Valencia CF horrendous season has come to an end and it finished in the same terrible fashion that it started. I feel like now the team, the players and the fans need to reflect on what happened and learn from it, in order not to repeat the mistakes from the past.
I think its safe to say that the sacking of Nuno was a mistake, he technically left on his own accord, but he was forced out by the fans who were shouting and whistling at him at every moment. I've already written about this so there is no point to come back to it, but in terms of sporting results it was clearly a mistake to get rid of him and for that I blame a big portion of the Spanish fans, you guys are just as much at fault for our poor results this season as the whole team.
Now that mistake led to another in the appointment of Gary Neville, former players with no coaching experience, who's sole coaching job was an assistant coach of England, basically couple dozen games throughout the whole year, so essentially extremely little experience. He was looking to become a coach though and he is/was close friends with Peter Lim so he was appointed to the position at Valencia CF. The primary reason for Peter Lim was to get the English media to cover Valencia CF, to have that exposure and surely Gary couldn't do worse than Nuno, after all the team was playing rather poor and even though the results were there it was not good enough, Valencia CF needed to be in the top 4 to 5, not 8th place even though it was still early in the season.
This experiment failed and it failed miserably, sure Valencia CF got a lot of coverage, but it didn't bring them anymore fans, how would it have with the play and results under Gary Neville. I think the play improved in the first few matches under him, probably just because of the players being more relaxed, not having the fans at their throats, but the results were not there and they did not come at all, in fact it became so bad under him that there was a worry that Valencia CF would actually fight to avoid relegation and possibly even fall to the lower division, Peter Lim had to make sure that didn't happen and friend or not his hand was forced so he sacked Gary and appointed Pako who at the time was Gary's assistant.
I think the hope was that with Pako as Gary's assistant the team would improve, it would have one experienced manager and help save Gary's career and Valencia's performances, but that didn't happen, so Gary Neville was sacked and Pako was appointed temporary coach to steer the ship out of the murky waters and into the clear, avoid that relegation spot and bring some good results to the club.
Pako instantly did better, he had few wins in a row, the play seemed somewhat better, there was more organization it felt in the play, it wasn't just mindless play as before, so there was some organization and some improvement, enough to lead Valencia CF to the upper half of the table, but overall in terms of results it isn't good, especially if you look at our last match, back to old habits, back to the poor old play, back to losing to terrible teams which we should be easily disposing off.
Pako was poised to become Valencia CF next coach, but he did himself no favors and the last few matches gave us doubt about his ability to lead the team, his record isn't that good with the team, its decent, but decent for a bottom table team, not decent for a champions league teams, which Valencia CF is and should be.
So here we are now with all the options open about Valencia's next coach, the team had a BIG chance to sign Manuel Pellegrini, I wrote a whole editorial how and why Peter Lin should do it, how it would SAVE us money in the long term, I know Peter is a business man, so I know he understands that on an intellectual level, but I have a feeling he doesn't understand it at an basic human level, instinctual level and thus hasn't signed him as coach.
Valencia CF needs an experienced and proven coach someone who guarantees results, not some no name, not some third degree coach, not some friend of a friend coach, we need top level coach to put Valencia CF back into the champions league and paying more money for that coach initially would save us money later, because Valencia CF will be in the champions league, will have the results to find better sponsors and we won't have to be overpaying for absurdly expensive players to certain agents. Someone like Manuel Pellegrini would save Valencia CF a TON of money!
Unfortunately Peter Lim and the whole management are clueless, including the old/new sporting director Jesus Garcia, no one is thinking strategically, no one is thinking long term, no one is thinking in terms of the big picture, all of the decisions so far have been in the moment, blinded decisions for hopefully quick payout and its backfired and hasn't worked.
Sell a player if you must, we have Negredo, surely someone can give us 15-18 million on him, recuperate some of the money we spend on him and get rid of his salary payments, he is costing the team too much money and hasn't contributed anything. He's been terrible since coming to Valencia CF and if you didn't know who he is you'd think it was some mediocre player that came for just few million euros to be backup to Paco Alcacer, which is what he's been. He was supposed to be a leader, he was supposed to guarantee 15-20 goals per season, he was supposed to teach Paco and help elevate the player and bring his experience, but he's failed completely at everything.
