The Weekly Take, Issue 24: Back from the Brink

The first matchday of the 2018-19 La Liga season saw a number of enthralling matches. Probably the most notable of these was the clash between Valencia and Atlético Madrid, two of the teams who have qualified for this season’s Champions League.

Ángel Correa opened the scoring for Atlético, but a well-taken volley by Rodrigo proved to be the game-tying goal for Valencia, earning them a point against the Madrid powerhouse.

This result is proof of a remarkable turnaround by Valencia, who not too long ago were in the worst position they had been in for many years.

In both the 2015-16 and 2016-17 La Liga seasons, Valencia finished a dismal 12th in the league, their worst two-season La Liga run since they re-entered the top flight after being promoted from the Segunda División in 1987.

In addition to their league woes, Los Che also suffered early Champions League and Europa League exits in 2015-16, and were also knocked out of the Copa del Rey in the round of 16 the following season.

To give an idea of how badly Valencia were playing at this time, in the 2016-17 season, Valencia’s leading goalscorers were Munir and Rodrigo, who scored a mere seven goals apiece.

This trying period was also marked by coaching instability, with Valencia hiring and firing five different coaches over those two years.

However, things began to change for the better in the 2017 off-season. The club hired Marcelino as coach, and also made a number of extremely shrewd signings. They signed Neto and Simone Zaza, both from Juventus, and crucially, also made multiple solid pickups on loan deals. These players brought in on loan included the likes of Geoffrey Kondogbia, Andreas Pereira, and Gonçalo Guedes, all of whom went on to become solid contributors to Valencia’s eventual revival.

In addition, Valencia also saw significant improvements in the levels of play from players such as Dani Parejo, Rodrigo, and Santi Mina. Ultimately, the 2017-18 season proved to be Valencia’s most successful in three years, as they qualified for the Champions League and reached the Copa del Rey semifinals.

However, in the previous off-season, some questioned if their success last season had just been a fluke and felt that they might not really be back. This feeling of uncertainty was strengthened by the fact that Guedes, Pereira, and Luciano Vietto all left Valencia after completing their loan stints. Valencia also loaned Zaza to Torino.

Despite these losses of personnel, Valencia were also active in the transfer market. They turned Kondogbia’s loan deal into a permanent one by signing him for €25 million. Other signings made by Valencia included the pickups of Daniel Wass from Celta and Kevin Gameiro from Atlético.

In addition, Valencia added Michy Batshuayi and, crucially, Denis Cheryshev on loan from Chelsea and Villarreal respectively.

All things considered, the reversal of Valencia’s fortunes since the end of the 2016-17 season has been extremely impressive. Not many saw this improvement coming at the time.

In fact, such has been their revival that this season, they are the most likely team to challenge La Liga’s dominant triumvirate of Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Atlético.

It must also be kept in mind that this isn’t a team with little history. During Valencia’s best era of 1998 to 2004, they won two league titles, a Copa del Rey, and a UEFA Cup (now known as the Europa League). They also reached the final of the Champions League twice, losing to Real Madrid in 2000 and Bayern Munich in 2001.

Valencia’s recent success has shown that even if a team has fallen on hard times, with good planning, shrewd signings, and a clear strategy, they can eventually make their way out of the depths.

Although they have only played one league game, if their performance against Atlético is anything to go by, Valencia can look ahead to this season with much optimism, as it seems to be the case that their fourth-place La Liga finish and deep Copa del Rey run from last season do not appear to be flukes.

If they can continue their renaissance throughout this season, expect Valencia to cause trouble for the three top teams in La Liga and also go far in both the Copa del Rey and Champions League.