Valencia a club in chaos as Marcelino claims Copa del Rey win over Barcelona was catalyst for his exit

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Ben Hayward13 September 2019

Marcelino Garcia Toral could not stop smiling. Valencia had just beaten Barcelona in the final of the Copa del Rey and beaming in the press room at the Benito Villamarin, he could barely believe it.

The Valencia coach had endured a difficult season: he had survived a crisis meeting in the winter, he had lifted the team from 11th in La Liga at the halfway stage to qualify for the Champions League, and he had won the Copa del Rey.

That win, the club's first trophy since 2008, brought so much joy to a long-suffering fanbase. "Earlier in the season, the colleagues in Valencia were asking me 'why don't you win?’, 'why don't you win?’, 'why don't you win?'" he said afterwards. "Today we won! Today we won!"

Claiming the Copa del Rey should have been the start of something, the chance for Valencia to cement themselves into Spain's top four and also Europe's elite. Instead, it proved to be the beginning of the end.

Three games later, Marcelino is gone: sacked, with no real explanation from owner Peter Lim or anyone at the club. And as Valencia prepare to meet Barcelona again on Saturday, it is as a club in chaos this time.

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“We weren’t congratulated in Seville by the owner," he said. "On top of that, when I went to Singapore on July 19th, he congratulated me for [qualifying for] the Champions League, but not for [winning] the Copa. You will understand my surprise.”

The former Racing Santander, Zaragoza and Villarreal coach claimed Lim had told him to disregard the Copa and prioritise reaching the Champions League. But in the end, Valencia beat Getafe to fourth in the league and also won the cup.

"I am convinced, absolutely, that the trigger for this situation was to win the Copa del Rey," Marcelino said. "Last season we received messages that we had to dismiss the Copa.

"The fans and the players wanted the Copa. We all wanted to win the Copa. Winning it was the detonator. Who would believe it..."

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There is, of course, more to it than that. Lim and Marcelino were at odds over summer recruitment, with the coach left frustrated as neither Denis Suarez nor Rafinha were brought in, a move for the latter vetoed by the owner due to his injury record.

Lim was keen to bring in players on the books of super agent Jorge Mendes and the working relationship with both Marcelino and sporting director Mateu Alemany, whose job is now also under threat.

Not long after Marcelino said his goodbyes in a sombre press conference in which he broke down in tears on Friday, new coach Albert Celades was unveiled to the media.

Celades, whose agent is a partner of Mendes, faced some tough questions.

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He was asked if he thought the players would take him seriously ("that's a question for them"), whether Lim has spoken to him about the Copa del Rey ("no, we haven't spoken about that"), if the owner had given him instructions on which players he should pick ("no"), on his relationship with Marcelino ("I've always had good words for him") and if he would disregard the cup if he were asked to do so ("it hasn't happened and if it does, we'll make a pertinent decision; Valencia is a bg club and we'll set out to win all the games").

After Marcelino's dismissal, a number of Valencia's players took to social media to voice their disapproval at the decision. Some chose their words carefully, but the strongest reaction of all came from defender Ezequiel Garay. "Whoever made this decision not only trampled over you, but over a whole squad and fanbase," he wrote on Instagram. "I say it loud and clear: IT'S NOT FAIR".

That pretty much summed up the mood at Mestalla and Celades starts amid a backdrop of anger and frustration amid players and fans. He is also not rated by many following his indifferent spell as Spain's Under-21 coach and Marca published a piece on Friday entitled "Against the spirit of Neville", which claims the new man is already fighting to avoid comparisons with former England defender Gary, a disastrous Lim appointment in 2015.

Neville famously lost 7-0 to Barcelona at Camp Nou during his brief tenure and Celades, who came through the youth ranks at the Catalan club and spent four seasons there as a player, faces a baptism of fire, a fight to avoid something similar (although luckily for him, Lionel Messi is not involved) and a battle to lift his own players for a game most people believe he should be nowhere near.

Without Marcelino, Valencia could now be back in freefall all over again. It all seems so unnecessary.

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