Spanish Debate: What Now For Valencia?

Koeman was joined by no fewer than four other key figures at the Mestalla in leaving last night. Assistants José Mari Bakero and Toni Bruins Slot walked, as did sporting director Miguel Ángel Ruiz and technical secretary Antonio Fernández.

It was quite a cull, and one that leaves the club's immediate future in some doubt. Salvador Gonzalez Marco 'Voro', a club delegate, has taken over for the next five games, with this appointment almost certainly a short-term interim fix. But with only a skeleton staff, and little prospect of a long-term deal, Voro cannot be seen as the boss for the new campaign.

Indeed, very little is clear about Valencia's future. But to make sense of what's toe cme, we need to look back a bit.

The Past

It's arguable that the recent problems began the moment Juan Bautista Soler took over as president in 2004, but even this would be too simplistic: the foundations of much that came during his tenure were laid much earlier. However, for the immediate past, the buck stops with the guy at the top.

An impatient man, and sometimes an impulsive one, Soler has overseen some key managerial changes, and in hindsight few can be seen to be for the better.. Of course, he emulated his forebears: Rafael Benítez, who has presided over one of the most successful spells in the club's history, was allegedly driven out by Soler's predecessor, one Jaime Orti. No matter. Claudio Ranieri's second spell at the Mestalla proved to be short-lived as Soler swung the axe; in came highly-rated young boss Quique Sánchez Flores as a replacement.

Things looked good for a while. Sure, the glory days of winning the Liga title had gone, but Quique managed a top-three finish in his first season, and then, despite being beset by off-field issues, a fourth-place one in the next campaign. But this was only half the story.

For while signs of decay only became massively apparent as Valencia tumbled down the Liga table, the rot had set in much earlier. The Mestalla is seldom a quiet place, but the last few seasons have taken the biscuit in terms of turmoil at boardroom level and everywhere below. One of these was between Quique and then-sporting director Amadeo Carboni, who was sacked, apparently at Quique's insistence, as the two failed to get along.

This should have been time for the board and manager to work together to find someone suitable but, instead, Miguel Angel Ruiz arrived in the summer of 2007 and promptly did the exact same thing as Carboni: left to his own devices, he signed a group of players who he no doubt thought were up to it, but ones who for the most part failed to fit in with Quique's plans. It's easy to blame Ruiz completely for this, but one wonders whether or not he was briefed well enough on his task. Communication doesn't come easy at the Mestalla.

The Present

That set the mood for the current season. Despite having a squad arguably weaker than last year's in many ways, though, Quique started the season in decent fashion. Sure, the notoriously demanding Mestalla squad called for his blood as the team stumbled to defeats against the likes of Villarreal and Espanyol - both of whom were on form at the time - and questioned the need to grind out results, as opposed to sail through games, against teams such as Valladolid and Almería.

Thus with just nine games of the Liga season gone, Soler was on the warpath again. Quique was out, and Koeman was in. Never mind the fact that a total of 18 points from nine games was actually his best total yet, and one only bettered twice by Valencia season this century (2000-01 and 2003-04, by the way.) Never mind that he was so highly-rated. Never mind that only the big two plus on-fire Villarreal were in front, and even then only narrowly. It was decided that he wasn't good enough, and away he went. Other managers might have pissed and moaned in the media, but in an extremely telling remark, Quique sighed that he had lost a job, but regained a life. That more than anything gave a glimpse into the mad, mad world of the Mestalla.

As such, Koeman had a tough act to follow, and into the lion's den he went. Even though his appointment was greeted with scepticism by many, he was given a chance. But high-profile clash after high-profile clash followed. If he wasn't arguing with the media, he was arguing with his own players. As if one needs to be reminded, he exiled David Albelda, Santiago Cañizares and Miguel Angel Angulo from the club just before Christmas for seasons unknown. And above all, results got worse and worse.

We need hardly go over Koeman's failings yet again - we discussed this last week - but to take a different tack, it's worth remembering what he inherited. Here was a side that was clearly based around the spine of a team capable of a top-four place, but it was one decimated by in-fighting and two successive bouts of dreadful transfer market operation by sporting directors who might as well have been in another country for all the communication they had with the club at large. Soler's reign, while itself coming to an end due to illness, had produced a culture of cliques at the Mestalla. It wasn't just the left hand not knowing what the right was doing: it was as if each finger was struggling to point in a different direction.

As such, it's arguable that Koeman didn't even have a chance. Certainly he made huge mistakes, definitely he could have adopted a whole different attitude. But in truth, he was maybe on a hiding to nothing from day one. So too might be his successor.

The Danger

But even with Voro in charge and most of the "culprits" gone, the board may struggle to find common ground. Not only must they settle on a new coach, but perhaps even a new sporting director, an assistant structure, targets for the new season, playing budgets... and that's before they get started on the club's debt and the small matter of a new stadium. With so many key isues in mind, it's little wonder that disagreements are so regular and so vehemous. It is a great paradox: Soler was in so many ways an autocrat and a dictator, but he allowed a flourishing culture of Machiavellian intrigue to fester under him.

And that, in fact, is the crux of all of Valencia's problems over the past year - over the past few years, in fact. In order to mount a cohesive challenge, one thing a "small" club - by which I mean one smaller than Real Madrid or Barcelona - cannot afford to do is to fragment, yet, as we have seen, this is exactly what Valencia have done from top to bottom.

There's even a danger that, should the Carboni-fronted consortium win their takeover bid, the same thing could happen all over again. That's right: Carboni could be back. A group of British investors have looked into the prospect of buying Soler's 35% stake in the club (yes, despite having stepped down as president, Soler still has more shares than any other holder.) No doubt even more backroom staff and boardroom suits could find themselves ousted. There'd be more drama off the pitch.

But who's to say that things wouldn't be better for yet another clear-out? If we've learned anything from goings-on at the Mestalla since last year, it's that too many cooks spoil the broth, particularly when each is working to an entirely different recipe. Fewer cooks and more chefs are what's needed at Valencia, and perhaps it doesn't matter whether or not it's Carboni or if it's someone else leading the brigade. A single source of authority may be all that they need - but preferably not Juan Soler.


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