Sell Negredo, recoup some of that wasted 30 million euros, get rid of his super high salary that he doesn't earn and hire Manuel Pellegrini, he's said personally he's like to come back to Spain, its one of the cities he can call home literally and has been, he'd like a more focused project where he can build a team and not not have to deal with Champions league, which he can do in Valencia CF and instead of choosing some English minnow that no one cares about, he could choose Valencia CF and keep his reputation. All we need to do is transfer Negredo's salary to Pellegrini, pitch him the project, pitch him long term support and I'm talking strong, but realistic time frame like 3 years.
Sofiange Feghouli is also out this summer, his contract is ending and soon we'll get rid of his salary as well, which has been improved several times, and while he's played brilliantly on occasions, he hasn't been consistent and hasn't proven a difference maker, so sorry, but he has to go.
Pablo Piatti will also be leaving this summer if we can find a buyer for him, don't think we'll get much money on that sale, but just the saving on his salary would be huge, he was great for Valencia CF last season, but this season he couldn't repeat that and slowly but surely fell to the sideline.
We also have Rodrigo De Paul who will be back from his loan and he'll be available for that position, if we sign Cheryshev we'll also have another player for that position, though at this point I think it might be a mistake to sign him, if we could get him on loan again for one year I'd make the deal, but signing an injured player who will need at least 3 months of recovery is always a risk, he might not come back as strong.
We also have Fede Cartabia who will be coming back from loan, he can play both left and right wing, usually right wing though and I have high expectations from him, I think we should keep him in the team this season and give him a chance, let him prove himself, he is a good player and if he can develop at Valencia CF and learn the players, the system, the coach he can become great player, he just need to be given a chance helped into it, have a coach who would help him reach his potential.
There is a lot to do now that the season has ended, several players need to be sold and/or released, primarily though we need to find a great coach and then bring in some additions that the coach and sporting director Jesus can both agree on to strengthen the squad.
Also I would like to thank all our writers on the blog, especially Mick this year who's really stepped up in my absence and continued the write-ups of the matches. I've been extremely busy, plus the disappointment of this season and haven't been able to write anything really. Hopefully I can step up to the plate and do better again.
I think its safe to say that the sacking of Nuno was a mistake, he technically left on his own accord, but he was forced out by the fans who were shouting and whistling at him at every moment. I've already written about this so there is no point to come back to it, but in terms of sporting results it was clearly a mistake to get rid of him and for that I blame a big portion of the Spanish fans, you guys are just as much at fault for our poor results this season as the whole team.
Now that mistake led to another in the appointment of Gary Neville, former players with no coaching experience, who's sole coaching job was an assistant coach of England, basically couple dozen games throughout the whole year, so essentially extremely little experience. He was looking to become a coach though and he is/was close friends with Peter Lim so he was appointed to the position at Valencia CF. The primary reason for Peter Lim was to get the English media to cover Valencia CF, to have that exposure and surely Gary couldn't do worse than Nuno, after all the team was playing rather poor and even though the results were there it was not good enough, Valencia CF needed to be in the top 4 to 5, not 8th place even though it was still early in the season.
This experiment failed and it failed miserably, sure Valencia CF got a lot of coverage, but it didn't bring them anymore fans, how would it have with the play and results under Gary Neville. I think the play improved in the first few matches under him, probably just because of the players being more relaxed, not having the fans at their throats, but the results were not there and they did not come at all, in fact it became so bad under him that there was a worry that Valencia CF would actually fight to avoid relegation and possibly even fall to the lower division, Peter Lim had to make sure that didn't happen and friend or not his hand was forced so he sacked Gary and appointed Pako who at the time was Gary's assistant.
I think the hope was that with Pako as Gary's assistant the team would improve, it would have one experienced manager and help save Gary's career and Valencia's performances, but that didn't happen, so Gary Neville was sacked and Pako was appointed temporary coach to steer the ship out of the murky waters and into the clear, avoid that relegation spot and bring some good results to the club.
Pako instantly did better, he had few wins in a row, the play seemed somewhat better, there was more organization it felt in the play, it wasn't just mindless play as before, so there was some organization and some improvement, enough to lead Valencia CF to the upper half of the table, but overall in terms of results it isn't good, especially if you look at our last match, back to old habits, back to the poor old play, back to losing to terrible teams which we should be easily disposing off.
