Valencia have sacked their manager before their last four games of the season. A 3-2 loss at home against Barcelona on Sunday proved to be Gracia’s final nail in the coffin with the club relieving him of his duties after just 10 months in charge.
One of the biggest clubs in the Spanish top-flight, Valencia are six points above the bottom three with just four games remaining. Fans have voiced their concern over Los Che’s form.-In the last six weeks, where they secured three points from a possible 18 and a loss at the hands of Real Valladolid at Mestalla next week could certainly push them to the relegation zone.
“Valencia CF announced this Monday the dismissal of Javi Gracia as coach of the first team,”
The Club wants to publicly thank him for his work and dedication during these months leading the team and wishes him the best of success for the future.”
“Salvador Gonzalez’ Voro’ will lead the first team on a provisional basis.”
a club statement read.
Gracia, who took over last July, had a meagre win percentage of 23.53% in La Liga, the lowest for a Valencia boss since Cesare Prandelli (12.5%) with just one win after eight league matches in 2016.
A turbulent season was anticipated from Los Che who sold the likes of Ferran Torres, Rodrigo Moreno, Daniel Parejo and Francis Coquelin last summer, and under the unpopular leadership of owner Peter Lim and president Anil Murthy, the club chose not to sign any replacements much to the shock of Gracia and the Mestalla faithful.
According to the Spanish media, Gracia himself criticised the club’s failure in the transfer market and even considered resigning last year. President Anil Murthy, however, claimed that the club’s lack of signings was solely due to the €100 million loss Valencia suffered during the coronavirus pandemic and that current players are better than the ones who left.
“We sold players for the simple reason that we saw revenue drop from €200m to €100m,”
“If you don’t sell players, you don’t have money to pay salaries, debts, service providers that help the players or the operation of the club.
“I repeat, we didn’t sell the best players. They’re still with us.”
said Murthy.
The ‘best players’ failed to turn up on multiple occasions this campaign, and under their Spanish coach, Valencia barely won three games in their first 18 La Liga fixtures. The club almost came close to firing Gracia in January after their draw with Cadiz in the midst of an eight-game winless run and Peter Lim, the club’s owner, decided to back him as a slight improvement in form for the following few weeks was enough to save his skin for the time being.
But another dip in the recent few weeks and the defeat against Barcelona despite taking a crucial lead – convinced the Valencia board to implement a change.
Gabriel Paulista drew first blood against Barca on Sunday, only to be cancelled out by a Lionel Messi brace shortly after, and an Antoine Griezmann goal put the Catalans in a commanding position before Carlos Soler’s consolation in the 83rd minute.
Gracia, now the 11th coach to leave the club in the last nine years, said that he “could not be any more worried” about the team’s predicament in the post-match press conference.
The Valencia board will now be looking for their sixth permanent manager in a span of five years. Meanwhile, Voro, the interim manager, returns for his seventh spell as Los Che’s caretaker coach, having held the position permanently once in 2016-17.
