sale of Shkodran Mustafi to Arsenal and Paco Alcacer and Andre Gomes to Barcelona, team owner Peter Lim has sent a message this summer, loud and clear, that, even rid of the financial weight of the Nou Mestalla Stadium, Los Che is a selling club, through and through.

Valencia supporters now wave goodbye to three more talented players, who join David Villa, David Silva, Juan Mata, Jordi Alba, Jeremy Mathieu, Adil Rami, Nicolas Otamendi, and Roberto Soldado in the club's ever-growing and impressive alumni ranks.

As precedent now shows, the cycle of buying cheap, developing, and selling high is set to repeat, so here are three more talented young stars Valencia fans ought not grow too attached to in the coming years:

Jose Luis Gaya

Like Jordi Alba, Jose Gaya is a young Spanish left full-back who broke into the Valencia starting XI at a young age and the 21-year-old is very much ready to step into any number of teams both in Spain or abroad.

But the truth is Gaya needs a second strong year in order to garner the kind of rapid attention Alba received. For, as much potential as Gaya has shown, he did not enjoy as strong a season last year as his stellar 2014-15 campaign, where he made 35 league appearances.

Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid may soon look to bolster their left-back ranks as Fabio Coentrao's future at the Bernabeu remains unclear and Filipe Luis approaches an advanced age in Diego Simeone's side.

Valencia knows his value, though, and with a €50-million release clause and a litany of promotions through the Spanish national team youth ranks, Gaya seems set to follow in Alba's footsteps right out the door at Valencia.

Zakaria Bakkali

Zakaria Bakkali is a special player.

It's why Valencia awarded the 20-year-old Belgium international with the No. 11 shirt this season, why Marc Wilmots saw fit to call him to the senior Belgian team at only 17 years old, and why Valencia penned him immediately to a five-year deal in 2015 when his contract with PSV Eindhoven expired.

This electric winger has all the skill and footwork needed to get past his opponents with ease and it is his dribbling skill that makes Bakkali oh so very dangerous out wide in both his preferred left or on the right.

He may look a little strange when he takes off with the ball at his feet; his running style is unorthodox, and at only 5-foot-4, he's never going to out-jump a defender, but he makes up for it with the thunderous power he gets on his shots.

With Pablo Piatti out on loan, this season could be Bakkali's chance to make the left wing his own.

Santi Mina

While Valencia has proven itself an adequate proving ground for a number of players, the club's best successes have come in the form of Spanish attackers; Mata, Silva, Villa, Soldado, and Alcacer are a testament to that simple fact.

And while Los Che acquired Munir from Barcelona on the same day the club sent Alcacer to the Blaugrana, it is 20-year-old Santi Mina who represents Valencia's best young hope from the Iberian peninsula.

Mina was given a chance to play last season under Nuno Espirito Santo, Gary Neville, and Pako Ayestaran, making 26 appearances in league play and scoring four goals. He added a further four goals in 10 appearances in other competitions ... as a teenager.

Mina started the 2016-17 La Liga campaign off with a bang, too, scoring a brace in a 4-2 loss to Las Palmas on opening day. If he keeps on scoring, he'll soon be whisked away.

Such is the sad reality Valencia supporters face, each and every season.