Negredo, Gomes Gone: Valencia Hit the Reset Button Ahead of Defining Season

The cover from Superdeporte was distasteful and tinged with nastiness, but concurrently, with two simple words it reflected a certain relief that promised change was coming.  

"Gracias, Boro," it read. 

The snide gratitude followed the news that Valencia had agreed to a deal with Middlesbrough for a one-year loan of Alvaro Negredo, the expensive and misfiring striker who had been so emblematic of Valencia's turmoil. 

Two years earlier when he'd been signed, Superdeporte's cover had depicted Negredo as the centrepiece in a "forward line of champions" that also featured Paco Alcacer and Rodrigo Moreno. His move involved big money and big potential at a club that had the exactly that itself thanks to the wealth of new owner Peter Lim. But that potential never materialised; already, Negredo is gone, for now at least.

And he's not the only one.

This had long loomed as a key summer for Valencia, and the look of restructuring is obvious. As well as Negredo, the club has sold Andre Gomes to Barcelona, Rodrigo de Paul to Udinese, Antonio Barragan to Middlesbrough and has loaned Pablo Piatti to Espanyol, who have an option to buy. Sofiane Feghouli has also been lost on a free transfer to West Ham United. 

In that group, Negredo and Gomes are of course the headliners, but collectively those deals stand as evidence that Valencia have recognised the need for it: The reset button. 

— Superdeporte (@superdeporte_es)July 19, 2016

Now two years into Lim's reign following his takeover in 2014, Valencia have discovered that money alone doesn't translate into footballing success. 

After a promising first season, the club saw any sense of progress fall apart in a 2015-16 campaign riddled with the sort of headaches that stem from structural issues. Valencia finished 12th—their worst finish in almost three decades—had three different managers in the space of four months and missed Champions League qualification by a whopping 20 points. 

That absence of European football is damaging. Across two summers, Valencia's squad had been expensively assembled, but now a slash in revenue awaits without the Champions League's television money. With UEFA's Financial Fair Play in mind, the club's loaning of Negredo to Middlesbrough was done to dial back the wage bill—hence the Superdeporte cover—while the sale of Gomes to Barcelona for an initial €35 million that could rise to as much as €70 million, per Goal, was necessary to raise funds. 

Now the task is to spend shrewdly, to build something—the things Valencia have neglected under Lim to date. 

When Lim arrived, it was hoped that his wealth would propel Valencia into a heavyweight existence. The expectation was for a challenge to the established order, but the reality has become very different because of structural fault lines, as explained here at Bleacher Report in January:

Last summer, Valencia fans held high expectations for a blockbuster transfer window. Big names and big fees were expected, but it was only the latter the fans saw.

Instead of marquee names, the club spent over €100 million on players it already had, completing permanent transfers for players they'd taken on loan the previous season in Alvaro Negredo, Rodrigo, Andre Gomes and Joao Cancelo. There were new faces, yes: young ones, promising ones. But not the sort envisaged.

At board level, there were more concerns. In July, former president Amadeo Salvo departed, as did sporting director Francisco Rufete and scout Roberto Fabian Ayala. It was seen as a sort of civil war, Lim assuming full control, inserting adviser Lay Hoon Chan to replace Salvo and turning to the influence of good friend and agent Jorge Mendes.

The lingering feel of Mendes' influence has been the most troubling aspect of Valencia's issues. The renowned player agent had helped bring Lim to Valencia, but following the exit of Rufete, he quickly began to look like a quasi-sporting director with conflicted interests. 

In 2014, Mendes' first client, Nuno Espirito Santo, was installed as manager. In the same summer, Mendes was also involved in bringing Gomes, Rodrigo, Joao Cancelo and Enzo Perez to Mestalla; in 2015, it was Danilo, Zakaria Bakkali and Santi Mina. 

Many perceived the fees to be inflated in several cases, and it didn't go unnoticed that Mendes was the man who took Nicolas Otamendi to Manchester City, too.

PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/Getty Images

Jorge Mendes' perceived influence has been a cause of tension at Valencia.

The circumstances led to suspicion, fury in the stands at Mestalla and uncomfortable questions over Valencia's direction as a club. 

"The truth is I am fed up speaking about Jorge Mendes at every press conference," said Chan in December.

By April, though, there was a recognition that the club's setup needed addressing, that an inexperienced regime in a footballing sense had gotten it wrong. 

"We see the issue here this season, and we'll plan forward very carefully," said Chan when Pako Ayestaran replaced Gary Neville as manager. "We will see a lot of changes."

One of those changes will be the influence of a genuine sporting director. In January, Jesus Garcia Pitarch, who worked alongside Rafa Benitez between 2002 and 2004, was appointed to the position, and this summer is his first real chance to start shaping a squad. To build something. To instil an encompassing idea or model into Lim's Valencia.

Straightforward? Not at all.

Valencia's squad is undoubtedly talented, but it is also unbalanced. The centre of the defence desperately needs strengthening, the midfield doesn't entirely convince and a new striker is required. And yet the issues go beyond merely personnel. 

In large stretches last season, it was difficult to work out exactly what Valencia were trying to do. The complicated background picture was reflected in the confused identity on the pitch, a sense of the club not quite knowing who or what it was. 

For addressing that, this summer is pivotal. Ayestaran's task is to give his squad a new clarity in their purpose and a philosophy for Pitarch to build the squad around. To date, the latter's signings are Nani (something to prove) from Fenerbahce and Alvaro Medran (inexpensive promise) from Real Madrid, and though the budget is tight for buying more, that might not be a bad thing. The splashing of cash with little thought for institutional structure is what led Valencia here—to the reset button. 

They had no choice but to hit it. 

In doing so, Valencia have taken a step in the right direction but are now facing a defining season in Lim's reign. Big names have left, the challenges are vast and the club's rivals are strong, but more than anything, this is a year about recovery; about foundation setting and steady progression; about Lim's Valencia finding itself. 

And as Lim has discovered, money alone won't do it.