2013-14 Season Review – Valencia

Having been accustomed to regular Champions League finishes under Unai Emery, the club has certainly realised how good they had it under the now Sevilla boss. Perhaps there was a touch of greed in their expectations back then as Emery delivered the objective year after year despite selling some of their best players. A club in huge financial trouble that will now face a season without any kind of European football for the first time since the 1997-98 season.

With new boss Miroslav Djukic in place at the start of the season and the aim to return to Champions League football, results were a mixed bag and languishing way off the top four, the Serbian was fired after their 3-0 defeat to Atletico with the club sitting in 9th position in December.

The board moved to appoint Juan Antonio Pizzi in an attempt to fire them towards the European spots. Results hardly improved and the team continued to be inconsistent. The home form was reasonable but their abysmal away form held them back. Despite positive results against Barcelona and Real Madrid Los Che finished 8th, ten points off the team directly above them and ten points off the relegation zone. Their European run was more encouraging, reaching the semi-finals of the Europa League before being dumped out by eventual winners Sevilla at the death, which summed up a season to forget.

There is new hope for the future though. With the new manager having had his feet under the table for a little while, the club under new ownership and work on the new stadium set to be restarted,  there are more positive signs that next season, with stability, they could be back to somewhere near their best.

La Liga - Club News