It started with a hero’s welcome.
When he arrived as Valencia’s new owner in October 2014, Peter Lim was greeted with glee by fans who hoped the Singaporean businessman would rescue their club from a perilous financial position caused by years of over-ambitious spending.
Fans were optimistic Lim’s takeover, through his Hong Kong-based Meriton Holdings company, would propel Valencia back to the summit of European football – the lofty heights they occupied at the turn of the century with consecutive Champions League final appearances in 2000 and 2001 and two La Liga titles in 2002 and 2004.
But the initial goodwill towards Lim soon started to dissipate following a series of strange managerial appointments and a close relationship with super-agent Jorge Mendes.
Valencia-based journalist Paco Polit is clear about why the tide started to turn against Lim, who also co-owns English League Two club Salford City alongside a group of former Manchester United players including his most unsuccessful coaching appointment, Gary Neville.
“The change in attitude towards Lim started in the summer of 2015,” Polit told BBC Sport.
“Having been his biggest advocate and helping him buy the club for peanuts, president Amadeo Salvo left after a power struggle with Jorge Mendes and [then-manager and Mendes client] Nuno Espirito Santo. The subsequent cascade of mistakes seriously damaged Lim’s public image.”
Any lingering feelings of support towards Lim among Valencia fans were destroyed for good in 2019.
The team won the Copa del Rey, defeating Barcelona in a thrilling final, and finished fourth in La Liga – but Lim reacted by parting company with manager Marcelino and director of football Mateu Alemany following disagreements over transfer policy.
“That was crucial towards the perception that Lim doesn’t really care about the club’s fate,” says Polit. “Especially when you also consider his open conflict with the Valencian government and city hall, no investment in signings, repeatedly selling the team’s best players for relatively low fees, a careless attitude towards the club’s history, disrespecting the fans… the list could go on and on.”
The managerial revolving door has continued to spin since Marcelino’s departure, with his successors Javi Gracia, Albert Celades and Jose Bordalas all heading out after one season.
The latest hapless incumbent was Gennaro Gattuso, who made a bright start to the new campaign but departed last week after just half a season in charge, following a dip in results and reported disagreements with Lim over the failure to sign any players in the January transfer window.
So now, long-serving coach Voro is again managing the team on a caretaker basis – for the eighth time – while Lim searches for a 10th permanent manager in less than nine years.
Voro is overseeing the youngest squad in La Liga, one which had no mid-season reinforcements. They are on a four-game losing run and are just one point clear of the relegation zone.
Whoever is appointed, Polit does not hold any optimism for the future.
“No manager in the world will be able to succeed while Peter Lim and the current management model are in place. Absolutely nobody,” he said.
“They’re doomed before even starting. All of the recent managers have made the same assessment of the main problems: Valencia isn’t run as a proper club and Peter Lim isn’t invested in the success of the team.
“The squad is getting weaker every season, and taking everything into account… relegation is inevitable. It will happen eventually, even if not this season.”
With that prospect looming large, the club’s supporters have had enough. Under the name Libertad VCF -Freedom for Valencia FC – different fan groups have come together to plan massive protests for Saturday’s home meeting with Athletic Bilbao.
Whether he pays any attention to the dissent is another matter though, because maintaining a good relationship with the club’s supporters has never appeared to feature highly on the reclusive Lim’s list of priorities.
So what exactly does he want to achieve? Lim’s reluctance to address the media or appear in public – he has not attended a game in Valencia since December 2018 – means it is difficult to ascertain what his ambitions for the club might be.
He did however tell the Financial Times in a rare 2021 interview that he regards Valencia as a “trophy asset” which has been “incredibly good for networking”.
Those comments clearly didn’t do much to appease Valencia fans, leading COPE Radio and Marca reporter Pedro Morata to a dark conclusion.
“This man is sitting on his sofa in Singapore and playing with Valencia like a toy,” Morata told BBC Sport. “It’s incredible, but that’s how it is. Nobody understands why he bought the club. Fans are ashamed of their club because of him.
“Valencia will continue to sink as long as Lim stays, because he has abandoned the club to people who don’t know about football. The only future is a change in ownership, and to pray the next one is better.”
Although it is impossible to accurately judge his intentions, so far Lim has shown no inclination of selling up. But unless something changes, Valencia’s dramatic decline looks set to continue.
