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A sad decline: Relegation fears real for imploding Valencia CF

For those of you who follow me on social media you’ll know I have a soft spot for Valencia, although that shouldn’t be confused as myself being a ‘supporter’ of theirs. It’s pretty obvious who I support and you don’t need to draft in the CSI team to solve that mystery. However Valencia is my second home and naturally a lot of my friends here are also fans of the club. It’s painful to see what they’ve become.

I was privileged to have been offered my first job in football working at Valencia CF. It was for a London-based company but covering the live minute-by-minute blog in English and I attended every home match. This felt like a dream, especially for a guy from Scunthorpe! To be in the Mestalla and hearing it roar week upon week, it was an incredible experience.

All of the people I was privileged to meet while working there were fantastic. I can’t claim to have spent a great deal of time in the office as I was based in the stadium, away from the grind, but everyone was helpful and friendly. With this being my first venture into football I wanted to do it to the best of my abilities so always asked for advice and feedback. From the guys writing the Spanish stuff, to the social media manager, to the press office, everyone helped make the experience a special one. It’s something I’ll never forget.

My time at the club coincided with Peter Lim’s takeover, although it hadn’t been rubber-stamped until after the season was already underway. I joined the team in December of that year with Valencia doing well in the league under new coach Nuno Espirito Santo.

Off the field the club had previously been on the brink of financial ruin before Lim’s deal to buy the club was agreed. The improvement in the side’s fortunes was a welcome distraction and while Lim wasn’t everyone’s first choice, as some fans wanted a local face in charge, it was a relief to see the club’s long-term future resolved in a positive fashion.

The first game I covered in the stadium was against Real Madrid. This was under Carlo Ancelotti’s reign and they were seen as the unstoppable juggernauts, winning 22 in a row. Even Lim was in attendance for this one. Cristiano gave the visitors the lead from the penalty spot but second half goals from Antonio Barragan and Nicolas Otamendi meant the winning streak had ended - and the noise inside the Mestalla was unlike anything I’d experienced before. United, on and off the pitch.

As the season progressed so did the club. A disappointing Copa del Rey exit at the hands of Espanyol didn’t derail the feel-good factor amongst supporters. When Sevilla visited the Mestalla with former coach Unai Emery in charge and ex-player Ever Banega in midfield, you could sense how much both teams and fans hated one another. That Europa League semi-final still hurt Los Che, plus now they were both fighting for the last Champions League spot. Three penalties, two scored, one saved by Diego Alves - who else? It ended 3-1 and a small measure of revenge was extracted.

When Valencia came from behind twice to secure a much-needed three points against Almeria on the last day of the season everyone felt extremely proud of the team. A new, young side with a new, young coach had hit the ground running. If this was what the club was capable of producing in its first season, imagine what they could do in the second year together. This was supposed to result in Valencia challenging at the very top, a team the fans could be proud of and would tell their grandchildren about.

The upheaval started in the following summer as Amadeo Salvo left along with some influential figures at boardroom level. This meant that my association with the club ended as they preferred to focus on marketing and branding as opposed to investing in more English-specific content.

Each to their own but it made little sense when the English side of things had garnered strong results and the club would be competing in the Champions League the following season, a chance to further tap into that lucrative international market. Either way, I couldn’t complain, it had been a great experience and one I was extremely grateful to have been given in the first place.

Fast forward to the present day and it does hurt me to see Valencia in such a mess. Practically all of the side which created that wonderful first season have moved on. Most of those who remain were at the club before Lim took over, Enzo Perez and Joao Cancelo being the only new faces to have come in during that period and stuck it out. There’s no question the current XI is a lot weaker.

And it’s easy to blame the players, it always is. However look at the disastrous and let’s be honest, unprofessional way the club has dealt with first team coaches during that period. Nuno lost his job not long after a power struggle in the boardroom. He won that battle but ultimately ended up losing his job following poor results. Gary Neville, a budding coach who had delighted British fans with his attention to detail on Sky’s Monday Night Football, was the surprise choice to replace him.

