Mestalla is a mystery. Every time it opens its doors, tens of thousands of fans come in to fill its stands. Almost 47,000 spectators against Barcelona. Some 44,000 against Villarreal. As if the football that awaited them was a party and not a team that had fallen into decline, starving, since its owner, Peter Lim, decided that he was going to sell any player who acquired a certain value in the market without corresponding with a minimum investment to balance the squad. The sporting consequences have not been long in coming: Rubén Baraja’s team is at the bottom of the league with only one point out of 15 possible. Now past the fifth matchday, Valencia has equalled its worst start to the league with that miserable point, as happened in the 99-00 season, when it managed a draw after losing the first four games.
That terrible start to 1999 was no omen of anything. Valencia finished the season in third place and even reached the Champions League final. Now everything is different. Pessimism reigns in a city that is anticipating a very rough season. The bad results are not a temporary thing: its bad run in this disappointing start links with the end of last season. In the last 12 games, combining the previous League with this one, Valencia has not won any: nine defeats and three draws. Three points out of 36. Disastrous. Two seasons ago it already flirted with relegation. Nothing new.
Until now, Rubén Baraja, a legendary player with a lot of influence, had managed to prevent the team from collapsing. The Valladolid coach pulled one youth player after another out of the hat, but the demanding start to the League, with clashes against such powerful rivals as Barcelona, Athletic, Villarreal and Atlético de Madrid – on Saturday they host Girona – has sunk them to the bottom of the table. The schedule will ease up afterwards and the time will come to know if Baraja’s Valencia has the capacity to react. The coach made this very clear after being thrashed at the Metropolitano (3-0). “This is not our League, we have to accept it,” he said after the match. He also opened a crack that allowed us to see what worries him: “It will be difficult for us to turn this situation around. We cannot give up or let go.”
Baraja knows that it is not just a question of the calendar. His team has not won a match since April 14. Peter Lim has dismantled his own squad over the last few seasons by selling players such as Ferran Torres, Carlos Soler, Gonçalo Guedes and Kang-In Lee, whom he gave to Mallorca after discovering, after the signing of the Brazilian Marcos Andre, that they had an extra non-EU player. The Korean is now a star at Paris Saint Germain. The last, Giorgi Mamardashvili, the saviour between the sticks of the current Valencia, will leave for Liverpool on June 30, 2025.
With all the income he has earned, more than 200 million euros since 2020, Lim has barely returned 30 of those millions in transfers. And he spends less and less. Last summer, 1.35 million. A pittance. Up to six Second Division teams invested more than Valencia: Almería, Racing, Elche, Oviedo, Zaragoza and Deportivo. And only two from First Division spent even less than those from Mestalla: Espanyol (400,000 euros) and Rayo (no spending).
It’s a torture for Baraja. The coach is also trying to get rid of the red lantern with such important absences as those of José Luis Gayá, Hugo Duro – author of two of the only three goals scored by Valencia in five games -, Mouctar Diakhaby and Rafa Mir, who was sidelined for two games for indiscipline and perhaps a sexual assault offence. But just as it’s not just the calendar, it’s not just the absences either. Valencia, a club with six league titles, eight Copa del Rey, two Champions League finals, a Cup Winners’ Cup or a UEFA Cup, has now gone five years without setting foot in Europe. A great that has become too small.
Valencia have strengthened this summer with one signing (Luis Rioja, from Alavés), two free agents and five on loan (including Rafa Mir). Meanwhile, the club has requested a loan of 120 million euros from the American bank Goldman Sachs to refinance its debt and meet its short and medium-term obligations, including the resumption of a stadium that has been stopped for 15 years and has prevented Valencia from hosting the 2030 World Cup.
Nevertheless, on Saturday, more than 40,000 Valencia fans will go to Mestalla with the hope of beating Girona and taking the first big step towards salvation. After that comes a valley in the calendar and, who knows, a more hopeful future for a tormented fan base and squad.
