The measure of failure

VALENCIA. The exact measure of success or failure is very difficult to determine, but there are parameters that help us gauge where one or the other falls. In this case, I wanted to ask myself about some nuances of Valencia CF's day-to-day life to analyze what level of evolution this club is at in the hands of Meriton Holdings Owner. But I have to go in parts, since there are many nuances mentioned and many of them I will have to ignore.

I look at this weekend and I see that the teams at the top of the table (at the budget level) have mostly come from behind in the final minutes or have won, with more shadows than lights, little by the end. Obviously, that is the border between the teams: you can present a battle with the starting team to one of the greats, but when the forces drop and you need to give air and other answers to the game, you drop the invention because the rival, much more Stronger than you, change their pieces and players of the same level or higher come out, fresh and hungry. They take you back, in the end.

It is true that Valencia CF has had the occasional heroic comeback this year, but so is the fact that they didn't give you the chance to win, but to draw and that, for example, Atlético de Madrid scored three against you and beat you while that you put three and tie him. It seems like a detail without more, but it is not like that: it gives the measure of your strength. In other words, right now you don't have a squad to play this type of game in ninety minutes and it was also clearly seen against Real Madrid at home or against Barcelona away from home. But even against smaller rivals, but with better dynamics and planning, it was also seen.

Thus, due to history, budget and cache, Valencia should have as a requirement to qualify for Europe and, therefore, this should not be a success: finishing fourth would already be an improvement on those objectives and, consequently, there we could speak of success . Entering Europe means preventing a season from ending in failure and that's not the same thing, but this club has become so small that seeing you with a chance of finishing sixth is considered excellent, when it isn't or shouldn't be. I insist, that would not be a success, but the fulfillment of an obligation, while finishing ninth, for example, is a failure. In the same way, I would tell you that being in the quarterfinals of the Cup is not a success (who the hell is selling that this is a success and more so seeing the rivals?), but normal in a club like this. Reaching the semi-finals is a good performance and winning the Cup would be a success. At least in this competition we have no chance of failure, unless the first top rival that you have encountered along the way in a resounding way eliminates you.

Then I go to the parameter that is on everyone's lips these days: the market. The normal thing, historically, is that you go to Osasuna de Pamplona and ask him to sign the two best he has: David García (central) and Moncayola (central midfielder), as always happened. But not now: you ask or beg from a central defender, already tanned, who does not play due to injury and whose presence in the eleven is being intermittent. That is to say, the Osasuna bench is worth it. That is your level.

I notice that, in several cases, Valencia CF loses negotiating strength against rivals in the market such as Elche, Granada, Getafe or Celta, who are, right now, the ones who are already eating the field in these parts, already that Villarreal, Betis and Realte have eaten it. We are competing to sign players who also want the teams that play not to be relegated as a base objective. And even so, you don't get to sign those players. That is failing. And it is enough for me to look at the international market to say the same: Oliva, Ferro and Cutrone did not play a single minute in their mid-table teams (except Benfica). There is talk of Comert, the Swiss, 23 years old, international (7 times), with a current market value of 1.8 million and who has not played for three months. He's still good, I don't know, but from the start he already comes without rhythm and being a substitute in a league as powerful as the Swiss one. We continue to involute.

Another clear sign of success or failure is the sports policies with the School. When Villarreal decided to bet on taking out young kids to have a base for the present and the future, they found themselves in the second division and soon changed the model, understanding that it was necessary to take out young people, but with other dynamics involved. I understand that Murthy's superlative intelligence has not yet fallen into this detail and he is still stubborn in that model that the only thing he does is burn, at a giant step, the kids who need to tan one or two years earlier, in the second division at be possible.

Making use of the subsidiary we like those of us who feel that Paterna is a wonderful house. What's more, it fills us with pride to see our kids, but not like this, because we truncate all the good they can give us and push them to the limit: it is necessary to create a good base, solid, veteran, that will make you win games or, at least, not lost it. And with that base and dynamic, you are taking out kids, who are accumulating quality, trustworthy minutes. Right now you have to release them into the ring without a cape or they have to act as trapeze artists without a net below. And the curious thing is that the two most consolidated in the first team (Yunus and Koba Lein) are not really from your factory, but signed by Longoria, already well into their years in both cases. Without good sports policy and management of this, we only burn soccer players, we do not train or consolidate them. It should be remembered that Valencia Mestalla is in the equivalent of the Third Division. We involute.

When a coach must constantly face the efforts of his club in all plots (well, except those of Mestalla, which is why Murthy and his Power Point give them) something is wrong: there is no one who represents a model of work or that gives imprint to an institutional stamp. We are going badly, because Bordalás is a technician who, perhaps, will not be here in three months and it is he who has to defend an idea that, on the other hand, he does not share. Here too we go wrong, then. We have a president (the shadow of the owner) unable to face his position responsibly, at least publicly, which is why the club does not allow opinions on social networks. His negligent social and sporting management of the club is devaluing everything that is in his power, that is why the footballers continue to lower their level and their price, year after year: it is not the market that devalues ​​the product of Valencia CF but the club itself that continues to depreciate its value and its assets, due to sports performance, strategy and planning.

In eight years as Meriton Holdigns Owner we have been outside Europe for five: an almost unusual event in the long history of a centennial club. Right now almost all quality footballers are hesitant to stay or come, because they don't see a future or what they do see seems confusing, cloudy. The ATE without stirring, the unfinished and undefined stadium, the debt growing and without investing, the squad getting worse and worse, the women's team in the middle of nowhere, without a voice in the Federation or in La Liga, saved by the mediation of Tebas with CVC etc That is the measure of failure: the rule that Meriton and Lim have imposed on Valencia CF. Surely, there will be a consideration of success that benefits them, because if it is not like that, it costs a lot to sustain all this management.