Valencia dream of being Spain’s Manchester City, but risk ending up like Malaga
The Christmas period is traditionally a quiet one in Spanish football. The Basque and Catalan unofficial national teams play out their winter friendlies, while Real Madrid and others tend to fit in an exhibition match or two, but as would be expected of a winter break, very little of note tends to happen. In Valencia this winter has been anything but uneventful however, thanks to the impromptu press conference called by President Amadeo Salvo at the start of the Christmas week in which he revealed Singaporean businessman Peter Lim is interested in becoming its major shareholder.
Not only does Lim want to buy Valencia, but according to Salvo, he also wants to spend between €30-50m on players in January and assume the majority of its debt (in the region of €354m), including the significant sums it owes for the building of the Nou Mestalla stadium – the white elephant that has dogged the club since its construction began in 2007. As if to drive home the magnitude of the offer, Salvo continually referred to it as "among the two or three biggest offers made in football". "It’s barbaric", he insisted.
Yet with the team in question being Valencia, a sale is anything but straightforward. The club require Bankia, its principal creditor and de-facto owner, to give the move the green light, and the financial entity initially requested a six-week period to consider the other offers it claims to have on the table before committing to one, if any. In response, Lim has informed Bankia that it has until January 15 to accept the offer, due to his desire to strengthen the side’s squad in the January transfer window. Bankia are expected to deliver their verdict on the proposal on that very date, in ten days' time. All that Valencia supporters can do now is wait.
Attractive club
In many ways, it is easy to see why Valencia would make an attractive proposition for any potential investors. With a half-finished, 60,000+ capacity modern stadium on its doorstep and a dedicated fanbase ready to fill it (albeit one that has been fluctuating in numbers lately), they are commonly said to be the third biggest club in La Liga in terms of support. Along with Atletico Madrid, it also shares the biggest slice of the TV revenue pie outside of Barcelona and Real Madrid, a proportion which, albeit relatively small, the club could presumably negotiate over with greater ease in some idyllic, Lim-funded future of success.
Valencia are commonly said to be the third most-supported club in Spain
Both at home and abroad they are an established name, to date maintaining their status as the last side outside of Spain’s ‘big two’ to win La Liga, doing so twice under Rafa Benitez's stewardship. On a more global level it is also worth remembering that, as their legendary former midfielder Gaizka Mendieta drilled home so well in his My Sporting Life appearance, at the start of the 2000s Valencia were on the cusp of doing something great on a European stage. Twice they had an opportunity to win the Champions League, and become the first side in Spain outside of Barcelona or Real Madrid to do so, and twice they faltered.
Falter they may have done, but the memory of Valencia being one of the best sides in Europe is still fresh enough. To put it bluntly, people know who Valencia are. If the sheen of their name has been removed somewhat by their very public struggle with debt and subsequent sale of superstar players over the last seven years or so, they still remain, in principle, a club with significant potential both in a sporting and marketing capacity.
At face value, Lim does look like someone who can legitimately provide the assets Valencia need to compete with Barcelona and Madrid (or at least better compete with them). Famously, the Singaporean made a genuine attempt to purchase Liverpool in recent years, and notably, owns a string of licenced Manchester United themed bars in Asia, so his interest in football is nothing new. His major stake in McLaren Automotive, meanwhile, also shows that he is prepared to invest significantly in sport. The fact that Joan Laporta and Jorge Mendes, two of the most influential men in European football over the last decade, were involved in Lim’s negotiations with Valencia, also adds weight to his offer.
Another Malaga?
At the same time, the memory of the Malaga experience remains fresh in the mind of Spaniards, so there isn’t quite universal euphoria over Lim’s intentions just yet. Malaga’s purchase by Abdullah Al Thani in 2010 sparked a wave of optimism for a genuine third club in Spain that was ultimately short lived and has served as a lesson for those pinning their dreams on a rich benefactor. Like Lim, Al Thani also proclaimed a desire to build a competitive team, establish the side in the Champions League, then take on Barcelona and Real Madrid. He had barely achieved the second goal before he got bored, stopped spending money, and the project spiralled into disarray. In truth, football was a means to an end for him in his quest to take control of a potentially lucrative expansion of the port in Marbella, and when the latter became impossible, his interest in the former waned quickly.
Abdullah Al-Thani's money quickly dried up for Malaga when his other interests in Spain became complicated
Disappointed as they undoubtedly are by that whole affair, many Malaga supporters note that, had Al Thani not become involved with the club, they would likely have gone under anyway. In delaying that process for a couple of years, Malaga fans at least got to enjoy the euphoria of making it to a Champions League quarter-final (very nearly making it to a semi-final), and watching talent like Isco on a weekly basis. Was it all worth it? For some, yes, but such gambles should not be taken lightly.
Valencia are not Malaga, of course, and come from a far stronger starting point than the side from the Costa del Sol. They have the weight of several major trophies and an established place in the pantheon of European football behind them. In new manager Juan Antonio Pizzi, they also have someone tipped to be one of the next great coaches to emerge from South America and triumph in Europe in charge of their team. In theory, making them a major player in Spain should be a far simpler task than it was with Malaga, if only because not so long ago Valencia were one of those major players.
Yet what they do share with Malaga is that sense of desperation. If not Lim, then who? And when? It increasingly feels like time is running out for Los Che, and their situation is certainly precarious. The year-by-year sale of star players to finance their debt has done little but delay their problems, and in many ways has inevitably created entirely new ones, making it increasingly difficult for them to meet their basic goal of finishing in the top four of La Liga.
Valencia's last chance
It’s easy to see why that task has grown in difficulty. While as recently as 2009 they could boast the presence of European Championship winners like Carlos Marchena, David Silva and David Villa in their side, not to mention La Liga and UEFA Cup winners like David Albelda and Ruben Baraja, to even have one such player of that stature in the Valencia team now feels like a dream. Joao Pereira and Ever Banega, probably the two biggest star names that remain at the club these days, stand out above their team-mates simply because they regularly get in to the Portugal and Argentina national squads respectively. The quality in the Valencia squad has taken a major hit, and the quality they produce on the pitch has degraded appropriately.
In the not so distant past Valencia had several of the finest players in Europe in their team
Lim perhaps presents the last chance to turn that degradation around before it becomes irreversible. If his takeover occurs and progresses in the idyllic manner in which it is being presented, Spanish football could be given a major shake-up, starting from January onwards. Particularly if Jorge Mendes is involved in ‘advising’ Lim as to which players he should be spending his money on in the winter window, as is being suggested. How would this affect the outcome of the three-way title race being contested by Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid? Indeed, how would it impact Spain’s status in the Champions League in the coming future? Could Valencia make it to another final in that competition, and return to where they were at the turn of the century? Before we even ask those questions, we must wait until January 15, when we will discover if Lim is in or out.
Are Valencia still a 'big club', and could they challenge Barcelona and Real Madrid with the right investment? Let us know below...