Modern football clubs need to move at speed in the transfer market, striking on several fronts simultaneously before rivals move first. It is a lesson Valencia appear to have learned only after a summer of frustration.
Gourlay, who was dismissed alongside head coach Carlos Corberan this week following a winless start to the season, was the club's sole point of contact for finalising deals in the closing stages of negotiations. According to sources close to the situation, his approach of running talks one at a time, rather than in parallel, left Valencia consistently a step behind their competitors in the market.
The Scot had reportedly hoped that offering up his own technical secretary for dismissal earlier in proceedings might be enough to save his own position, but the strategy failed to convince the Lim family of his suitability to continue in the role he had held since December 2024.
What stood out most about Valencia's summer business, according to sources, was not simply the outcome of individual deals but how long they took to resolve. Rather than running several operations in tandem, as most modern clubs do, Valencia's dealings were handled sequentially: one target pursued to conclusion, successful or not, before turning to the next.
That approach, sources suggest, is no longer viable in a transfer market that increasingly rewards clubs capable of juggling multiple negotiations at once. Working within a limited budget set by the club's ownership in Singapore, Valencia had identified a list of targets who fit tightly within their financial constraints, including full-back Arnau Martinez. But even where agreements were eventually reached, the process dragged on far longer than at rival clubs.
The knock-on effect, sources close to the club believe, was a stagnant transfer window that left Valencia short in key areas heading into the new season, compounding a wider breakdown in the club's football department that ultimately convinced the Lim ownership to remove Gourlay regardless of the financial cost involved in doing so at this stage of the campaign.