New full-time Valencia coach Pako Ayestaran called for everyone at the club to get behind their new project as he was presented on a two-year contract at Mestalla on Tuesday evening.
Ayestaran steps up from the caretaker role he assumed when replacing Gary Neville as coach in late March, after he had just six weeks earlier joined the club as an assistant when Neville was floundering in his first managerial job.
The former Valencia and Liverpool assistant coach, who was also in charge more recently at Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv and Mexican club Santos Laguna, steadied the ship following Neville's exit and guided the team to a safe mid-table finish.
A club statement announcing the news was followed by a news conference at which the Basque coach, 53, said that all at Valencia should pull together now as changes will head the team in the right direction.
"I identify totally with the club, with its values and way of doing things," Ayestaran said. "It is important that we are all together and we want to create a project which Valencianismo will recognise. This is an important process of transformation and we aim to break down barriers. I am sure that the team will respond to what we ask."
The relatively low-profile Ayestaran gets the job full-time as Valencia figures, including sporting director Suso Garcia Pitarch and president Layhoon Chan, have talked about cutting costs at the club. There is also speculation about the futures of saleable players such as midfielders Andre Gomes and Enzo Perez.
CLUB | @PakoAyestaran, presented as #VCF coach until 2018➡https://t.co/eU57SlQJpc pic.twitter.com/fG6VqQOR2a
- Valencia CF English (@valenciacf_en) May 24, 2016
"This is a new project, we are working already on the 2016-17 season and the basis for a future which I expect to be successful," Ayestaran said. "The demands of ambition, respect and professionalism at Valencia from this day forward will be very high. The fans should be excited, they should believe in this project, believing generates confidence and confidence generates determination. We all want a great Valencia CF."
Pitarch, who joined the club during Neville's unfortunate four months in charge, also spoke to the media -- and said that the decision to stick with a coach who had proven himself in a short space of time [winning three of his eight La Liga games] showed that the club was aiming for the type of stability which had worked well for fellow clubs such as Atletico Madrid or Sevilla.
"[Ayestaran] brings together everything we were looking for -- he has the ability the knowledge and the commitment," Pitarch said. "We trust in him as he arrived in the worst moment of the season and has fulfilled what we asked of him.
"He deserves to continue in the job. In recent years there have been many changes of coach [at Valencia], we made decisions too quickly and looked at the league table every Sunday evening.
"Our competitors have much more stability and we must learn from them. Valencia have had some intense recent seasons, difficult, and values have been lost. We must return to the path of commitment and respect for our history and traditions."