Jose Bordalás Jimenez (Alicante, 03/05/1964, 57 years old), he is happy in Valencia. In his first season at the Ché club, he has managed to reach the final of the Copa del Rey that he will play against Betis on April 23 at the La Cartuja Stadium in Seville. He is aware of the limitations that he has leading a team that is not going through its best economic moment, but he claims to be lucky.
This Saturday he will return to the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez to face Getafe, the place where he shone for five years and from which he gained momentum to face the challenge of Valencia. He has very good memories of his time in the azulón team and in an interview granted to EFE recognized that Ángel Torres “is the best president” he has had in his career.
At Valencia, he is aware of the day to day and not his future in the medium or long term and hopes to return the team to the position it deserves among the best in LaLiga Santander.
Question: Is it going to be strange for you to step on the grass of the Alfonso Pérez Coliseum again? What will you feel?
Answer: Until I get there, I don’t know the feeling I’m going to have. But I can anticipate that it will be a feeling of being at home. I practically know everyone. He is part of my family, with people I have shared a lot with, starting with President Ángel Torres, with whom I have a very special affection. He is the best president I have ever had and I imagine that I will feel that somewhat strange feeling.
Q: What do you miss the most from your five years at Getafe?
A: Above all, the close relationship and what I have shared for several seasons. We have lived very beautiful moments with people for whom I have a very special affection. Everyone, because the majority of workers and employees follow. From the president to the gardener. I have had a great relationship with them all these years.
Q: When you left Getafe, you were already looking out of the corner of your eye at relegation. Now it remains the same. Is it a natural trend or is it strange that it is three points above the decline?
A: It is strange. We all know the difficulty of Primera. It is not easy for any team. At Valencia we had moments of difficulty and we still haven’t achieved the goal mathematically. Getafe has the ballast of that bad start that was not good, but the team has had a great recovery and has managed to get out of relegation. It is true that now it has not been able to have those results to establish itself and definitively leave the risk zone. It’s not easy, because any team can have a losing streak, like us. But Getafe has put together a great squad, they have a magnificent coach, a magnificent president who knows these situations and in the end Getafe will achieve their goal.
Q: Quique has said that criticism of the Bordalás style was always disproportionate. Do you notice that this tendency to criticize your style is changing and that stigma is being removed?
A: No, I have never had an adverse feeling. There can be comments of all kinds. But I’m not going to talk about the same thing again. My teams have received criticism when the results have been positive. When they have been adverse, the style was never discussed. I have always interpreted it as a compliment and I am grateful for Quique’s words, because for me he is a magnificent coach. He has been an important reference and his professional career supports him. I have great respect and appreciation for him.
Q: I think that you, Quique or anyone, simply adapt to their templates. If they had Verratti, Mbappé, Messi and Neymar, they would play something else…
A: Do you know what happens? I’ve talked about the same thing so many times that I prefer to talk about football and not about styles. I have always respected. The coaching profession is complex. He deserves all the respect in the world. I have always respected all the coaches and going back to talk about that topic is not worth it. It distracts us from what really interests us, which is enjoying football. We cannot waste time on analyzes that are repeated, reiterate and divert us from reality. The work of professionals, especially soccer players, is devalued.
Q: Do you feel “healthy jealousy” when now in the Coliseum they have replaced the songs of ‘Bordalás I love you’ by ‘Bordalás, Bordalás, Bordalás I loved you… now I want Quique’?
A: Not at all. Quite the contrary. Quique is a great coach and I am very happy. I have lived very nice moments and I am grateful to the Getafe fans, who recognized my work from the first to the last day. Now they recognize the work of a magnificent professional like Quique. I am very happy for him and it is a sign that they are doing an outstanding job. The good that happens to Quique is good for Getafe, a club that I wish the best for. In the last match at Mestalla, they sang to me for the same thing. They recognize the commitment to the team and the club. I give my life every day to get performance out of the squad and give joy to the fans, who I have a very special affection for. I thank him for the recognition and I am very happy that the Getafe fans sing for Quique. He deserves it.
Q: When the Valencia fans sing to you… Are you relieved that they recognize your work?
A: Yes, but my intention is never to work so that people sing to me or not. It is always appreciated, but I work leaving everything to get a great performance from the squad, try to make the players better and give joy to the fans. That is the objective of Bordalás wherever I have been. Right now my commitment is with Valencia, to which I am going to try to get the best result so that people enjoy their team.
Q: Are you at your best moment of the course and enjoying the Valencia bench?
A: The coaches enjoy little. When you get a win, the next match quickly follows. More than the results you enjoy your profession. I have always enjoyed since I dedicate myself to this. It is a profession that I love and I see everything in a positive way. The good and the bad moments are part of this beautiful, sacrificial and thankless profession that we coaches have. But I always keep the good times. Going to train every day is to feel privileged.
