Valencia captain Jose Gaya admits he wanted former coach Rino Gattuso to succeed.

After a bright start, Gattuso was sacked midway through the season at Los Che.

Gaya recalled to AS: "Football is like that. You link several defeats, you get down and it's hard to get out.

"We all started very excited about Gattuso. We played very well, we had good results at the beginning and until the break for the World Cup we deserved to have more points.

"We dominated the games, although we lacked balance between defence and attack. But the team was excited, I was excited... then came what happened.

"It was something we couldn't see because we didn't expect to see ourselves down there."

He also said: "Obviously right now I don't have that illusion that you have when you face a season in which you are going to compete in the Champions League, but I do have the illusion of one day returning to it with Valencia and for that I will fight."