Valencia owner set to sack Marcelino

Upheaval in Valencia as three games into the season, their manager, Marcelino, is sacked.

Valencia entered the season avoiding a crisis and with their coach, Marcelino, still at the helm. But less than a month into the season and the club now find themselves in full-blown crisis and without their manager.

According to AS, Marcelino has been fired by club owner, Peter Lim, after a summer full of turmoil between manager and ownership. AS report that club president, Anil Murthy, was summoned by Lim to Singapore where the decision was made.

Onda Cero report that Albert Celades will take over the team on an interim basis as Valencia look to find a permanent replacement. Celades does not have much of a track record coaching a top-flight club. His only experience comes as an assistant with Julen Lopetegui at Real Madrid.

Sporting director, Mateu Alemany, is unaffected despite threatening to step down prior to the season when Lim made a decision the first time to sack Marcelino.

Needless to say, the players are stunned by the news as they also fought the first time around to convince Lim to change his mind and keep Marcelino. It also comes at a very inopportune time as they are set to face Barcelona this weekend.

With Barcelona struggling at the moment, it was a good time for Valencia to face them and now they have to deal with the fact that they no longer have a manager. A manager who the players were completely behind.

Marcelino leaves the club having been there two seasons and qualifying Valencia to consecutive Champions League appearances. He also won the Copa del Rey last season beating Barcelona in the final.

He brought stability to a side who sorely needed it after Lim himself destabilized the club when he appointed Gary Neville as manager. Valenica were a shambles under Neville and went through a handful of managers before finally finding consistency when Marcelino was appointed.

The spat between owner and manager became very apparent and public over the summer and appeared to calm down but in the end the owner must have decided they could no longer work together.

As mentioned, Valencia will need to put this distraction behind them quickly as they travel to the Camp Nou to take on Barcelona. Unfortunately for them, a tough test has just been made tougher.