They were waiting for the Valencia manager but what they got was the former Valencia manager, and in more ways than one. It was getting late at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, where a goal from Sergio Escudero had given Sevilla a 1-0 win in a largely tedious game between two teams in need, and there was still no sign of Nuno Espirito Santo. When the door to the press room finally opened it was the home manager who walked through it, not the away one as protocol dictates. So Unai Emery spoke, a relieved man. Then Nuno appeared, a manager relieved of his job, and it all fell into place.
Sevilla was the end for another Valencia manager: like Quique Sánchez Flores and Ernesto Valverde, Nuno’s last game as coach was at the Sánchez Pizjuán. He was leaving – resigning he said; sacked, others said – and the way that he went, the almost hidden way it was handled and the clumsy way it was communicated, was almost as significant as the fact that he went. “I’d be delighted to answer your questions in a moment,” he said, “but first …”
First, he announced his departure. He said he had spoken to the club’s owner, Peter Lim, that morning and had taken the decision then – hours before the game. Phil Neville became Valencia’s coach on Monday morning, on a temporary basis for a few days at least.
Nuno had stood on the touchline watching his former team failing to take a single shot on target, knowing that it was the last time; out on the pitch, his players did not. As he walked into the press room, accompanied only by the director of communication, they still didn’t know. They knew that he was on borrowed time and hoped that he would not be borrowing much more, his relationship with them having broken down long ago, but they had no idea he was going then. They didn’t even know after the game. Nothing had been said in the dressing room. Instead, they found out when everyone else did: when he announced it.
Briefly, a club note appeared and then disappeared again. As Sunday night became Monday morning, there was still no official statement. But Nuno had said he was going. Downstairs and along the corridor, the players stopped on their way out of the stadium and on to the team bus. “I didn’t know anything until he said it in the press conference,” Dani Parejo admitted. Parejo insisted that the players had not even had the chance to talk about it properly: there hadn’t been time. This was news to them too, he said. Good news, he might have added.
“It’s over,” ran the cover of the local sports tabloid Super Deporte, a headline of telling simplicity. They’d waited for this and they had willed it too. “Nuno, go now!” has been the soundtrack to this season. Results have been dreadful and performances worse, spiralling downwards. “It’s the fish that bites its tail,” Javi Fuego said. “We lose confidence, we don’t get results, we lose confidence even more …” The dynamism of last season has been missing and the charisma that Nuno had then has vanished, its superficiality revealed. No character, no quality, no organisation, no continuity, no identity, Valencia have been dreadful, moments of good football all too fleeting.
“It is easier to sack one man than 25,” Parejo said. Players and coach do not get on and the weak link is always the manager. Only that did not always appear to be the case here. Nuno is the owner’s man, a former goalkeeper who was Jorge Mendes’s first ever client and the manager that Lim put in place even before his takeover of the club had been completed. Back then, an apologetic Amadeo Salvo, the president who facilitated the takeover on Lim’s behalf admitted that there was no point in keeping Pizzi in the post only for Lim to come in and get rid of him months later. Back then, Lim’s arrival was the best news Valencia could ever have and Champions League qualification suggested that this was a project that could work; that was working, in fact. They’re not so sure now.
Salvo has gone: like the sporting director Rufete, he was forced out of the club in the summer. Nuno had appeared to be the victor of a civil war, allied to power but less popular for it. “I am and will continue to be Lim’s friend,” he said on Sunday night. That was what protected him until now, but it also contributed to the way that fans and players turned against him, becoming the source of doubt, and leaving him exposed. In the end, there was no way that he could continue. The surprise was not that he left just 13 weeks into the season but that he had made it that far.
Álvaro Negredo was left out of the squad, the supposedly sporting reasons for that decision were rapidly revealed to be false. Negredo had publicly complained about the way that Valencia played and the lack of opportunities they created and Nuno’s response laid responsibility for the lack of goals on Negredo; there had been no lack of chances, he said. But it was inevitable that some sought explanations beyond even a personal clash. When Negredo confronted Nuno in the dressing room and demanded an explanation, Nuno said he would give him one, but not in front of the others.
It is not just Negredo; it is everything, the very nature of the club. It is the departure of Nicolás Otamendi, for whom Valencia became the perfect place to play and to appreciate in value, and the arrival of Aymen Abdennor and Adrelan. Of pretty much all their players, in fact. When a largely unknown 19-year-old called Rafa Mir was called up to the Valencia team for the Champions League last week, some Valencia players could not help but see a simple explanation: he’s represented by Mendes.
It is inevitable that every decision at Valencia is interpreted through Lim and Mendes, even if that may not always be fair. Of course the players and coaching staff want to win but there is something beyond them. The question is: what? And what does that mean for everything else?
The questions have become relentless and fundamental ones. Why was Negredo left out? Why, knowing that he was leaving, did Nuno drop Jaume Domenech for his final game, when Jaume has been probably their best player this season? Were they Nuno’s decisions? What’s the plan for Valencia? What’s the criteria when it comes to signing? What are they really hoping to achieve? And why isn’t that explained? What lies beneath?
“We’ll explain more tomorrow,” Nuno said on Sunday night, yet few expect a real explanation. If supporters were given answers, if the model could be demonstrated to be beneficial, it might be different. If there were results, if good players came and stayed and won, they would accept it. If there was communication, they might be convinced. Instead, it is opaque, not open. Instead, their manager walks at almost midnight on a Sunday night, without telling anyone, without a formal statement from the club, despite the decision having been made hours earlier. Instead, he stands on the touchline one last time watching players who he knows are no longer his team but who don’t know that he is no longer their manager.
(More on Valencia and the backgr
Talking points
• Left foot, right foot, head. Athletic Bilbao’s Aritz Aduriz scored the perfect hat-trick to beat Rayo Vallecano 3-0 and take him to 20 goals in all competitions this season, ahead of Luis Suárez (on 18) and anyone else. “We’re extremely lucky to have him: he’s a jewel,” Ernesto Valverde said. “I hope Barcelona don’t sign him.”
• So, Sevilla did it again. Another Champions League crisis, another La Liga resurrection. Four days after a European hammering, they beat Barcelona. Four days after another European hammering, they beat Madrid. And four days after another European hammering, they’ve now beaten Valencia. “We need to continue this away from home now,” Emery said.
• Another assist and another goal from Lucas Pérez and Deportivo are up to fifth, and deservedly so.
• Neymar had scored and Suárez had scored and they weren’t going to stop until Messi scored. Which, eventually, he did. It’s not just that these three are ridiculously good, it is that they are ridiculously good together.
• Real Madrid won and … and, erm, that’s pretty much it, really. There was a header from a corner routine – Gareth Bale’s first goal since August – and a penalty from Ronaldo and not very much else. Still, Rafael Benítez was very pleased with the first goal: “We’ve worked on that,” he said proudly.
• Atlético won the game but lost a lot more: Tiago, their cleverest player, broke his leg.
Results: Levante 0-1 Betis, Barcelona 4-0 Real Sociedad, Atlético 1-0 Espanyol, Málaga 2-2 Granada, Las Palmas 0-2 Deportivo, Celta 2-1 Sporting, Getafe 2-0 Villarreal, Eibar 0-2 Real Madrid, Rayo 0-3 Athletic, Sevilla 1-0 Valencia.
