COLUMN: Is there an oasis in the desert for the ailing Valencia?

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Here we go again: Valencia CF are in a spot of bother.

After Cesar Tarrega put the ball in his own net on 58 minutes, Valencia needed a late, late goal from Hugo Duro to draw against Sevilla on Sunday afternoon. A 1-1 draw didn’t really suit either side; Sevilla, in 12th, are just five points removed from the drop zone. Valencia, sat 15th, have as many points as games played, and only three points more than Girona in 18th.

For a club with such a large historical footprint in Spanish football, it remains astonishing to see Valencia in the lower reaches of La Liga, continuing to flirt with a relegation that would be among the more devastating demotions in the history of the league.

But the present bottom three  – Girona, Levante and Oviedo – may not be much suited to hunting  them down at the current rate, offering Los Che a reprieve amid their struggles. And the looming spectre of the new Mestalla presents an opportunity for Valencia to leave this troubled decade of football behind it for good.

Nou Mestalla finally received the go-ahead earlier this year, after a 16-year hiatus paused construction amid Valencia’s deep financial problems. It is poised to open in 2027, after next season, and bring down the curtain on more than 100 years of football at the original Estadi de Mestalla – the land on which it rests set to be sold for €85m, part of a €322m financing package that will get the long-gestating stadium project over the line.

For 16 years, a €100m concrete bowl four kilometers from 102-year-old Mestalla sat untouched while ownership went bankrupt, and Valencia returned to the Champions League under the ‘guidance’ of Peter Lim. Well, more specifically, the people that Lim’s inner circle hired, like Marcelino Garcia Toral and Mateu Alemany, who both left the club in 2019.

The undisturbed Nou Mestalla added another eerie layer to Valencia’s turbulent era following the end of Manuel Llorente’s presidency, when the club’s astronomical debts became more widely known. Los Che have finished in the bottom half five times in the past 10 seasons; this year may well make it six times in 11. 

Postcards from Mestalla pic.twitter.com/WpRv0qSagn

— Valencia CF (@valenciacf_en) December 8, 2025

Valencia have hired 11 permanent managers in 11 years, and it has been 13 years since they have secured a top-three finish. Considering they haven’t spent more than €8.5m on a player this decade, one could argue that staying in La Liga through it all is a fairly impressive feat.

This Valencia are a fairly good counterattacking side, and in truth they’re not bad defensively even after selling Cristhian Mosquera and Yarek Gasiorowski; heavy losses to Barcelona (6-0) and Real Madrid (4-0) have skewed those metrics a bit. But this typifies the low expectations we’ve assigned to Valencia, a side that ranks fifth in LaLiga’s all-time points table.

And as we continue to watch Valencia toil without a real sporting project – who knows if Carlos Corberan is going to see out the season? – the development of the new stadium with “the most advanced technology” becomes of paramount importance to the club’s future.

Nou Mestalla’s 2027 opening would put it squarely in the running to host matches at the 2030 World Cup, which will be held jointly in Spain, Portugal and Morocco. The plan is for the stadium to host some 70,000 spectators, which would make it as large as the Metropolitano. Crucially, it could make the club more attractive to investors, one of whom might buy the club from Lim and end his contentious, to be polite, reign as owner.

© @jose_gaya moves into the fourth place for @LaLigaEN appearances with VCF https://t.co/NWUaDzVeOp

— Valencia CF (@valenciacf_en) December 8, 2025

Captain Jose Luis Gaya has stayed through it all. On Sunday, Gaya made his 324th appearance for Valencia in LaLiga, the fourth-most in club history; he is the second-youngest Valencia player to reach 350 games overall for the club. Early next season, he should pass the legendary Santi Canizares and enter the top five in all-time appearances.

Gayà grew up an hour away from where Mestalla has stood since 1923. He has had interest over the years, inside and outside Spain, but has always stayed loyal to Los Murcielagos – and his contract expires after next season, right when the Nou Mestalla is scheduled to open its doors for the first time.

Gaya has lifted a sole Copa del Rey in his career, a trade-off he has accepted willingly in order to stay loyal to the club through these lean years. It would be something of a shame if he wasn’t leading the team out at the new Mestalla in August 2027, when this sleeping giant of Spanish football could start to show the first signs of stirring from this lengthy slumber.

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