Pako was poised to become Valencia CF next coach, but he did himself no favors and the last few matches gave us doubt about his ability to lead the team, his record isn't that good with the team, its decent, but decent for a bottom table team, not decent for a champions league teams, which Valencia CF is and should be.
So here we are now with all the options open about Valencia's next coach, the team had a BIG chance to sign Manuel Pellegrini, I wrote a whole editorial how and why Peter Lin should do it, how it would SAVE us money in the long term, I know Peter is a business man, so I know he understands that on an intellectual level, but I have a feeling he doesn't understand it at an basic human level, instinctual level and thus hasn't signed him as coach.
Valencia CF needs an experienced and proven coach someone who guarantees results, not some no name, not some third degree coach, not some friend of a friend coach, we need top level coach to put Valencia CF back into the champions league and paying more money for that coach initially would save us money later, because Valencia CF will be in the champions league, will have the results to find better sponsors and we won't have to be overpaying for absurdly expensive players to certain agents. Someone like Manuel Pellegrini would save Valencia CF a TON of money!
Unfortunately Peter Lim and the whole management are clueless, including the old/new sporting director Jesus Garcia, no one is thinking strategically, no one is thinking long term, no one is thinking in terms of the big picture, all of the decisions so far have been in the moment, blinded decisions for hopefully quick payout and its backfired and hasn't worked.
Sell a player if you must, we have Negredo, surely someone can give us 15-18 million on him, recuperate some of the money we spend on him and get rid of his salary payments, he is costing the team too much money and hasn't contributed anything. He's been terrible since coming to Valencia CF and if you didn't know who he is you'd think it was some mediocre player that came for just few million euros to be backup to Paco Alcacer, which is what he's been. He was supposed to be a leader, he was supposed to guarantee 15-20 goals per season, he was supposed to teach Paco and help elevate the player and bring his experience, but he's failed completely at everything.
Sell Negredo, recoup some of that wasted 30 million euros, get rid of his super high salary that he doesn't earn and hire Manuel Pellegrini, he's said personally he's like to come back to Spain, its one of the cities he can call home literally and has been, he'd like a more focused project where he can build a team and not not have to deal with Champions league, which he can do in Valencia CF and instead of choosing some English minnow that no one cares about, he could choose Valencia CF and keep his reputation. All we need to do is transfer Negredo's salary to Pellegrini, pitch him the project, pitch him long term support and I'm talking strong, but realistic time frame like 3 years.
Sofiange Feghouli is also out this summer, his contract is ending and soon we'll get rid of his salary as well, which has been improved several times, and while he's played brilliantly on occasions, he hasn't been consistent and hasn't proven a difference maker, so sorry, but he has to go.
Pablo Piatti will also be leaving this summer if we can find a buyer for him, don't think we'll get much money on that sale, but just the saving on his salary would be huge, he was great for Valencia CF last season, but this season he couldn't repeat that and slowly but surely fell to the sideline.
We also have Rodrigo De Paul who will be back from his loan and he'll be available for that position, if we sign Cheryshev we'll also have another player for that position, though at this point I think it might be a mistake to sign him, if we could get him on loan again for one year I'd make the deal, but signing an injured player who will need at least 3 months of recovery is always a risk, he might not come back as strong.
We also have Fede Cartabia who will be coming back from loan, he can play both left and right wing, usually right wing though and I have high expectations from him, I think we should keep him in the team this season and give him a chance, let him prove himself, he is a good player and if he can develop at Valencia CF and learn the players, the system, the coach he can become great player, he just need to be given a chance helped into it, have a coach who would help him reach his potential.
There is a lot to do now that the season has ended, several players need to be sold and/or released, primarily though we need to find a great coach and then bring in some additions that the coach and sporting director Jesus can both agree on to strengthen the squad.
Also I would like to thank all our writers on the blog, especially Mick this year who's really stepped up in my absence and continued the write-ups of the matches. I've been extremely busy, plus the disappointment of this season and haven't been able to write anything really. Hopefully I can step up to the plate and do better again.