Neville’s only real experience in coaching was working with England as one of Roy Hodgson’s assistants. He noticed the task at hand almost immediately as match-planning was non-existent, almost as if the previous regime had thrown in the towel. In an already unhappy environment it was like walking into a blizzard wearing just shorts and a t-shirt. Neville soon fell victim to the rocky foundations he’d inherited.

Not without his own faults, as I’m sure he’ll admit to, but it had become somewhat of a poisoned chalice and a newcomer, with no real experience to call upon, wasn’t needed. So he was naturally replaced by another experimental appointment.

Pako Ayestaran avoided relegation and against all good judgment was handed the role on a permanent basis. That didn’t work and after a summer transfer window in which more key players left and were replaced with lesser names, it felt like the club was trying to fix a broken bone with a hundred elastic bands. No long term vision, no ideal scenario, just getting through one season after another.

The first experienced coach to land the top job at Valencia under Peter Lim’s rule is Italian Cesare Prandelli. It was a step in the right direction but after nearly two years out of the game, it certainly represents a gamble - although less so than the previous two he’d employed. Four managers in 12 months (not including Voro’s brief stay) is a damning statistic.

So moving away from the playing staff you then need to then look at the man who is now in charge of the comings and goings. I’m not sure Suso Pitarch knows what is going on. He seems totally disconnected from the boardroom as he recently spoke about there being money to spend in January, then backtracked to say there wasn’t due to Financial Fair Play restrictions. The reality being Lim isn’t willing to invest any more money [at present] so there’s nothing to spend unless one or two leave.

But how can you trust Suso with that task? Look at the mess of the squad he handed Ayestaran, the one Prandelli is now doing his best to get the most out of. He failed to sign a natural defensive midfielder despite selling Javi Fuego, who had to play every game in the previous season due to there not being a direct replacement for him.

He also moved on both no.9s at the club, Alvaro Negredo and Paco Alcacer, and only brought in Munir, who is more of a wide forward than a natural striker. Because, well, who doesn’t need more wingers/inside forwards? Zakaria Bakkali, Santi Mina, Rodrigo Moreno, Luis Nani and Fede Cartabia obviously weren’t enough.

Then there’s the new stadium which hasn’t moved on at all. The original idea was for it to be ready for the club’s centenary year in 2019 but the previous plans were worse than expected and the legal hold-ups mean that even 2020 might prove to be too optimistic. Valencia are in the process of redesigning the stadium but that could take up to a further six months.

While the local press have largely been supportive of Lim’s time at the club, despite the downward spiral, they too have been frozen out. New restrictions at the club’s training ground keeps the press behind a barrier, unable to enter and watch the training sessions. And only a week or so after these restrictions were put in place the president of the club, Lay Hoon Chan, asked for support from the press. How can you expect those you’ve just alienated to suddenly become your head cheerleaders?

And I think Lay Hoon is a greater speaker but the policies of the club are essentially throwing her under the bus every time she makes a public appearance. It does feel like the club is laying down tracks as they move along with no clear direction but, hey, let’s just keep going until we crash. Crash, in this instance, is relegation - and the club can’t afford to ignore that’s a very real possibility.

Where do you draw inspiration from, where’s the light at the end of the tunnel? The squad is horribly unbalanced and this leaves gaps in defence. The attack is led by two wingers who are trying to become strikers. There isn’t even the salvation of the January transfer window unless you sell one or two of your most valuable assets, because that’s worked out so well in the past.

Prandelli is going to need to pull a rabbit out of his hat or cross his fingers and hope three sides are worse than his over the course of the season. Perhaps we were too harsh to judge Neville and Ayestaran considering the conditions with which they had to work with, but make no mistake, Prandelli has the toughest task of all of them because he’s been left with the scraps and other team’s cast-offs.

Valencia fans deserve a lot better but if the past 18 months are anything to go by, I’m not sure that’s going to happen.

Prove me wrong, Mr Lim.