From the second floor of the NH Collection Hotel chants of “Peter go now” were heard, shouts that came from a center of fans who gathered on Calle Colón in Valencia. Those reproaches to the maximum shareholder of Valencia coincided with the entry into the living room of José Bordalás and accompanied his words during part of his press conference. The coach from Alicante wanted to say goodbye to the fans, which is why he summoned the media from one day to the next, and he did it without raising his voice against Peter Lim.
“Clubs have owners and the club has decided that I should not continue” was his first sentence after thanking those present for attending. And so Bordalás, with a slow tone and conciliatory phrases, responded one after another to the questions that were asked of him. He did so without getting into controversy, noting that “this year’s experience has been rewarding” and “without complaining about anything because I am lucky to have trained Valencia”. All this without stopping listening to the more than a hundred of fans who sang “Bordalás, I love you” and “Valencia is us”.
“I cannot comment on what could have been done or what needs to be done from now on”, Bordalás commented on how Peter Lim plans and manages Valencia. That was one of the many dribbles that the man from Alicante made in each of his answers, in a tone and background that was much more conciliatory with the property than in several press conferences that he attended as coach of Valencia. Bordalás repeated several times that “I leave proud” and, regarding his departure, the most critical thing he said was simply: “It was something unexpected.” He even pointed out: “Until my last day at the club, I noticed Peter Lim as a close person”, when the last time Bordalás spoke with the owner was in October. “I have never felt neglected, because I think I have earned the respect of many people.”
Such responses received a rigorous question: “Why do you keep quiet about what you think?” His response was: “I’m being honest, maybe other people expected other answers, but I no longer belong to Valencia, I have come here to say goodbye and to say thank you, because I don’t think it would help at all to go back to December, January… I demanded things, the club couldn’t give them to me and I no longer belong to Valencia”.
After that phrase by Bordalás, from the street, where the press conference could be heard through Radio Valencia Cadena SER, they sang: “Lay eggs on him, Bordalás; lay eggs on him.” But he stayed on that path of political correctness. Probably because his path on the bench has not ended and after his time at Mestalla he has to find another club where an owner wants him: “I’m a fighter, something similar happened to me at Alavés, the clubs make decisions… and it went well for me afterwards”. Thus, one question after another fell on deaf ears without Bordalás losing his form, with answers that, because they were not the expected ones, ended up even calming down for a while the chants in the street, which they regained their strength when Bordalás himself came to the door of the hotel to thank them for their presence.