Valencia CF: How the decisions of few have destroyed a whole club

Valencia CF, also known as Los Che, have been champions of the Spanish division 6 times, with the most recent time coming back in the 2003/2004 season under legendary manager Rafa Benitez. As recently as 2019, they won the prestigious Copa Del Rey after defeating Barcelona in the final after finishing 4th and reaching the semi finals of the Europa league. For a team of Valencia’s magnitude, these feats should be the norm yet they find themselves at the very bottom of the La Liga table after winning 2 games from a possible 17. One of the most worrying things about this is that for many experts, or people who have been following Valencia closely, this isn’t a shock and has been a long time coming.

So the question must be posed, how has a team who finished 4th twice in three years, from 2017 to 2019, find themselves massively struggling to stay in La Liga? Why is a team that once sat 8th in UEFA’s club rankings in 2014 not managaiing to even get supporters to come and watch their games? This is the story of the tragic demise of Valencia CF and why nobody can be surprised that they have reached this sorry state.

In order to understand the whole story of Valencia’s demise, we need to go back to the very start and this finds us in 2007 where construction of Valencia’s new stadium began. The Nou Mestalla is one of the longest and most ambitious stadium construction projects in the world and this explains why it keeps being delayed. It is still very far from finished and although when it is completed, supposedly in 2025, it will be extraordinary - it has obliterated Valencia financially and could likely lead them to be playing the first season in this new stadium, in the Spanish second division.

Ever since the plans for the new stadium were put into place, Valencia had constantly been forced to sell their best players in order to account for the financial jeopardy this had caused. In the summer of 2010, just after they had finished third in their domestic league, they sold both of their biggest talents in David Silva and David Villa for transfer fees which half didn’t reflect their real quality, a trend which would continue for the foreseeable future. History seemed to repeat itself in 2012 when club captain and star player Juan Mata left to Chelsea again after the side saw themselves finishing third and to rub salt in the wound, the manager that oversaw this period of relative success, Unai Emery, also left. 

Sadly, for Valencia fans this was best it would ever get domestically. Even with the fact they were constantly selling their best players, financial woes still ensued and Los Che had accumulated up to 400 million euros of debt by the start of the 2010s. Since Emery left, Valencia struggled to find a manager as talented and well-suited to the club as they finished 5th and 8th consecutively, finding it hard to replace the elite players they sold. But in August 2014, things changed and Valencia fans were quickly filled with a wave of overriding optimism. Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim bought the club and immediately cleared their debt. They spent heavily in the following window and expectations were high, however Valencia’s misfortunes were about to become even more resounding.

Peter Lim was viewed as the saviour of Valencia, having bought them when they were at their lowest and instantly pumping money into them. Seasons of heavy spending ensued and after the appointment of Nuno Espirito Santo in 2014, which went very well as the club finished 4th in Nuno’s 1st season, Lim got big headed and that’s when the grapes turned sour. Nuno was recommended by super agent Jorge Mendes who was very good friends with Lim and this appointment was seen as quite a big risk as it was only his second ever season in professional management. But, it paid off and Lim looked like a genius for it and he definitely believed himself to be. 

Lim had no real background in football but from then onwards, he heavily involved himself in all sporting decisions because he thought he was capable of doing so, even though many of these decisions were completely devoid of logic. After the first few seasons of Lim’s tenure he also began to withhold money for transfers, Valencia’s finances were still porous and due to inconsistent league form and the construction of the new stadium and this led to Lim barely providing any sort of funds for his managers to bolster their squads. This, coupled with Lim’s trigger-happy nature of getting rid of managers who were performing admirably, saw Valencia never be able to consistently battle it out at the top of the league. 

For instance, after Nuno stepped down in 2015, Lim made the scandalous decision to appoint his good friend Gary Neville (whom he owned part of Salford City with). Neville had never managed in professional football and in a move that stunned literally everyone, it was proven that Neville was completely out of his depth as Valencia found themselves in the relegation zone having won just 3 of their 16 games under the Englishman. Lim had no choice but to sack him after his catastrophic time in charge and Valencia slowly climbed up the table to finish 12th that season. Lim’s lack of ability was demonstrated again for the whole world to see in 2019. After 2 years of mid table mediocrity and 3 different managers, it looked as if Lim had finally got it right when he appointed the experienced and well-versed manager Marcelino in 2017. 

Under Marcelino, Valencia saw their most prosperous period of Lim’s reign in charge. They finished 4th in back-to-back seasons, reached the semi-finals of the Europa league and even won the Copa Del Rey in 2019 - their first trophy in nearly two decades. It finally looked like Valencia were back where they should be and with the help of just a little more investment from Lim, they could really push on and close the gap on Spain’s big three: Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid. 

But then Lim decided to sack Marcelino.

As I said before, the big decisions Lim made were not made through any sort of logic or rational thinking, they were made by his ego. Lim was still not supporting Marcelino enough financially and when the Valencia manager complained about Lim’s sporting decisions to the media, the billionaire was furious and promptly sacked the Spaniard. Just like that, Los Ches’ honeymoon period was over and they were swiftly dragged back down into the abyss of mid-table. The Valencia players were so shocked they refused to attend the press conference of the new manager and shortly after, club legend Dani Parejo joined rivals Villareal after denouncing Lim in an interview.

Valencia stars such as Ferran Torres, Carlos Soler, Maxi Gomes, Goncalo Guedes and more were sold in the years that followed for pennies due to the club’s finances and Valencia began to tumble down the table. Since Marcelino left, Valencia haven’t finished higher than 9th. Lack of investment on all fronts have seen the side's academy fail to produce the elite talents they were once able to churn out so regularly whilst the overall quality of the first team diminishes annually. 9th, 13th, 9th, 14th, 9th and now currently sitting pretty in 19th, Valencia are a shadow of the club they once were and there is little reason to believe that there will be a drastic improvement any time soon. Valencia’s only hope is the growing rumour that Lim is looking to sell the club which could potentially see an upturn in results and may see them not have to play football in one of the best stadiums in Europe, in the second division which would absolutely cripple the club. But chances are it's too little too late for Los Ches.

Once a Spanish giant, inept financial decisions and an owner who is more concerned with his public image than his club’s, individuals have cost Valencia their spot at the apex of La Liga. Their slow demise makes you feel nothing but sympathy for the fans of Los Ches, who have seen 10 managers oversee their side in just 10 years of Lim’s reign and it makes you realise that your club is never safe and all the fortunes you might be experiencing, can all be easily undone by the actions of a few people that do not have their team’s best interests at heart. 

There is a team in Manchester right now that I know can strongly relate…