It’s double delight for Valencia as they finished in 4th place in La Liga, securing Champions League football next season. Marcus Raymond reviews their season
Season Overview: After years of teetering on the brink of financial meltdown, Valencia finally seems to have found stability in Singapore businessman Peter Lim, who took over the club just over a year ago.
While it is impossible so early in his tenure to discern whether he is invested in the club long-term or just looking to make a quick profit, all signs point to the former, as he has spent over £100m on players in that time, while once again reviving plans of finally finishing the Nou Mestalla.
In the short time he has been at the club, there has been an extraordinary turnover of players, with only eight in this year’s squad who got minutes last season as well (including Carles Gil, who has since been sold to Aston Villa). In their place the club has invested in and promoted a specific profile of players, described recently by board member Juan Cruz Sol as “a high quality footballers, eager for success. Guys want to grow and make the club grow at the same time”.
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That second sentence is perhaps the key (after all, everyone is looking for the first), as they have generally bought players who aren’t established stars, but, in players like Andre Gomes, Enzo Perez and Shkodran Mustafi among several others, they have found quality players without overspending on big names.
Of course, a strong connection between Lim and Superagent Jorge Mendes has certainly helped, but as has the diverse scouting network and footballing infrastructure Lim inherited. Having said that, there was still plenty of uncertainty coming into the season, having had two below average campaigns back to back (including finishing eighth last season on just 49 points and a negative goal difference), not to mention the extensive collection of new players and a new, fairly inexperienced manager in Nuno.
It’s therefore hard to judge this season as anything other than a success, without the added workload of European football, and only playing four games in the Copa Del Rey (a competition that really was a distant second on the club’s list of priorities this season), the entire focus of the team was turned toward qualifying for the Champions League, something which they just about managed, finishing fourth and only a point ahead of Sevilla. While in a sense that seems like it should be a very attainable goal for a club like Valencia, that underplays how well this side has performed, particularly when you compare it to last season’s efforts. They finished four places and 28 points higher than last season (77 in total), finishing only a point behind last year’s champions Atletico Madrid.
A lot of the credit has to go to a vastly improved defensive display, with Mustafi, Nicolas Otamendi and coveted academy graduate Jose Luis Gaya all coming into the side and performing expertly and consistently throughout the season. They formed the core of a defence that, with the help of club veterans Diego Alves and Antonio Barragan only conceded three in La Liga, good enough for the third best defensive record in the division.
Going forward they also improved, again through a carefully balanced mixture of new recruits, established squad members and academy graduates. It’s notable that while local wunderkind Paco Alcacer wasn’t quite as prolific as he would have hoped (just 11 goals in all competitions, the same tally as last season), he improved his overall game again this season and reduced Negredo’s role to that of impact sub for most of the season.
Around him, perhaps the area that is most uncertain heading into next season is the wing positions (Nuno plays a 4-3-3 almost exclusively). They have a good rotation of players, with Rodrigo, Pablo Piatti, Sofiane Feghouli among others, but none of those players have really separated themselves. With the club record £26m spent on Rodrigo, he will carry an increased pressure to perform into the new season, but if this team is to take the next step, while also playing in the Champions League, you’d think one of those wingers, as well as Alcacer, will need to take the next step.
Player of the Season: As previously mentioned, many forward players performed well, but none were truly outstanding. Therefore the four players I consider to be in the running for player of the season are defensive midfielder Javi Fuego, who provided a capable shield for the back four in defence and a good platform for those in front of him in attack and the aforementioned Gaya, Otamendi and Diego Alves. I have chosen Otamendi simply because he has been able to provide stability, quality and leadership from centre back throughout the season, only missing 3 games in all competitions in a defence that anchored this side’s La Liga campaign. Gaya is a very close second though, and was probably the best left back and U21 player in Spain last year.
Grade: A-, it’s hard to give them a straight A due to the fact that the teams they were competing with to finish fourth (Sevilla and Atletico) both played far more games than Valencia, with Sevilla in particular enjoying another long campaign in the Europa League. However, they finished higher than expected and with far more points than anyone realistically thought possible, while also providing plenty of promise for the future.
Summer Objectives/Next Season: Lim seems willing to continue investing (having already agreed to a pair of deals worth over £40m for Rodrigo and Joao Cancelo, who were both on loan at the club this year), which will be key if they want to challenge on more than one front next season. Locking Gaya up to a five-year extension at the start of May is vital both in keeping him for at least next season and as a bargaining chip in any negotiations further down the road (i.e. avoiding what Liverpool and currently experiencing with Raheem Sterling). It looks likely the club will lose Otamendi, but he appears to be the only key first-teamer who is going to leave this summer, and while that is a big loss it also represents a step forward for a club that has had good squads pillaged by Europe’s elite for a decade.