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Valencia Continue To Serve Up A Tasteless Dish As LaLiga Campaign Begins In Crisis
They do a great paella in Valencia, and they also serve up a crisis like no other club in Spain.
beIN SPORTS
By David Cartlidge (@davidjaca)
Paella, and crisis. No one else in Spain does both better than in Valencia.
Elsewhere in Spain they imitate both, but never quite match the boys from the third biggest city in the country. In terms of the football Barcelona fans' moans and groans are often seen as trivial regardless of context. Real Madrid meanwhile - they're Spain's self-proclaimed grandest club, how could they have it bad? Sevilla's often disregarded as simply being a passionate bunch.
Valencia tops them all. Just like the aforementioned cuisine, crisis is now entrenched in their culture. Rarely is it done better elsewhere.
Only Valencia can do the sorts of things they do, they're experts at it. Take two weeks ago. Staring at the jaws of defeat to Real Betis, 0-2 down in their own backyard of Mestalla, they managed to turn things around to 2-2. Mestalla rocked like it can, and once did so often back in the early 2000's. It has recently on occasions too, the make-up of the stadium gives it an added edge over other stadia in the country. It's steep, it's suffocating. At 2-2, it was in Valencia's favor. There was a belief in the air, a sense of momentum, optimism. A similar feeling to the one Peter Lim, their billionaire Singaporean owner, swept in on. Then Ruben Castro scored with the last kick of the game and another familiar feeling emerged.
Then more familiar feelings built. Anguish, despair. And dare you say it, even acceptance in some quarters. This is what Valencia has become.
This weekend it returned as they were put away by Athletic Bilbao at San Mames and made it four losses from four - seven if you include the end of last season. It is the joint-worst start in their history and the last three teams to start like this all went down. Even an early lead didn't lift Valencia like it should've in such tough surroundings. Instead they caved in too easily, lacking any real spine to threaten Athletic any further, before eventually being seen off with ease despite the narrow scoreline. Defensively there was no organisation or leadership, as Eliaquim Mangala lumbered and Josè Luis Gayà lacked the spark he emerged so brightly with. In midfield they lacked the energy or personality to dissuade Beñat from dictating proceedings, as Dani Parejo didn't do his ill-reputation with the Valencia fans no good and Mario Suarez did what Mario Suarez does best - baffle. In attack meanwhile there was a Paco Alcacer shaped hole - a player who lived and breathed the club, but became disilussioned with what it had become.
Alcacer isn't alone. Unlike him however, the fans will stay. They remain with Valencia, and will see through the hard times - however long they may be. You could say this all began two summers ago. Riding on the high that was Lim's first year in charge, they had been guided to heady heights under Nuno. The squad was above all young, exciting and close to challenging Atleti for the tag of being a threat to LaLiga's power houses.
Behind the scenes however there was a lack of direction in terms of how to build upon the success. Transfer dealings were being conducted largely through specific agents, those of whom had specific relations with the club owners. Lim chose to listen to the wrong men, and Valencia were to suffer as a result. Nuno eventually went after enormous pressure, but nothing could've prepared Valencia fans for what was to come next. Gary Neville was an unmitigated disaster. It only incensed the fans more that a friend of Lim had been handed the role. Neville went next but could've gone much sooner. Pako Ayestarán was charged with steering the team to safety and did so, barely. After a brilliant run the wheels soon came off.
Then came the chance for Valencia to do things over again, and avoid another summer of stalling. It needed to be perfect but was anything but. In fact, it was worse. André Gomes went, then Alcacer. Mustafi went too, even though the club wanted to keep him. The few incomings where hardly inspiring too but it was the departure of Alcacer that hurt the most. The player who chose to stay in January 2015, signing a bumper new deal. He was held up as the poster boy of a new Valencia. For varying reasons he decided to go and it wasn't just for the bright lights of Barcelona. He had become fed up of the project on offer at Valencia - playing alongside Lionel Messi wasn't the only pull here.
Suso Pitarch, the Sporting Director who was added to provide some genuine football insight, has approached the job with a scattergun fashion. Players he wanted to sell remained, while other (better) targets have come and gone. The last few days of the window were madness - yet again - as Valencia sold a centre-back they wanted to keep and played chess with the Financial Fair Play restrictions placed upon them. A result of their failure to qualify for the Champions League, a staple of Lim's proposed project. Pitarch had his time many years ago in a floundering Atleti, and even then failed to inspire as the misses eclipsed the hits. This is the sort of person now charged with making Valencia competitive once again. Above him it isn't much better with Lim's thinking becoming all the more uncoordinated as evidenced by the summer. Then there is Lay Hoon Chan - the president - making several public gaffes and deceiving fans over player sales.
So where to next? Well the obvious is a new manager, but in the summer it was the same case and Valencia chose the wrong option then. The market was brimming with top level coaches and Valencia chose to not rock the boat, persisting with Ayestarán despite his woeful finale to the season and uninspiring presence to attract talent - or retain it. The great Mario Kempes offering himself for the role had sentiment, but made no sense. Valencia went down the 'legends' road before and turned around. This isn't just about blood pumping and chest beating, Valencia's missing a brain and a clear mind - and no, that isn't a reference to Mangala's defending.
Nothing at Valencia is ever done pro-actively or with foresight. And therein lies the major problem with the club at this stage, they appear to be working day to day. Marcelino might well be a solution, but it doesn't begin nor end with him. Valencia not only don't do the right thing, they don't actually do anything.
That is of course, other than crisis.