Valencia CF have cycled through eight coaches since their last trophy in 2019. Eight. Javier Aguirre is the latest to try his luck, and the job he's walking into is less a football challenge than a full-scale institutional collapse.
The last silverware was the 2019 Copa del Rey — a 2-1 win over Barcelona with goals from Kevin Gameiro and Rodrigo Moreno. Since then: no European football, a near-relegation in 2023 that wasn't secured safe until a final-day draw at Betis, and a Mestalla fanbase that now directs its passion almost entirely at owner Peter Lim.
The Lim problem isn't going anywhere
The Singaporean billionaire bought 91% of the club in 2014. In 11 years, he's won one trophy, changed president five times, changed sporting director six times, and watched Valencia fall off the European map entirely. The club hasn't appeared in European competition since March 2020, when their Champions League last-16 tie at San Siro against Atalanta — a 4-1 defeat that became one of the first major COVID-19 super-spreader events in Europe — ended their continental run. That's six years without Europe. The longest such gap in Valencia's history.
In 2023, 15,000 protesters marched demanding Lim sell. His response? He handed the presidency to his son, Kiat Lim. "Lim Out" now drowns out "Amunt València" around Mestalla on matchdays.
For all that dysfunction at boardroom level, what makes this story genuinely complicated is that Mestalla still shows up. Last season the stadium ran at 98% average attendance — the highest in LaLiga. This is a fanbase that remembers what Valencia is supposed to be: five club with the most accumulated points in LaLiga history, six league titles, eight Copa del Rey wins, three UEFA Cups. They're not a mid-table club by identity. They've just been run like one for half a decade.
What Aguirre is actually working with
The list of coaches who've failed here reads like a cautionary tale. Albert Celades, Javi Gracia, José Bordalás, Gennaro Gattuso, Rubén Baraja, Carlos Corberán — none could stabilize the club, let alone lift it. Players like Edinson Cavani, Gonçalo Guedes, and Justin Kluivert passed through without leaving a mark on the table.
Aguirre is experienced, pragmatic, and knows how to organize a side defensively — which is probably the first requirement at a club that needs to stop bleeding before it can think about winning. But the structural issues here go beyond tactics. Without transfer investment and a coherent sporting project, even the most organized defensive setup won't push Valencia back toward the European places.
LaLiga survival should be considered the floor, not the ceiling. Any bettor pricing Valencia as a top-half side this season needs to account for a squad that's been stripped back over years of underinvestment and an ownership situation that hasn't shown any sign of genuine resolution. The odds should reflect the chaos — because right now, that's what Valencia CF is.
