As they prepared for Tuesday night’s Copa del Rey game against Celta Vigo, there was little to suggest that 2017 will be any less traumatic than 2016 for Valencia.
The club, the fourth biggest in Spain from the country’s third biggest city, exists in a perpetual state of crisis. The latest scandal hit on December 29th when respected Italian manager Cesare Prandelli, the fourth man to take charge of the team in 2016, quit his role at Mestalla.
Prandelli only took charge in September when he signed a two–year deal and stepped down after only eight league games in charge, with Valencia one place above the relegation zone.
Long time coach Salvador Gonzalez takes over the first team for the fourth time in a caretaker role. A new manager will be identified, maybe someone with a big name and reputation. There are more football managers than there are jobs and Valencia, despite its plight, will appeal to the many who hope to return them to greatness.
It’s a fantastic city to live in; the remuneration will be attractive too, and whoever takes over will last a few months at least.
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Prandelli, 59, said he felt undermined. He said he was told in September that €30 million (Dh114.3m) would be available to him in the January transfer window. He maintains that figure had dropped to €4m by a meeting in early December, the club arguing that they had to pay out €24m for a Fair Play rule fine.
Prandelli wanted Juventus striker Simone Zaza and had met with the player and his father. Valencia’s sporting director Garcia Pitarch also held talks with Juventus. Prandelli had planned to sign four new players in January. Before he resigned he was told that he could have one.
The new man will walk straight into a nest of vipers at Spain’s most political club, where everyone pulls in different directions, where the media have a pernicious influence and where the job has become poisoned.
Gary Neville, who was in charge at the turn of 2016, would walk the corridors at the Paterna training ground and fellow members of staff would stop speaking as he came within earshot. There were leaks all over the club, enough to stop a great club from a great city sailing as it should.
The same club where Unai Emery’s three successive third place finishes were not only given little credit, but rubbished to the point that the manager had enough and went on to better things elsewhere. The mood swings so quickly that stability is difficult.
It’s a shame, for Valencia have the support, the history, the reputation.
The list of former players and officials, many of whom still live in the city, queuing up to shoot at the club in its latest troubles doesn’t help. The ultras lining up to abuse the players when they return to the training ground after another defeat doesn’t help.
But they are a symptom of the frustration which fans have with the Singaporean owner Peter Lim and Jorge Mendes whom Lim deals with to bring players in. Yet Lim has given Valencia the fourth biggest budget in the league and Mendes some excellent players.
Those players, many of them talented enough to be playing for a top four team, find themselves pulled into a cycle of being accused of not being fit to wear the shirt, not loving the shirt and being mercenaries. However, they are actually talented young men who need a better environment to work in and their confidence picking up off the floor.
The strongest players vow to ‘do better’ to their many critics, their confidence battered by defeats and despair.
In this most negative of downwards spirals, a first relegation in 30 years is not unrealistic for a team that have won only three of their opening 15 games. On Monday, they travel to Osasuna, one of the few in a worse position than them this season.
Spanish hot spot for European clubs
Not only birds migrate south during the harsh northern European winter. Over 100 top European football clubs started flying to Spain after New Year, training at winter camps in the milder, sunnier weather of Iberia.
From Scandinavian sides escaping the cold to big name clubs from further south, they take advantage of fine pitches and hospitality facilities in a country where tourism is the biggest business and superb hotels are otherwise under utilised in January.
The trips, usually lasting a week, offer a change of scene, team bonding and the novelty of training on a beach, while managers use the opportunity to let younger players experience travelling with the first team or to play trialists.
From Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund and Feyenoord in Marbella on the Costa del Sol, to Schalke and Legia Warsaw in Benidorm on the eastern Mediterranean coast, clubs use it to sharpen fitness ahead of their domestic leagues starting later in January.
Some of their most hardcore fans even follow them for a week’s holiday, with 200 Feyenoord supporters expected.
There’s an absence of English clubs for they have no winter break, but plenty of British scouts will be in Spain, for the January transfer window has opened and the visiting teams play friendly matches, often against each other. Dortmund will play against PSV Eindhoven and Standard Liege, while Dynamo Kiev will play 12 games in two weeks.
“The unfortunate political situation in Turkey means German, Russian or Dutch teams who would have gone there are coming to Spain,” said Christian Machowski, Managing Director of European Sport & Events Management, who organise trips from their Manchester and Malaga bases.
“Chinese and other Asian teams are also in Spain. The competitive friendly games appeal most and unlike on some summer tours which are paid for by promoters and sponsors, the clubs pay for their own trips. They can offset costs by inviting fans to travel on the team plane, while all the training sessions are public.”
Clubs can also play or against local sides, who appreciate the practice as they too are coming back from a winter break. Smaller clubs can also appreciate the prestige of playing against a glamorous name.
Several of the biggest Russian sides are also in Spain. Lokomotiv Moscow are in Marbella, while Zenit St Petersburg are in Murcia, one of the six or seven regions which attracts the visiting clubs. The Canary Islands, Valencia and Mallorca are the others, but the vast majority head to Andalusia around Marbella.
Spain is not the only destination for winter training. The UAE and Qatar are also used, but Spain has the highest concentration, especially this year.
Game of the week
Real Madrid play Sevilla in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday night, while Real Sociedad vs Villarreal is also enticing in the cup. Villarreal, who are fourth in the table then return home to prepare for a Primera Liga meeting against Barcelona on Sunday. That’s a tough one for both clubs.
What else?
It’s a year since Zinedine Zidane was appointed Real Madrid manager. He took charge amid the depression which prevailed under Rafa Benitez, with feelings uncertain about whether the French legend would cut it in his first top-level job as a coach. He did.
Zidane has won the Champions League, European Super Cup and the World Club championships. He has won more trophies than he has lost football matches, his side efficient without ever being spellbinding. With good reason, he’s the toast of Real Madrid. His own act will be a hard one to follow, but a Primera Liga title would be considered a success. With a three-point lead and a game in hand over second placed Barcelona, they enter 2017 with a distinct advantage in a league where margins tend to be tight.
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