Facing his first press conference in seven months, the Scottish executive was blunt when asked whether mounting pressure over the club's transfer business had left him considering standing down.
"No voy a dimitir, siento disgustarles" — "I'm not going to resign, sorry to disappoint you" — Gourlay said, adding with a touch of dry humour that supporters expecting otherwise would find "the coffee gets cold" waiting for it.
"I know what's happening inside this club and you don't," he told reporters. "My experience tells me we are moving in the right direction."
Gourlay singled out the signing of Liverpool's Harvey Elliott as the standout piece of business from the window, describing it as the final piece of a puzzle built around long-term fits rather than short-term fixes.
"We had to carefully study player profiles, the pieces that would fit perfectly," he said. "Nobody was going to arrive who wasn't going to stay with the team long-term. Given the constraints of Financial Fair Play, the last piece of the puzzle was Harvey Elliott's arrival — he's a player of real quality, with experience, and he's going to show the ambition needed to play a big role, to help the team, the dressing room, and create chances for the forwards."
The 62-year-old, who took charge of Valencia's football operations in May 2025 after previous spells running Chelsea, West Bromwich Albion and Reading, also gave his full backing to head coach Carlos Corberán, whose position has come under scrutiny following a difficult start to the season.
"We believe Corberán is the right person to lead this team forward," Gourlay said. "There is a huge amount of pressure, but in moments like this you need stability." He pointed to the club's near miss on European qualification last season — Valencia finished ninth, level on points with the continental places — as evidence the project was heading in the right direction despite this term's stumbles.
On the club's wider recruitment strategy, Gourlay noted that 23 transfer operations had been completed since his arrival, including deals he described as "top" signings, while acknowledging that a squad reshaped so heavily needed time to gel.
Nine players left last summer and eight arrived, he said, with form improving markedly in the second half of last season once the new arrivals settled — a run that yielded 32 points and very nearly secured European football.
Gourlay's press conference comes just days before a testing fixture at Mestalla against Barcelona on Sunday, an early test of whether his faith in Corberán and the current squad is well placed. Pressure has been building since the window closed, with sections of the fanbase questioning why the club moved so late for Elliott and let two other targets, Marvin Ducksch and Etta Eyong, slip away without direct contact ever being made.