The side who must go up
Levante are chasing a top two spot in Segunda and the club desperately needs a place in the top division to help the financial issues they're facing.
Goals reigned in at the Ciutat Valencia on Saturday as Levante once again showed their promotion credentials in a 5-2 demolition job over Real Zaragoza.
Man of the match on the day was 37 year old Jose Luis Morales known more commonly as El Comandante for his salute celebration. Alongside him in the forward line on Saturday was Alex Fores who is up to four goals since signing on loan from Villarreal B in January and Carlos Alvarez one of the breakout stars in Segunda in his second full season at the club.
Behind them they're reinforced by Giorgi Kochorashvili a Georgian midfielder who caught the eye during the EUROs in 2024 as Georgia made the last 16 alongside him is the graft and guile of Oriel Rey. When those two get tired Vicente Iborra a three time Europa League winner and winner of the Conference League last season with Olympiacos.
At this point you might be thinking why have we gone straight into the Levante team with no context so let's explain why.
Despite having one of the best squads in Segunda with a rich mix of youth and experience alongside Segundas most underrated coach in Julian Calero the situation at Levante is worrying.
Current debt levels are at over €100 million Euros a huge sum particularly for a club in the second tier, the club let 135 staff go over the last year and highly rated Sporting Director Felipe Miñambres left earlier in the season after receiving a WhatsApp from the CEO telling him his salary would need to be significantly reduced.
“Felipe, things are bad and there needs to be a change in your contract. The figures need to be changed” CEO Danilva to Miñambres on WhatsApp.
If this was a legacy contract that new people at the club had inherited it would be more understandable but the board signed off a new contract for Miñambres in the summer to then come back a few months later and try to slash the same contract highlights the clubs dire situation financially.
Julian Calero the coach also had to let his assistant Antonio Carmona go during the season and was told he would not be replaced as the club try to slash costs and save money wherever possible. The club explained the removal of the assistant as a financial reorganisation and that Calero was committed to a more innovative reorganisation which would see him without an assistant.
it's not just off the pitch where Calero has seen reductions, so far this season the club has sold his starting right back Andres Garcia to Aston Villa, while the club couldn't stand in the way of a youth team player getting the opportunity to move to a club in the Champions League The €7 million release clause looks low considering he's already made double digit appearances for Villa.
Talented Georgian midfielder Giorgi Kochorashvili was sold just three weeks ago, again to a Champions League club in Sporting Club, Portuguese league leaders. While his departure was expected the timing of it in the last day of March two months away from the window opening was not. The club despite the issues continue to be able to bring players in and good quality players.
Levante had for much of the 2010s been one of the stories of La Liga, they played a swashbuckling style of football even reaching the Copa del Rey semi finals under Paco Lopez a warm and engaging coach who was from the region and got Levante.
They had rebuilt their stadium making it an impressive regeneration with a great atmosphere but while most eyes were focused across the city at the chaos of city rivals Valencia, Levante had built up significant debt through their stadium renovation, new training ground and when COVID hit they were left in a hole.
A double whammy ensued with relegation in 20/21, and the club back down in Segunda went away from their entertaining ways and hired a pragmatic coach in Mehdi Nafti, that experiment didn't work and the club turned to Javi Calleja who had been at nearby Villarreal.
Calleja didn't bring entertainment but the club did grind their way to third place and the play-offs. Despite having one of the most talented squads in the league the focus was on substance not style.
They almost made it back to La Liga in fact they pretty much had. In the final against Alaves things were all square in extra time after the two legs and in Spain if that's the case then rather than go to penalties, the team in the highest position goes through and that was Levante. In the 120th minute Levante struck the bar an inch away from sealing a La Liga place through victory rather than default but it was fine as they were still in the driving seat. The 122nd minute though saw an innocuous incident when Alaves players started appealing for handball in the Levante box.
The inevitable back and forth with VAR ensued and 5 minutes later a penalty was given, Asier Villalibre stepped up and Levante were consigned to another Segunda season.
That defeat saw a fire sale at the club with Jorge de Frutos, Marc Pubill, Pepelu, Dani Cardenas and Marcelo Saracchi all sold raising around €20 million. In terms of incomings it was mainly free transfers and loans with the only outlay on Isaac Romero for €100,000.
With such outgoings it’s not surprising the club didn’t do as well and Calleja was fired in February with the club struggling to find victories under his conservative style. They ended up drawing 20 of their 42 games in a dour season.
This summer they appointed Julian Calero a coach who had done fantastic jobs both at Burgos and Cartagena who he took from rock bottom at Christmas to mid-table safety in a hugely impressive stint. Calero had been type-cast as a conservative coach but he’s shown he’s anything but now he has the attacking talent of this Levante side.
Under Calero Levante have already scored 11 goals more than the whole of last season with six games remaining, they have seven points more than the entirety of last season as well and look a proper team. The question marks aren’t on the pitch but off it.
In theory the clubs salary control for this season is €4.2 million but as a club still in receipt of parachute payments it’s an open secret they’re spending far more than the salary cap allows. This has led to frustrations with Castellon owner Bob Voulgaris one of those vocal about the issue on social media. Clubs who have been relegated get one figure on the official La Liga site but reality is far different.
The system which is meant to protect clubs from overspending and not being sustainable doesn’t take into account what clubs are actually spending before the cap is announced and those who come down often spend far more than their salary controls as they bring players from La Liga down with them. If you’re a club trying to compete you can’t overspend and register new players whereas those with bigger wages already are told to get down to that figure but in reality it’s almost impossible for La Liga to enforce it other than continually slashing clubs salary controls.
Levante are in their third and final season of parachute payments and given the debt levels it really is do or die. The club failed to pay salaries in November and ended up taking a loan of €5.5 million to see them to January where they then sold Andres Garcia. For those who want to know the importance of the parachute payments just look at Eibar, the Basque side are well run but even they in season four had to sell off most of their star players and start again and have spent much of this season in midtable even flirting with the bottom four a few weeks ago.
The annual AGM this week discussed the clubs five year plan to generate more income with a focus on entertainment and real estate development and the CEO explained the budget for the next season is based on the club being in Segunda rather than banking on promotion but in reality the quickest way for the club to generate income is through player sales and talents such as Isaac Romero and in particular Carlos Alvarez have no doubt been earmarked for sale this summer regardless of the clubs promotion.
Even if Levante do go up, it’s hard to see La Liga giving them a healthy budget and with assets on the books it could be they’re sold on and the club tries to use the extra income to pay off debts and take the risk of being relegated. It could lead to a situation where we see a Levante team in La Liga who are weaker than the side who came up from Segunda with the hope of coming up again the following season using parachute money similar to the Burnley model in the Premier League.
For Levante fans, they deserve some cheer, the floods in Valencia were brutal and the club was deeply affected with many fans among those who lost everything including for some their life. Football is not life and death like some might say but it’s an escape and while both Valencian clubs have struggled the last few years the hope is that next year Levante can join their more illustrious neighbours and we will see a return of the Valencian derbi in La Liga to bring the city together in what has been a horrendous year. The question mark is what Levante we will see in La Liga and what Levante will we see if they don’t get promotion.