Neville looks to be a good fit for Valencia job

Gary Neville was a Treble winner for Manchester United when he stepped out on to Mestalla’s pitch for the first time in December 1999. He got a good view of the club Valencia then.

Tomorrow night (Thursday morning, Singapore time), Neville will be there in the Champions League again, not as an opponent of the Spanish side this time, but as their new coach. The 40-year-old former defender will be back on the pitch he had shared with Los Che nearly 20 years ago, but both have inhabited different worlds since.

Valencia reached the Champions League final that season and then did the same the next year. They won neither, but their climb to the European summit was good while it lasted. It just did not last long.

Rafael Benitez was replaced by a procession of coaches after delivering a pair of La Liga titles but Valencia never did achieve such heights again. Nuno Espirito Santo became the latest in a long list of coaching casualties at Mestalla where former players and staff reminisce of crushing pressures.

Neville, meanwhile, went on to play for United for 12 more years before becoming England’s prince of punditry after retirement. Famed for his distinct cutting-edge analyses, it was last week when the surprise call to be Nuno’s successor came.

“If I turned down this job, I could have said goodbye to credibility in football because it’s a massive club,” he declared. At the weekend he was at the stadium not yet as Valencia’s coach, but a guest, watching on from behind glass barriers as his side-to-be held Barcelona 1-1.

His younger brother, Phil, had arrived before him as Nuno’s assistant and then effectively served as his placeholder in the dugout. The elder Neville waited his turn, casting the same analytical eye that served him so well as a television commentator on his new team’s display at the weekend.

And, even if the only conclusion that could be drawn from a match in which Valencia were missing Diego Alves, Shkodran Mustafi, Andre Gomes and Sofiane Feghouli was that there was none to be drawn, forcing the Treble winners to a draw was still greeted like a win.

By the final whistle, Mestalla felt vibrant and bustling again. Valencia was awash again with an enthusiasm that had vanished when Nuno began losing the dressing room and the support of fans before really losing games.

Overnight, the club are looking forward to their season again, the one thing seemingly better than having a Neville on the bench is having two. From the inside, the sense is that this is an arrangement that could be made to work given time. He is the friendly face at the front of an unfriendly season.

Yet it seems far too optimistic when such hope is laid on a manager who has not learnt the language nor ever been in a football setting outside of England; when he has not yet been exposed to the hidden hierarchies within the club; when he is yet to take charge of a single game; and when he has yet to ever manage a big club — or any club, for that matter.

Consider how relatively prepared coaches have had their CVs damaged taking up the poisoned chalice — Ronald Koeman revealed the Valencia job “was extremely complicated, nothing worked” while Unai Emery was sacked despite taking them to three third-placed La Liga finishes in a row prior to winning consecutive Europa League trophies at Sevilla.

Nuno was axed despite delivering Champions League football. The Portuguese became embroiled in a game of politics, emerging as the visible target in an uneasy truce between owner Peter Lim, the expanding influence of super agent Jorge Mendes and the fans.

Now thrown into a continental coaching culture with an emphasis on many more hours spent devoted to tactics on the training pitch rather than the British model of management, Neville underlined he “would question it (his own appointment)as a neutral observer and would be sceptical”. But in his admission is a directness and an openness that listeners admire.

Despite the new trainer’s lofty standing in world football, there is no show, no arrogance, and every word has been convincing. Neville has focused on assuring that even though he is coming to teach, he will also learn.

“I’m not going to insult Valencia by telling them I’m coming over here and playing football like Manchester United,” he had said.

The message is that as a foreigner, he will respect the position’s sensibilities. There will always be doubts, but the Englishman has earned himself the time to address them. Certainly, the rising star’s ideas and concepts, ahead of their time, make him anything if not a second-wave pioneer of Anglo-Saxon coaches working abroad.

If there is one whose personality, intelligence, commitment, work rate and desire to make a difference could guide the club to its seasonal objectives, fans see him in Neville.

There is opportunity here after Nuno’s reign sank Valencia into mediocrity. How things that were once imperfect may prove perfect here. It will not be hard to spot improvement clearly bearing Neville’s mark.

Brought back in from the cold, Rodrigo De Paul and Danilo played against Barcelona like their lives depended on it. And that is just a start. There is quality throughout the side — certainly more than in a mid-table Premier League side that might have come calling for the budding coach. Enough, that nothing more major than several tweaks may be required.

Many also recognise that if he is as thorough in his adaptation as he is at his work — if Neville the coach proves as prepared as Neville the pundit and Neville the player — then the depth of his knowledge will not just enhance his personal reputation, but boost the club’s fortunes, and their profile and worldwide appeal.

A two-time Champions League winner with United, Neville’s past as a player of international calibre has ensured respect from his troops.

Tonight’s crucial must-win Champions League Group H tie with Lyon could be a perfect opportunity to kickstart the Neville revolution.

About the author:

The writer is a freelance football journalist who follows the European leagues closely and writes for several websites.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE ON TV:

Tomorrow:

Olympiakos v Arsenal (SingTel Ch111 and StarHub Ch203; 3.40am)

Bayer Leverkusen v Barcelona (StarHub Ch202; 3.40am)

Chelsea v Porto (Ch112 and Ch212; 3.45am)