La Liga side Valencia fans are continuing to "protest over how the club is being run" by Owner Peter Lim, according to Darío Puig of MARCA. Gathering outside the stadium before the team's last-16 Copa del Rey first leg with Celta Vigo, "Lim go home" was written on a large banner as the supporters, "mainly from the Curva Nord section of the fanbase, made clear their intent against the owner." Additional signs and calls "were made in protest" of Valencia President Lay Hoon Chan and Sporting Dir Jesús García Pitarch. The demonstration comes in the wake of Manager Cesare Prandelli's resignation (MARCA, 1/3). The AFP reported Lim's takeover in '14 was "supposed to herald a new era for Valencia after years of financial hardship." Lim's millions and connections to Portuguese agent Jorge Mendes "promised to clear the club's vast debt, complete the move to a new stadium and offer the financial muscle needed to compete for trophies." Instead, his reign has "overseen a collapse in standards graver than any Valencia fan could have ever imagined." After saving "most of their wrath for the players" in recent months, the fans "turned decisively on Lim -- who very rarely attends games in Spain -- on Wednesday, calling for him to sell the club." Mendes "has been central to Valencia's recruitment in recent seasons, but has served up a series of expensive mistakes." Eliaquim Mangala and Ezequiel Garay, both represented by Mendes, were brought in just before the transfer deadline at the start of the season because two of the Portuguese's other clients, Aymen Abdennour and Rúben Vezo, now on loan at Granada, "failed to make the grade" (AFP, 1/4).