Q: Valencia, in the last decade, has had five presidents and 12 coaches, which would be 15 counting the comings and goings of Voro. Do you think that more tranquility and institutional patience are needed for Valencia to settle among the top four every year almost by system?
A: Valencia, you all know that it has been and is a historic club that has always been fighting to be among the best to achieve important goals. Unfortunately, economically it is not going through its best moment. It is a complex situation foreign or different from what you have been used to. We all know that the last two seasons have been very difficult. This was not going to be an exception and in the League it is costing the team because it reduced its potential when it comes to making the squad. Many important players left and he needs a period, hopefully a short one, to recover his status. This year, fortunately, despite the difficulties, we have managed to reach the Cup final. I am confident that the entity and the team will recover that status and can be a team that fights to be among the best and in positions Europeans.
Q: Of all that list of 15 coaches, only Marcelino endured more than one season. Does he see himself capable of putting an end to that feeling of instability on the benches at Valencia and making a five-year project similar to Getafe’s?
A: I don’t think about it. When I arrived in Getafe, I didn’t imagine that I could be there for as long as I was. I was lucky enough to meet a president who is a football man, who knows how to manage times, outside and adverse situations and has always had great confidence in me just as I have in him. It is one of the keys to the beautiful moments we have experienced, such as getting a promotion and stabilizing in the First Division. I think he continues to do things in a remarkable way. I was that lucky, I’ve been lucky. I lived very nice moments with very professional people who have helped me a lot. It was a collective effort with everyone, the president, the technical secretariat, communications, the coaching staff, the players… we had a very good relationship. Now I am in Valencia and I do not think in the long or medium term. I think about the day to day, trying to make the team grow, improve the players to acquire the experience that is needed to compete in the League. Despite being the youngest team in the championship, I am satisfied because they are improving and little by little they are adapting to the idea and to what a club like Valencia demands and asks of them.
Q: Are you happy with the winter market additions?
A: We are happy. Some to a greater and lesser extent. It is true that Bryan Gil and Ilaix Moriba are two players who knew the League. The language has made it easier for them to adapt quickly. They can even give better benefits because they take a short time. It is costing Eray a little more but it is normal when a player comes in the middle of the championship without mastering a language and from a less demanding League (not worse), the adaptation has to be greater. But we are happy with these incorporations that are helping us.
Q: From a distance I have seen something unprecedented. In five years in Getafe, I never saw him angry with the press and the treatment was exquisite. But in Valencia I have seen some clashes. In Getafe, are the representatives of the press nuns of charity or in Valencia are they much more demanding?
A: That was a punctual day. The press in Valencia also treated me in a remarkable way. I am tremendously grateful. People also have difficult moments. There were bad days and that was something anecdotal. Then that journalist (Ximo Masmano, from Cadena Ser) and I spoke. We have a wonderful relationship. I can make mistakes because I am human and I am not perfect. I am not a spiteful person. I am very respectful of the press. I always have been because all professions have tremendous difficulty. Those of us who live this profession with passion can always have a bad day.
Q: When they reached the Cup final, they exploded on the pitch with joy. I hardly ever saw him like this. Did you notice that you and your players vindicated yourself?
A: Very happy because we eliminated a great finalist team in recent seasons that had just eliminated Barcelona and Real Madrid. Perhaps, there was no confidence that Valencia was capable of eliminating Athletic. Joy, especially for the kids. They have been working very hard for months and we have had moments of difficulty in the league. It was a huge prize for them. And also for our fans. Despite the fact that it has been two and a half years without the happiness that they deserve for their commitment and feeling… for them, for how they encouraged, and for me, for my family who know how difficult all this road has been to finally get a final at a time of difficulty for Valencia that few people imagined. Fortunately, we are there. Now, a final is difficult and especially against a great team like Betis.
Q: What is the ceiling of this Valencia?
A: Right now we are far from the European positions in the League. We are aware that there are teams with enormous potential and that we have a large deficit. There is a very difficult final stretch of the championship. Everyone is playing something important. On Saturday we have a very difficult game against a team that does things very well and needs points to get out of the danger zone. This is how each game will be until the end and we have to go step by step. The passing of the matches will mark where it will be necessary to arrive in the League. Then, we will face the Cup final with enthusiasm.
Q: From one to ten… How happy is José Bordalás?
A: I am very happy. I would put a nine. I am tremendously happy because I am directing. I’m lucky. I manage a great club and I am satisfied. I am at an important moment of maturity in my career and despite the adversities, that maturity makes you come out of situations that at other times would be tremendously adverse. Satisfaction of seeing my boys grow day by day. They are showing greater potential every day. I’m happy.