By Gilad Nagar ~ 17/04/2023
Yesterday’s clash between 2 of La Liga’s biggest clubs in despair saw Sevilla defeat Valencia 2-0. Loic Bade’s and Suso’s combined 0.03 xG strikes saw Ruben Baraja’s Valencia drop more points as they sit firmly within La Liga’s relegation zone. Despite both Sevilla and Valencia being 2 of Spain’s biggest clubs, the red-whites and ‘Los Che’ have had historically poor seasons and look to be a shell of their former UEFA Champion’s League selves.
Whilst Sevilla’s mid-table position is largely disappointing for their fans, The Bats find themselves in 18th place with 9 league games left. Valencia’s last 10 games have seen them win 2, draw one and lose the rest. That is 7 points out of a possible 30 collected for the Eastern Spanish side. To make matters worse, Valencia have only scored 4 goals and conceded 11 in their last 10 matches. Their inability to score goals is apparent, with The Bats having not scored more than one goal in a game since their 2-2 draw to Almeria on the 23rd of January. They’ve played 13 games since.
Perhaps their lack of offensive threat arrives from their reliance on Edinson Cavani and Justin Kluivert up front. The Uruguayan and Dutchman are Valencia’s top goal-scorers in La Liga this season, and have both currently scored 5 goals this campaign. Cavani, who was once a lethal and prolific striker for PSG and Napoli, has not scored more than 10 league goals in a season since the 2018/19 Ligue 1 season with The Parisians. Similarly, Justin Kluivert has only ever scored more than 5 league goals once in his career dating back to the 2017/18 Eredivisie. Valencia’s lack of attacking fire-power has left them with 2 forwards whose quality is not quite enough to keep a side up in the top tier of Spanish football.
The Copa del Rey was slightly more successful for Valencia, with the side making it all the way to the tournament’s quarter-finals. Ruben Baraja’s side outlasted 12 other La Liga sides as his Valencia defeated La Nucia and Sporting Gijon in the 1st and 2nd rounds of the cup. The quarter-final appearance’s credibility is diminished though, as Valencia defeated 4th-tier and 2nd-tier sides on their way to the Final 8. The Bats were then thrashed 3-1 by Athletic Bilbao and inevitably knocked out of Spain’s most esteemed cup tournament.
Valencia’s downfall is astonishing considering their size and history in Spanish football. The Bats have one of the largest trophy cabinets in Spain, with the East Spanish outfit having 6 La Liga trophies and 8 Copa del Rey trophies. This is the 5th most La Liga trophies and 5th most Copa del Rey trophies in all of Spain! Valencia even won the Copa del Rey as recently as 2019 and just last year lost in the competition’s final. So how can such a historically big club be in genuine relegation conversation?
Along with cup success, Valencia have had significant league glory in recent history. Aside from the ‘Big 3’ of Spanish football – Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Atletico Madrid – Valencia have won the most recent La Liga trophy in 2004. The Bats also came first just 2 seasons prior in the 2001/02 La Liga campaign. Since 1985 Valencia are one of 5 clubs to have won La Liga, exemplifying their status as a big Spanish club outside the ‘Big 3’.
Valencia have also held a status quo of competing in European football for the majority of this century. The Bats have competed in either the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League in 16 of the last 23 seasons, being one of the Spanish regulars in UEFA continental competitions. Most recently, Valencia competed in the UCL in both the 2018/19 and 2019/20 editions of the tournament. In the former season, Valencia – under Spanish manager Marcelino – topped their group impressively despite having Ajax, Chelsea, and Lille in it. The next season would see Valencia placed 3rd and drop into the Europa League where they would make it all the way to the semi-finals and lose to eventual runners-up Arsenal.
Not only are they a massive club in terms of historical success but Valencia’s home stadium also emphasizes their size in Spanish football. Estadio de Mestalla has a capacity of approximately 55,000. In Spain’s top-flight, that is the 6th biggest stadium with Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Real Betis and Athletic Bilbao having stadiums with a larger capacity. But, if Valencia were to get relegated to La Liga 2 their stadium would instantly be the largest by 22,000 seats! This mind-blowing number truly reiterates the disparity between Valencia and other clubs in Spain’s second tier of football. In comparison to English football, it would be like Newcastle – who have a stadium capacity of 52,000 – dropping to League 2 where the biggest stadium holds 25,000 seats.
The biggest question is how. How can a club so rich with success and greatness be in such a dire situation? Many of the Valencia ultras place the blame on current club owner Peter Lim. The Singaporean business magnate acquired a majority stake in the East Spanish outlet in 2014. Forbes currently places him as the 10th richest person in Singapore with a net worth of approximately 2.5 billion USD. Despite initially funding several marquee transfers in his first years as majority owner, such as Alvaro Negredo, Nicolas Otamendi, Enzo Perez and Nani, Lim’s recent transfer activity has slowed down. In Valencia’s last 3 seasons, the largest transfer fee was 8.5 million euros, a fraction of their former business transactions.
Along with the lack of financial support, a common criticism of Lim is his dispassionate and overall apathetic attitude towards the club and its success. Infuriated Valencia fans accuse their current majority owner of using the club for personal enrichment and a stepping-stone at the expense of on-pitch results. Perhaps Lim’s lucrative intentions is highlighted by the lack of ambitious transfers commenced by the club. Can Lim’s transfers such as Otamendi, Negredo and Garay be compared to the previous owner’s transfers of Fernando Morientes, David Villa and Juan Mata?
This disconnect between the fan base’s desire and ownership’s lucrative greed is becoming more and more common in ‘The Beautiful Game’. Other big clubs such as Arsenal and Manchester United also reinforce the chasm growing between local fans who would bleed for their club and opportunistic investors attracted to the financial benefits of the world’s most lucrative sport.
With the suddenly far-fetched dream of obtaining trophies dissolving in the minds of Valencia supporters, the club’s current reality is a tight relegation battle. Being only 3 points away from safety, The Bats’ next 3 games are of utmost importance for their season. Valencia face relegation rivals Elche (20th), Real Valladolid (14th) and Cadiz (16th) for their remaining games in April and must collect some points to maintain any sort of hope that they will stay in Spain’s top flight.
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