MADRID, 11 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Gennaro Gattuso will be the coach of Valencia for the next two seasons in what is a new change of direction in a club that has become a machine for crushing managers since the arrival of Peter Lim in 2014.
The Italian will have an arduous task ahead of him when it comes to carrying out his work, since only one coach since the arrival of the Singaporean, Marcelino García Toral, has been able to complete two full seasons at the helm of the Valencian bench, for which they have already passed ten different tenants since 2015, eleven if the services provided by Salvador González ‘Voro’ in 2017 are counted.
The former player, a Milan legend with whom he won three Champions Leagues, began his stage as coach at the same club where he retired, the Swiss Sion. From there, he began a path to the elite that took him through Palermo, OFI Crete and Pisa before arriving at Milan and later Napoli. His best result has been to be fifth in Serie A, since he achieved with his last two teams, in addition to winning the Coppa Italia in 2020 with the Partenopeo team.
Although he was not on any bench this past season after resigning from Fiorentina 25 days after signing, his career and character is what makes Peter Lim bet on him and fire José Bordalás, who still had a year left contract and that was the big bet last summer. But the man from Alicante, despite reaching the final of the Copa del Rey and having few signings, did not exceed the owner’s demands either.
Thus, he became the seventh coach dismissed by Peter Lim in eight years. After letting Juan Antonio Pizzi finish in the 2014-2015 campaign, the first coach chosen by the Asian businessman was an almost inexperienced Nuno Espírito Santo, who completed his first season with such success that he even renewed until 2018, but in November 2015 , after an irregular start, was dismissed.
In his place came Gary Neville, who had little experience and only lasted 15 games at the head of the Valencian bench, leaving the team closer to relegation than to the top. The season ended with Pako Ayestarán, who was a member of the coaching staff, and who managed to save the team by winning the last three games.
However, something similar to what happened with Nuno happened. At the end of the season he renewed for two years and did not even complete two months of competition in the 16/17 season. He was fired in September and replaced by Cesare Prandelli.
The Italian coach landed in Valencia with the experience of having been in his country’s national team, an attractive game bet and a big name, in what seemed like an important change of course for the ‘che’ team. But the off-sports situation was very turbulent and, after ten games in charge, he resigned in December, believing that the squad was not going to be strengthened as he expected.
The ‘fire extinguisher’ was ‘Voro’, who had already done it on other occasions on an interim basis, but this time he directed 25 of the 40 games he has accumulated in total since Peter Lim landed in the Turia capital.
At the start of the following season came the closest thing to stability that Valencia had known since Lim’s arrival. In the summer of 2017 Marcelino García Toral came to the bench, the only coach who has served two consecutive seasons commanding the Valencianistas.
The Spaniard won the Copa del Rey in 2019 and qualified the team for the Champions League, but after a conflict with Peter Lim, which also ended with Mateo Alemany taking over as general manager, he was fired at the start of the following season and replaced by Albert Celades after having sat on the bench in 131 games, a figure that is currently unattainable for the rest. Nuno played 62 games and Unai Emery’s 220 are far away.
Celades, who had very little experience on the bench, did not even complete the season, he was fired in June due to the poor results that the team achieved after the break due to the pandemic and Voro had to finish it.
The bet for the 2020/21 campaign was Javi Gracia, a coach with a less media profile, but with experience in professional football and taking advantage of his squads. From the beginning there were problems and exchanges of statements in which the coach complained that the club did not keep the promises made to him, and a few days after the end of the course he was fired.
Now, Valencia is entrusted to a Gattuso who for the moment has not aroused excessive sympathy in the demanding Valencian fans and who will have the mission of trying to return the team to a leading position and without surely receiving a large investment from a club that has also devoured up to eight sports directors.
