Sean Bai surrounds himself with his people

The first trip of Sean Bai after his appointment as general director of Valencia he went to Vila-real. There he witnessed the children’s match in which the yellows and black and whites played for the title. Sean Bai witnessed the meeting along with Marco Otero and Luis Martínez. Hours earlier he had met in offices with Miguel Angel Corona and the communication department. Around all of them wants to make his team Sean Baiwith them he will try to remove the interim poster that they put from Singapore in the farewell statement to Anil Murthy.

for now, Sean Bai has received before a notary signing powers. In Valencia he and Joey Lim have them, which is at least a symptom of confidence and some permanence. Sean Bai arrived in Valencia in September 2018 from the hand of Anil Murthy, who knew him from his time as a diplomat. In fact, he started out as the Director of the Office of the President, a newly created department, which managed internal club affairs outside of football. From there he became director of the Paterna Academy in January 2019 and, three years later, He is the General Director and person with the greatest voice and command of Meriton in Valencia.

It was at the Academy where he developed the professional relationship with Marco Otero and Luis Martínez. He wants them close in his new stage linked to the first team. Curiously Otero was considering his future. He has offers from other clubs and it remains to be seen if this change of roles makes him rethink his departure. Luis Martínez has been a club man for years (started at the VCF Foundation) and will be at Sean Bai’s disposal both for the first team and if he keeps him at the Academy, where the idea is to promote internally if the positions change. A Miguel Ángel Corona, for his part, is maintained as Director of Football and coordinator of the department scouting. From Meriton he is seen as a club person, like Voro or the ambassadors Arias, Tendillo and Bossio. But people are about to join the club and depending on the profile, it will be seen if there are more changes.

According to the statement, Valencia a priori seeks a president for its Board of Directors. Khojama Kalimuddin occupies the position on an interim basis and Meriton intends to incorporate some figure to promote that “leadership change” that was discussed last Monday. And there the club wants to start with a change in the presence/relationship in the media and in the relationship with the fans. The club does not give explanations of his management since Mateu Alemany left. Murthy never offered a press conference (only some interviews with foreign media) and not even César Sánchez nor later Miguel Ángel Corona were presented. And there Jorge Mendes is giving his opinion to Peter Lim.

Mendes knows firsthand how exposed a coach is in the current Valencia model. Nuno Espiritu Santo felt lonely in his second year at Valencia, after Rufete left, and Mendes doesn’t want the same thing to happen to Gattuso. Hence there is proposed to Lim that I incorporate a sports director with experience. This figure obviously would collide with the functions “related to football” that have been deposited in the figure of Sean Bai, at least temporarily. But another option that is contemplated from Meriton is to incorporate an executive into the organizational chart to matters less related to footballa manager for stadium issues, commercials and public relations.