Carlos Corberan has been appointed as new Valencia manager following the dismissal of former midfielder Ruben Baraja.
Failing to win any of their final seven La Liga games of the 2023/24 campaign put paid to any European hopes, and two wins in 17 this season see them firmly embroiled in a relegation battle.
The dismissal of Baraja, who made 365 appearances for the club, marks the eighth consecutive Valencia manager to fail to reach two full years in charge at the club, and it’s not impossible that the club are about to return to the Spanish second tier for only the second time since the Civil War.
But how did a team who made two consecutive UEFA Champions League finals at the start of the century, followed by two league titles in three years, end up in such a mess?
As with most clubs falling on hard times, Valencia have been woefully mismanaged off the pitch for a number of years, and while most fans will point the finger at Peter Lim, the club’s issues long predate their current owner.
The early 2000s were a utopia for Valencia, with a superb squad headed by an astute manager in Rafael Benitez. Los Che started the 2001 UEFA Champions League final with Baraja as a holding midfielder behind Gaizka Mendieta, Kily Gonzalez and Pablo Aimar. There was also Roberto Ayala in defence and Santiago Canizares in goal as the club won La Liga in 2002 and 2004, with Benitez joining Liverpool at the end of the campaign.
The appointment of former manager Claudio Ranieri saw Valencia fall out of the UEFA Champions League places, and the club’s desire to build a new stadium to replace the ageing Mestalla would leave them in severe financial jeopardy.
The global financial crisis hit Spain particularly hard, and the sale of the existing Mestalla, which would be used to fund the rest of the new stadium, fell through. Production was halted, and huge sums of money had now been invested into a concrete bowl that has a capacity of zero with not a single blade of grass planted.
Having invested so much into a stadium that would never be built, and only sparingly supported by UEFA Champions League money, Valencia were forced to sell its next generation of stars. Towards the end of the decade, the likes of David Villa, David Silva and Juan Mata would leave, with the guile of Unai Emery enough to keep Los Che in the UEFA Champions League.
But, as with the departure of Benitez eight years earlier, Valencia would be sorely hit by a change in the dugout.
The club’s financial situation would get worse, with Lim stepping in to buy the club in 2014 for €100m. Valencia’s debt had been restructured and with a new owner, the club looked to be on the up.
But Lim’s close relationship with agent Jorge Mendes quickly soured his relationship with fans, and a series of poor managerial appointments, which reached its zenith – or perhaps nadir – in 2015 with Lim appointing business partner Gary Neville.
Marcelino was one of the few successful appointments of the Lim era, but even that ended badly.
Appointed in 2017, Marcelino took Valencia from 12th the season before to fourth in his maiden campaign, also reaching the Copa del Rey semi-finals. But it’s the cup competition where things went wrong, according to the manager at least.
While publically calling out the club’s decision to try and sell star forward Rodrigo certainly won’t have helped, Marcelino claimed he was sacked because of his efforts in the Copa del Rey.
Marcelino insisted that he’d been told not to focus on winning the Copa del Rey and to prioritise UEFA Champions League qualification, and although he achieved both, it was the potential jeopardising of the more lucrative European place that would see him dismissed.
Los Che have not come close to the heights achieved under Marcelino; while the club did reach the 2022 Copa del Rey final, their highest league finish is ninth in the last five seasons and it won’t be any higher this time.
Following the initial appointment of Nuno Espirito Santo, Valencia have gone through 10 managers in 10 years, and that’s excluding the six times Voro has been called into the dugout.
Even if the appointment of Corberan proves to be the right one, it might be that he simply doesn’t have the players to keep Valencia up.
Since the 2016/17 season, Valencia have a net spend of -€100m, and since the 2020/21 season, their net spend is around -€60m. And it’s not just the amount of money being spent – or not spent – but where it's going.
Jasper Cillesen was the club’s second-most expensive transfer at €35m, but was sold three years later for €1m, while Geoffrey Kondogbia, Goncalo Guedes, Alvaro Negredo and others were also sold for losses as the club continues to lose its stars each year.
When Valencia have got managerial appointments right, they’ve thrived; Benitez ushered in a golden era for the club, while Marcelino restored some long-lost hope and pride.
For their fans’ sake, here’s hoping Corberan can get this fallen giant back on its feet.