The End of an Era

By: Cesar | May 1st, 2008

So this is how it ends.

Valencia CF fight their way through the last four matches of the season, clawing past relegation and into next season’s La Liga.

They sell their top players, bring in a mediocre (aka cheap) coach who’s never really won anything and dabble in mid-table obscurity for the next few seasons, developing players for the ‘Big’ teams to buy …

Wow, how times have changed, eh??

What an absolute nightmare this season’s been …

Last season, we were talking about being a ‘Big Team’ ourselves. We were building a new stadium, reveling in our young players like Silva and Mata, thinking of future glories and European hardware.

Now, we’re turning into another horror story, a ‘What If?’ or a ‘What happened to them?’

We’re turning into Leeds United. Not to knock them down, but think about it …

Because this issue hits so close to home, I’m not sure I can express myself the way I’d like to … this news comes like a punch to the gut.

It’s like the directors of the club are telling us, ‘I hope you enjoyed yourselves. But the fun’s over. Time to pay up.’

The debt is piling up. There’s no money for new players.
We’re building a new stadium so the developers, who obviously made bad business decisions, need money. How do you get it? Sell our best asset: Players!

Unreal.

Here’s what other people are saying about the plight of our club … they express themselves MUCH better than I ever could …

Sarita over on Che-UK says:

Marcelino and Valencia had a verbal agreement. There was a meeting this week and
talks fell through. This seems to have been because:

- He wanted full control of sporting matters;
- He had a list of players he wanted us to keep and others he wanted us to
transfer, but there may have been a disagreement here too;
- He wanted to bring in certain players, but it seems we don’t have the budget.

This is all very depressing.

Worst still the idea that Manzano is the new top choice. Why, oh why, oh why the
heck is that the case? I was pleased to hear one paper saying Caparrós is on the
list, although still. What has happened? A few weeks ago we were saying Benítez
and now it’s Manzano?? I would prefer Emery to Manzano. He doesn’t even fit the
profile! Where’s the “young” in Manzano? And he’s been around for ages, what big
triumph has he achieved?? What happened to Lippi, Deschamps, et al?

Now, it’s not that we’re actually going to sell V, S and J, but they will be put
on the market. As far as Joaquín is concerned, well, not that I’d be gutted if
he left. But: we paid 18m for him, are we really gonna make a profit? Is this
wise from a business perspective? Where would he go?

Villa: If we think 20m EUROS is a good price for the guy, less than Modric to
Tottenham as someone here said the other day, then someone at Valencia needs a
reality check. Villa ONLY needs to go for very big money. And that means 40m
POUNDS. If he’s so great and all these wealthy clubs are after him, why is that
so difficult to ask for? Otherwise Villa’s under contract and he should stay.

Silva: Big big big big mistake. Just the other day Raúl was saying what a
gifted, promising talent he is. And you know what we’ll do, we’ll sell him for
peanuts! No no no, Valencia! Does anyone here know any Board members? Please do
something!!

Plus, as Miguel says, this shows we lack amibition. It all says here’s a club
who is in financial difficulty (and therefore would accept any measly cash sum
cos we’re desperate). Does anyone at Valencia have a brain? Does anyone know
what discretion is? No! Just tell the whole world our problems. Stupid stupid
stupid.

I’m getting very fed up.

Me too. Great commentary.

Check out this one by Dan, also at Che-Uk. He tries to compare Valencia to an English club.

I was trying to explain to a friend who supports Spurs about our
situation, but naturally he didn’t know who Manzano was. So i tried
to come up with an English alternative.

I dont know how accurate it is now, but i said this:

Imagine if, when Spurs sacked Martin Jol, instead of going for Juande
Ramos, they brought in Neil Warnock. Then they told him “You need to
sell Aaron Lennon, Berbatov and Jenas to fund new players”

He said “It can’t be that bad”

can anyone come up with a better Premiership alternative?

Every day i wake up and wonder where we would be if Quique had been
given the whole season, and then Marcelinho could quietly take over
in summer.

But now everyone in Europe looks at La Liga table and says “Blimey,
look at Valencia down there” and they look at newspapers and websites
and see that we have no cash, and yet foolishly attempted to build a
stadium, the oppulence of which would be more suited to the likes of
Man Utd or The England national team, and they see we are supposedly
selling Villa, Silva, Joaquin etc, and now they see that, on top of
Mourinho, Capello and whoever else not wanting to come in October,
now we can’t even get Marcelinho, and have turned to Manzano. The
Spanish Neil Warnock.

This downgrades us from “Spanish Giants” to “What happened to that
Valencia” just like people over here now talk about Depor.

“Didn’t Rivaldo play for them before he went to Barca?”
“Didn’t Villa play for Valencia before he went to ?????”

“Wow look at the great players they’ve had over the years, and look
at them now”