Naz Majeed 

In October 2014, Valencia were taken over by Peter Lim, making the Singaporean businessman the first foreign owner in the club’s history. Mired in the financial difficulties of a disastrous decade in which they failed to qualify for the Champions League on several occasions.

Valencia had been forced to sell key players like David Silva, Juan Mata, and David Villa in the years since their 2003/04 double triumph of La Liga and the UEFA Cup, masterminded by Rafael Benitez. With unrest in the boardroom and players being unpaid several times, the club looked to be a whisker away from a meltdown, and it was Peter Lim who unexpectedly swooped in, seeking to restore their fortunes after a process that took almost a year to finalize.

Lim’s influence had been felt even before the paperwork was signed, however, with Nuno Espírito Santo hired as manager in July that year on his insistence, a move that seemed suspiciously in line with the agendas of football super-agent Jorge Mendes, who had a close relationship with both parties.

Alvaro Negredo, Andre Gomes, Rodrigo, and Shkodran Mustafi would join the club as well as Enzo Perez, who had just been named Player of the Year in Portugal. Funds were generated by the sale of Jérémy Mathieu to Barcelona, alongside other departures. They would start the season well, with 7 wins in their first 10 league games, Paco Alcacer in particular in good form.

A further 11 wins in 14 games from December to March (including victories over Real Madrid and Sevilla) would see them sit in third place with 10 games to go. Drawing half of their final 10 games would ultimately see Valencia slip to fourth, however, ahead of Sevilla by a single point.

More reinforcements would arrive in the summer of 2015, with Lim seeking European glory. João Cancelo, Santi Mina, and Aymen Abdennour joined the squad, the latter moving from Monaco who Valencia would beat in the Champions League playoffs, sending the Spanish side into the Group Stage.

Drawn together with Zenit St. Petersburg, Gent, and Lyon, Valencia was expected to progress, but damaging losses to Gent and Zenit in Matchdays 4 and 5 meant that Valencia went into the final round of games with destiny out of their hands, though they would lose that game as well, crashing out of the Champions League.

It was little better on the home front, and at the end of the year, they were 10th, with only 5 wins from their first 17 league games. Lim would accept the resignation of Nuno, Eventually appointing Gary Neville, a close business associate, as manager in early December.

Unable to speak Spanish, Neville’s first game in charge was the aforementioned final Champions League game against Lyon, seeing Valencia eliminated - though as Gent would beat Zenit in the other game, even a win for Neville in his debut game would not have sufficed.

It took until Valentine’s Day for Neville to record his first league win, and 13 league games into 2016, Valencia were now 14th in the table, having also been beaten 7-0 by Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey. 

He was sacked at the end of March.

Pako Ayestarán took over, sacked six months later. Cesare Prandelli would take charge in late September, lasting until December, citing disagreements with the board over transfer policies.

By the end of 2016, Valencia looked to be in freefall, with four managers in the space of less than a year and various members of the board stepping down in acrimony. Throughout this, Lim would weather the storm, facing allegations that he was attempting to abandon the sinking ship that was Valencia, but while the club was in crisis, they somehow managed to escape relegation, finishing 12th after hovering in and around the drop zone for most of the campaign.

So Valencia entered the 2017/18 campaign with a fair degree of trepidation, Peter Lim having appointed former Sevilla boss Marcelino as manager, while former Singaporean diplomat Anil Murthy had taken over as chairman.

Publicly condemning the Valencia “Ultras” who had attacked the team bus when they were deep in the relegation zone the previous season, Murty worked with Lim to appoint Marcelino, the eighth managerial change in three years.

Lim, Murty, and perhaps mainly Marcelino enjoyed a good start to the season, aided by the loan signings of Geoffrey Kondogbia, Gonçalo Guedes, and Andreas Pereira.

Valencia went 13 games unbeaten at the start of the season, with draws against Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Atletico Madrid sandwiching an eight-game winning streak from September to November. They would eventually finish in fourth place, 12 points clear of Villarreal in fifth, and only three points behind Real Madrid. 

Back in the Champions League, Peter Lim would sanction another round of big transfers, spending over €120,000,000 in the summer of 2018. Though this term proved a far more testing one for the club, winning only 4 of their first 17 league games (10 of those being draws).

9 wins in their last 13, however, meant they would finish fourth once more as well as reach the Europa League Semifinals (knocked out of the Champions League at the Group Stage), but perhaps most importantly, the club would reach the Copa Del Rey final, facing Barcelona a few weeks after they had been eliminated in the Champions League Semifinal by Liverpool.

On social media, Valencia heralded a start of a new era (hashtag and all), marked by their first trophy in 11 years. Marcelino had proven to be an astute and popular manager, gaining the trust of his players and the support of the fans, finally getting behind a team that had for so long been in turmoil under the stewardship of owner Peter Lim.

The issue, however, was that Marcelino and Lim did not get along. Much like Prandelli in years gone by, Marcelino had grown increasingly agitated with the board’s transfer strategy, a chief irritant being a reluctance to sign off on deals that the manager believed crucial to taking the club forward.

At times openly challenging the hierarchy of the club, Marcelino and sporting director Mateu Alemany would be viewed by Lim and Murty as problems to be solved, rather than solutions to the issues that had plagued the club for years.

Lim would sack Marcelino on the eve of a league game against Barcelona, in September.

Speaking to the media later, the former manager would reveal his belief that his Copa Del Rey win was seen as an act of disobedience or defiance, and was the catalyst for his dismissal, rather than the anchor from which the “New Era” would be built around.

“They didn't tell me why they didn't want the Copa, only that it was a minor tournament and that I could be putting the main goal (Champions League qualification) at risk. Winning the Copa was the trigger for this situation... We did not receive congratulations in Seville (after the Copa final) from the owner (Lim). When I went to Singapore (for a meeting with Lim and Anil Murthy, club president), I was congratulated for qualifying for the Champions League, not for winning the Copa."

A strange thing, to punish a manager for winning a trophy, especially when it did not actually jeopardize their Champions League qualification in the first place. More disarray and disorder at the Mestalla, and more anger towards Peter Lim, with the fans’ disbelief mirrored by players as well, some barely hiding their dismay at the decision, calling it “unfair” and “senseless”.

Under Albert Celades, Peter Lim’s choice to take over from Marcelino, Valencia have been eliminated from the Champions League, comprehensively beaten by Atalanta. They sit seventh in La Liga, their league results consistently inconsistent and were eliminated by Granada in the Copa Del Rey Quarterfinals.

It is difficult to see what lies in store for the future for Peter Lim’s Valencia, who appears unlikely to break into the top four should the league resume (Real Sociedad hold that position, and are playing well, while Atletico Madrid is in 6th place).

Turbulent and tumultuous, the Singaporean’s reign has been controversial, even if he has undoubtedly injected much-needed financial resources into the club as an entity. What remains to be seen is how much he has learnt from his first six years in charge of a former Spanish champion, and if we can expect more of the same.