Former Manchester United defender is not planning to manage any football club in the next five years. Valencia could be even his last attempt at coaching.
Gary Neville spent last season four months in La Liga as the coach of Valencia, but after 3 wins in 16 matches, the Spanish club terminated his contract. Neville also left the England national team after the failure on the Euro 2016 when England was surprisingly eliminated in the round of 16 by the outsiders from Iceland.
Neville has several offers of work related to football and non-football, including joint ownership of non-league club Salford City and shares in a number of property developments.
In an interview with Sky Sports, he said that he currently focuses on those projects and wants them to succeed. He still thinks “never say never”, but return to the coaching of the football club will not be so early because of the commitments in several projects. Frankly, in fact, he does not want to return.
He became manager of Valencia in December last year and ended in March after he left the club six points above the relegation zone. Traditional Spanish club, who is currently led by Pako Ayesteran had since 2012 already 8 managers, Neville, however, refuses to make excuses to external factors and admits his part in part of the failure. Personally, he takes it as a positive experience in professional and personal life. The big problem was a language barrier, which has not diminished even after 4 Spanish lessons per week. A chance to manage the club like Valencia but does not come every day and therefore at that time he did not hesitate to take it.
Neville has spent four years under Roy Hodgson and in that time he learned that football clubs can judge the failure relatively quickly. Young coaches should not be judged only on the basis of a series of wins and losses because they are people and they are changing constantly. The English Football Association, FA, currently troubleshoots poor performance of the national team at major tournaments. Neville says that long-term model is needed for improvement model adds successful examples – Netherlands, Ajax, and Barcelona. England began its journey to the World Cup in 2020 in Russia successfully after 1-0 win over Slovakia. Only time will tell if the England found their model under Sam Allardyce.
source: skysports.com, foto: Flickr.com/University of Salford Press Office