Losing Mestalla will always be a defeat
There are few victories more bittersweet and futile than the victory after the fact, when the disaster that someone warned about has already happened. This happens when rereading (today or since 2016) the articles of J. V. Aleixander from 2014. Belatedly checking, already with great disappointment Meriton, that the great master of journalism was right when he did not move an inch from his position in the middle of this noisy and demagogic sales process conveys a silent satisfaction. Then Nano warned about the mortal risk of putting “Lim’s valence” above “our parents’ valence”. This was not paid much attention to, having a pleasant alternative to doping in the short term expectations. And although his prediction no longer changes the present present, it is a warning for future situations that can be avoided. Or at least an invitation to this city to participate in such a mature and calm debate, where all the alternatives are discussed when the future of Valencia is at stake.
In terms of authority, social and cultural knowledge of the environment and even style, reading every article by Mikel Nadal, Vicente Molins and the editorials on the radio of Paco Lloret defending the possibility of continuing the Mestalla centenary leaves the same feeling as in 2014, when Aleixandre shouted when all the wind was against him. They leave familiar suspicions, reinforced by the intuition and experience of a fan who has been on all the rollercoasters of his club. Even if they are right, and even if there is no enthusiasm in society for this step,Political steps are aimed at reopening the Nou Mestalla.. A theoretical revelation, an obvious triumph of dialogue that supposedly breaks down fifteen years of obstacles, but is accompanied by ridicule for Valencia (goodbye, UEFA ranking), which is less and less able to get into debt or create a treasury due to its chronic sporting stagnation.
Neither is Valencia the gigantic source of money and prestige in 2004, nor does the society of 2024 offer the same clues. At a time when cities are reflecting on the need to preserve their identity, heritage and cultural uniqueness in the face of global unification; in a scenario in which Real Madrid and Barcelona are renovating their shelters, and even Liverpool, Inter and Milan are cancelling approved relocation projects (and even Mallorca and Real Sociedad are renovating Son Mua and Anoeta in search of lost warmth), Mestalla is approaching its end. An end without us sitting down to talk about everything that will be lost and without calculating where we are going and whether we will be able to resist it, no matter how many guarantees are demanded this time from those who have not fulfilled them.
Even this pirouette could be a success. May the Nou Mestalla operation succeed with the change of the largest shareholder in the process, and may a competitive project and an ambitious approach be handed over. Could we witness one of these cyclical resurrections of metalism? And yet, The loss of a century of Mestalla’s life will continue to be a defeatIt will always be a defeat, even if there are no traces left, since the old field has not been included in the catalogue of the protection of the heritage of Valencia’s architecture over the last two centuries.