It’s strange how things pan out sometimes. December 2015, Gary Neville is announced as Valencia manager with no managerial experience whatsoever, I was in the minority who genuinely thought he would succeed and I was all for it, there is a distinct lack of top English managers and it could have been a great platform for one to be created. From where I was standing, it was a model pro who was one of the dressing room leaders in arguably the best British club side of all time and had a great grounding as a coach in the national setup working under a vastly experienced manager with success on the continent, why couldn’t he succeed?
Prior to this, Neville juggled his time between being the most interesting pundit on sky, coaching England, running several successful businesses including Hotel Football opposite Old Trafford and being a widely publicised co-owner of non-league Salford City alongside others from the decorated ‘class of 92’ and Singaporean businessman Peter Lim, strangely, it was this working relationship that led to him getting the Valencia job.
Peter Lim, as it happens, was and still is the owner of Valencia CF. With Valencia languishing in mid table nearly half way through the season, Lim asked Neville to take the reins until the end of the season and with minimal knowledge of the league, a lack of ability to speak Spanish and an inexperienced backroom staff in place, Neville took the role in what he himself said was the only decision he’s ever rushed into.
It was a bold move; Neville had already turned down several Premier League and Championship roles after vowing never to become a club manager, despite having the credentials on paper to become largely successful, I can only guess that he saw it as a favour for a friend.
He is very open about what went wrong; one of the key things stated by him is the language barrier. He has said in several interviews that he had struggled to get instructions across to players and his players have since stated that they didn’t really know what they were supposed to be doing at times. Regret was expressed that an experienced Spanish coach wasn’t appointed to work alongside him who could speak Spanish and English and help bridge that gap between the players. Former Rafa Benitez disciple Pako Ayestarán was eventually drafted in in February 2016 but by this point it was a divided and unhappy dressing room.
The dressing room atmosphere was something he didn’t address and in his defence, was already a mess. He never gained the respect of the players and expressed regret that he didn’t clear out some of the players who were causing trouble amongst the squad to force the rest of the team to think about their actions, I’ve seen this with the club side that I follow and that ended in relegation, in essence, if the inmates are running the asylum then you are only going to head in one direction.
He has even been self-critical over his tactical decisions, expressing regret that he wasn’t ambitious enough and showed far too much caution. This was glaringly obvious to Valencia fans used to free flowing attacking football and they roundly booed a decision to substitute Alvaro Negredo for Paco Alcacer in a drab 0-0 result against Celta Vigo, a like for like switch which offered no change of dynamic or increase in attacking intent.
Just on pure numbers, results weren’t good enough. A win wasn’t achieved until 10 games in to his rein (a 2-1 victory over Espanyol) and the result that his time at Valencia will be remembered for, and one that I’d imagine he still gets a lot of stick for to this day, is a 7-0 hammering at the hands of Barcelona, a team that they have bested at times in recent memory.
Gary Neville, Sky Sports, 15/04/2015:
“You see teams go to the Nou Camp and get beat 5, 6, 7-0. Barca are a good side, well they’re a great side, but if I was involved with a team who got beat 7-0 there I wouldn’t be able to look my family in the eye anymore.”
The internet is such that one person can vaguely remember a quote from months before and within hours you can become a laughing stock. Neville had uttered this while working for Sky months before he took the Valencia job, it really didn’t help and it pretty much went viral after the Barcelona defeat both here and in Spain.
After winning only 3 of his 16 league games, Neville was relieved of his duties by his friend Peter Lim on March 30th 2016, leaving a European giant in 14th, only 6 points clear of relegation.
You really can’t argue with the sacking, those stats aren’t good enough, I do however; find Neville’s comments that he will never manage again rather disappointing. In my view it was the wrong job at the wrong time for him and it doesn’t mean he’s a bad manager, I wish he would reconsider because I do feel given time that he has the potential to be very successful.
False 9 