Here is the news: Valencia won on Thursday night.
They won 2-1. At home. Against Alavés, a newly promoted team that hasn't been in the first division for a decade. Oh, and it was thanks to an own goal and a late, late penalty. But still, they won, and that really is news. "Victory!" said the front cover of the local sports daily Super Deporte, the significance summed up in the simplicity. They'd almost forgotten what a victory looked like.
This was the first time Valencia had won this season. In fact, it is the first time they have won for five months. They had lost their last seven games, the worst run in the club's entire history, and this was their joint-worst start to any season ever. Valencia needed this, so much so that Enzo Pérez admitted he couldn't watch the penalty being taken by teammate Dani Parejo. "I was so nervous," he said. "When I heard them shout 'goal,' my blood pressure dropped, [such were] the nerves, the anxiety."
He needn't have worried: they were bound to win with Salvador González "Voro" in charge. Salvador: saviour by name, saviour by nature. The best manager they have had.
How much longer will he be in charge? No one knows. Not long, they hope. Not long, he hopes too, which looks a little odd when you think that Voro has the best record of any manager in Valencia's history: he has coached the team for nine games as caretaker, winning seven of them. This is his fourth spell in charge but he doesn't want it to go on any longer and he doesn't want a fifth. Not now, not ever.
The first time Voro took over, in 2008, players thought it was ridiculous and, actually, it was: the match day delegate had been manager based on one essential quality: he was there. And yet he rescued them from relegation, losing just once, against Barcelona. In the three spells since, in 2012, 2015 and 2016, he hasn't lost at all. Last time he took over, with Phil Neville, they drew with Barcelona but soon he'll be gone. Well, not gone exactly: he'll still be down there on the bench. But his role will be limited to other tasks, like telling the fourth official who is coming on and who is coming off.
When he goes, another managerial era will begin. It will be the fifth since the start of last season: Nuno Espírito Santo, Voro and Neville (Phil), Neville (Gary), Pako Ayesteran; Voro, and whoever comes next. The original idea was for them to go for Marcelino García Toral but federation rules prevent him from coaching two first division teams in a single season. Valencia argue that he wouldn't be: Villarreal sacked him before this season even began.
Valencia's fans chanted for Nuno to leave. They chanted for Neville to leave too. The club didn't even wait for them to chant for Ayesteran to leave.