The situation was unsustainable. Valencia, bottom of the League after adding a single point in five games, after scoring a solitary goal in 450 minutes, after losing three times in the three games played at Mestalla, after signing the worst debut in its history, the history of one of the great clubs in Spanish football, the management has decided to take a turn and dismiss both the coach, Carlos Corberán, and the entity's football CEO, the Scot Ron Gourlay. Óscar Sánchez, head of the subsidiary, will take charge of the team in this Tuesday's match in Vitoria against Alavés while waiting for the new coach to arrive.
The social tension, with the fans roaring against the sports management, the coach and even the players, whom they called mercenaries, fueled the fire created by the poor results. On Friday, after the fourth defeat, this time at Sevilla's field, the fans waited for the team to rebuke the players and the coach, whom they once again asked for his resignation.
The last match at Mestalla also left its mark. Not only because of the 0-5, a shameful result for a historically difficult field for rivals, but because that day, for the first time in a League match, the president of Valencia, Kiat Lim, occupied the seat in the box that he had always left vacant. The owner's son, Peter Lim, saw with his own eyes what this team has become, a toy in the hands of Barça.
The finishing touch came the next day, with the video that showed Rodri, a guy highly respected for his superb football, talking on the bench with Pau Cubarsí and, surprised, how he told the center back: "They are very bad, they are very lazy." The midfielder later apologized and even called José Luis Gayá, the black and white captain, to apologize for a comment caught by a cameraman while the player was on the bench after being substituted.
But most of the fans were not angry; On the contrary, he totally understood that someone could think that about a Valencia that was swept off the Mestalla grass from the first minute to the last. The jokers even took out a t-shirt with Rodri's phrase on the chest "They are very bad" and behind it the message that many fans have been proclaiming for years: "Lim Go Home."
Gourlay, who arrived at the club 13 months ago, has been unable to right an increasingly weak squad. The club has not had more patience and will not wait for the winter market. With the Scot, who appeared last week to defend his management and show his confidence in Corberán, the members of his work team also leave: Lisandro Isei, Hans Gillhaus, Andrés Zamora and Malek Shafei. “The decision is part of the Club's desire to begin a new stage in its sports structure and management of the football area,” reads the Valencia statement.
Carlos Corberán, a 43-year-old Valencian and Valencianista coach, arrived on Christmas 2024 to take over a team that was in relegation positions with Rubén Baraja on the bench. The coach managed to save the team, but the following season he was once again fighting for permanence for many days. The third exercise was the worst of all and Valencia is bottom of the League with one goal in favor and ten against. The never seen.
Since Peter Lim bought the club through Meriton Holdings 12 years ago, Valencia have changed coaches 18 times. One and a half technicians per season. Corberán has endured a total of 72 games on one of the hottest benches in the First Division. The coach recognized after the last three games that Valencia had not been up to par.
Valencia is immersed in the season in which it says goodbye to Mestalla, the oldest stadium in the League. The club trusts that the new venue should facilitate an economic boost that, in turn, will lead to sporting improvements. But the leaders also know that right now there is a risk of opening a venue for 70,000 spectators in the Second Division next season.
