Valencia in acute crisis as Javier Aguirre takes charge

Valencia have blown up their sporting structure after a start to the season that borders on disastrous. With just 4 points from their first seven games and a humiliating 5-0 home defeat against Barcelona, president Kiat Lim has pulled the trigger twice: Carlos Corberán is no longer the head coach and football CEO Ron Gourlay has left the club along with his scouting network. Javier Aguirre lands in Paterna with the mission of rescuing a team sitting second from bottom.

• Valencia have collected just 4 points from 21 and sit second from bottom in LaLiga.
• Carlos Corberán and Ron Gourlay were sacked after the heavy defeat to Barcelona.
• Javier Aguirre took over on Thursday 24 September, with the squad already in mini-preseason mode.
• Braulio Vázquez, from Osasuna, will be the new sporting director.
• The team has scored 4 goals and conceded 13, with an injury crisis making matters worse.

An unsustainable start: 4 points from 21

Valencia kicked off the season with the same weaknesses as the previous campaign, but with an added problem: a wave of injuries that has further limited an already thin squad. The only point rescued at Mestalla came in the season opener against Celta Vigo. That was followed by a defeat to Real Betis, where the team arguably deserved more on chances created, and a match at Riazor that Corberán himself described as «shameful», with a baffling first half and constant defensive errors.

Barcelona's dominant display at Mestalla and a performance at the Pizjuán with zero shots on target sealed the fate of both the coach and the CEO. The numbers are brutal: four goals scored, thirteen conceded, and a competitive fragility that allowed Real Sociedad to steal a point in stoppage time. The international break arrived as a mini-preseason to try to correct the course.

The double sacking: Corberán and Gourlay run out of credit

Kiat Lim, advised by the club's managing director, watched the Barcelona thrashing from the presidential box and decided to break with the structure he himself had approved in Singapore a year earlier. Ron Gourlay's departure also drags down his scouting network, blamed for a disappointing summer transfer window. With Corberán, the fracture with the core of the dressing room had become impossible to repair.

What was broken in the dressing room could not be fixed as long as Corberán stayed in charge.

In the same week as the sackings, moves were already underway to bring in Braulio Vázquez from Osasuna as the new sporting director. His first responsibility will be to choose the next head coach. Óscar Sánchez, as interim manager, delivered the team's only win of the season in Mendizorroza with just one training session under his belt, proof that the problem went beyond tactics.

Javier Aguirre takes charge in Paterna

The Mexican coach arrived in Paterna on Thursday 24 September with a clear goal: to restore competitiveness to a broken dressing room. His arrival has already changed the mood in training, according to club sources, but the real test will come in matches. Aguirre will have to manage a squad with obvious weaknesses at centre-back and up front, areas that will need addressing in the January transfer window.

The biggest disappointment: Corberán's wasted credit

The Valencia-born coach had been the architect of survival in the second half of the 2023-24 season, when relegation seemed almost inevitable. But his credit began to erode from the very moment of that official photo with Ron Gourlay in Singapore. The sporting structure placed him at the centre of planning, yet his authority in the dressing room wore down week after week.

His commitment to a back five and a reactive approach only produced a single draw. The disconnect with the squad's core became undeniable and defeats against direct rivals finished him off. Among the individual disappointments in the squad are Dieng, a summer signing, Tárrega, who has lost the physical edge he showed in previous seasons, and Ugrinic, who has not delivered the step forward expected of him.

Those who escape the fire: Javi Guerra, Danjuma and the academy

Not everything is bad news. Javi Guerra and Danjuma have shown flashes of quality, albeit in small doses. The academy graduate's case is particularly important: although he has not scored, like Aarón Mayol, he has been the most consistent in offering alternatives since being introduced in the second half against Deportivo. He still has areas to refine, but he can make a difference in a team desperate for solutions.

The emergence of Mayol, Otorbi and Aimar Blázquez, even with limited minutes, shows that there are resources in the academy capable of stepping up. The context is far from ideal for developing young talent, with the team second from bottom, but betting on these players could offer an escape route from the crisis.

The winter window, the only way to strengthen a limited squad

Sacking the entire sporting structure just 12 days after the summer transfer window closed is not a good sign. The squad has clear deficiencies in two positions: centre-back and striker. Those gaps cannot be filled until January, when the winter window opens. Until then, Aguirre will have to find emergency solutions with the resources currently available.