Murthy explains why Valencia were forced to fire "unacceptable" Marcelino

Valencia president Anil Murthy has explained in an interview with the club's media channels the reason for sacking coach Marcelino Garcia Toral last month. He said there were discrepancies between the manager and the club over the club's model. 

"There was a loss of confidence in Marcelino’s role in the long term model that the majority shareholder has for the club. In the summer there was a distancing between the decisions of the club and the decisive role -- of great influence -- that Marcelino demanded in our transfer policy, as well as public pressure that made things even more difficult," Murthy said. 

"The club had supported him in everything, including his decisions in the transfer market. Even when things were at their worst on the pitch, in January, it was Peter Lim who finally decided to continue supporting him. This summer, however, the challenge and constant individual discrepancy towards that club model was unacceptable, and was not going to stop. His project was different to that of the majority shareholder." 

Murthy added that it was "a painful decision" to make: "We should have explained it better -a mistake that we will improve in the future. Sometimes important decisions are difficult to understand in the short term. Now, everyone is seeing that our intention is to continue growing. We have a new coach, Albert Celades. but the same ambition."

The president also denied the theory that Marcelino was sacked because he won the Copa del Rey, which reportedly the club would rather have not taken so seriously in favour of focusing on Champions League qualification -- which they also managed anyway. 

He continued: "That loss of confidence was due to differences with the majority shareholder over the club model, and has nothing to do with competing for and winning a trophy; we would never give up on that. How could Peter Lim not want to win a trophy? Millions of people from all over the world saw Valencia CF win a final against Barça. Is there a better promotion of the Valencia CF brand than that?

"Winning trophies is one of the base objectives for which we are here. I congratulated Marcelino on the cup win and qualification for the Champions League, and I do so again now."