Valencia owner’s next madness: he sacked coach Bordalás over the phone, meanwhile making a deal with Gattuso

There is no end to the crazy moves of Valencia owner Peter Lima. One of the most successful clubs in Spain at the start of the 21st century is slowly being led to ruin, aided by nonsensical moves. Now, for example, he has sacked his favourite coach, José Bordalás – over the phone.

Spanish champion in 2002 and 2004, winner of the Copa del Rey in 1999, 2008 and the Spanish Super Cup in 1999. In addition, he won the Europa League (UEFA Cup) in 2004, as well as the 2004 UEFA Super Cup. Valencia at the turn of the 21st century was one of Spain’s absolute top teams.

But with the arrival of owner Peter Lim came a big downward slide. Back in the 2014/15 season, Valencia finished fourth and secured the Champions League, only for Lim to incomprehensibly start selling off the entire team in 2015-2017. Suddenly, the Bats were drowning in relegation battles.

But a quality coach, Marcelino, arrived and kick-started Valencia again, taking them to the Top Four twice in a row and even winning the Copa del Rey in 2019. Only, the worst owner in the world, Peter Lim, stepped in again and fired Marcelino after three rounds of the new season and did another crazy thing. He sent the club’s captain and icon, Dani Pareja, to rival Villarreal for a ridiculous and insulting €2.5 million. He was worth over €25 million.

Lim has been wanting to sell the club for a long time, the fans have been leading huge protests against him, only to fail to find a buyer. And so the Singaporean business tycoon is back in office.

The sacking of Bordalas

Fans have fired the much-loved coach José Bordalás, who led the team to the Copa del Rey final last season, over the phone. He was still under contract for one more year at Estadio Mestalla. Lim tried to keep it a secret that he was in Singapore negotiating with Gennaro Gattuso to become Valencia’s new coach, but Tutto Mercato reported.

This information was later confirmed by the club, without coach Bordalás receiving any news that he would not continue on the Valencia bench. Only the technical secretary, Miguel Ángel Corona, contacted Bordalás, saying that he was likely to be sacked and that even he had no idea of the actions of the club’s biggest shareholder.

And the current situation? Valencia still hasn’t officially made anything public and won’t do so until a final agreement is reached with Gattuso. So Bordalás is waiting at home for the day when he will be officially sacked without a single word from the board.

Yet in 2021, Bordalás was presented as the leader of the new project. With a team virtually devoid of reinforcements, he finished ninth and reached the Copa del Rey final, where he lost to Betis on penalties. Moreover, Lim wants to sell the team’s two best players, captain Jose Gaya and midfielder Carlos Soler, and has already contacted Barcelona and Real Madrid, offering both players in a 50 million euro package.

Meanwhile, Bordalás is one of the very best coaches in Spain. For example, he led Getafe from 2016-2021 and with a modest squad finished fifth in La Liga in the 2018/19 season, missing out on Champions League qualification by just two points. That was the best finish in the club’s history. Moreover, in 2020, the Azulones played in the Europa League eighth-finals, where they crashed out to a late finalist from Inter Milan. After his departure, Getafe played for salvation this year.

That’s why no one in Spain understands his sacking. He pulled Valencia from 13th place to ninth and took them to the aforementioned cup final. The Bats will play in the Spanish Super Cup next season. But even that was not enough for Lima and Bordalás has to pack his bags.

Source: MARCA, Tutto Mercato