Gary Neville to Valencia: Spanish fans will give latest coach little time to bed in
The Mestalla is a tough place to manage as Premier League coaches Quique Sanchez Flores, Ronald Koeman and Claudio Ranieri will all testify
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Your support makes all the difference.Gary Neville will be given a warmer welcome at Valencia than his predecessor. Outgoing coach Nuno Espirito Santo was whistled when he was presented to supporters at the start of the season.
No wonder he felt that after eight defeats in 19 games, and with just five points picked up in the Champions League with one game left to play, he had to walk away – the 14th coach to leave the club in the last 15 years.
Valencia is a tough place to manage. Premier League coaches Quique Sanchez Flores, Ronald Koeman and Claudio Ranieri will all vouch for that, as will Rafa Benitez the last manager to give them a league title, not that they every really warmed to him despite his achievement of winning La Liga in 2002 and 2004.
Hopes were high at the start of the season. The club had got back into the Champions League and with Singapore billionaire Peter Lim’s fortune and Jorge Mendes’ working of the transfer market behind them what could go wrong?
They were not counting on a civil war of sorts breaking out when the club’s president, Amadeo Salvo, was replaced by Lim’s trusted associate Lay Hoon Chan, a corporate investment expert, also from Singapore.
The sporting director and former player Francisco Rufete also left the club as did chief scout and Valencia legend Roberto Ayala. Supporters begrudged what they saw as the breaking of ties with the old Valencia.
An exciting summer in the transfer market would have changed the mood but it was not forthcoming. Manchester City bought Nicolas Otamendi from them in August and although Eliaquim Mangala was at first promised in his place, the 24-year-old French defender declined the chance to move from the Etiahd.
The defence was further weakened by long term injuries to keeper Diego Alves and central defender Shkodran Mustafi. And up-front the club were obliged to sign Alvaro Negredo – the forward who had unimpressed on loan from Manchester City the previous season. The 19-year-old Celta Vigo forward Santi Mina – a Mendes player full of potential but not much use in the here and now – also arrived and has played only a minor part to date.
In the long-term, and if results are not good, then Neville will suffer the same fate as Nuno and be seen as another of the outsiders who is at the club because he is a friend of the owner and not on merit.
On Wednesday he was being lauded for those 85 England caps and 20 domestic trophies won. Images of him overseeing England’s 100 per cent win ratio in European Championship qualifying campaign alongside Roy Hodgson were also being played on a loop during every sports bulletin.
He has dodged his first bullet by deciding not to take charge of Saturday’s home game against Barcelona. On current form Valencia will struggle against the twin threat of Neymar, Leo Messi and Luis Suarez.
Four days later he will take the hot seat for the visit of Lyon in the Champions League, a game Valenica must win – and then hope Zenit St Petersburg beat Ghent – to send them through to the knockout stages of the competition.
Nuno had given up the ghost already. Phil Neville, the assistant already in place, knew on Sunday night following Valenica’s 1-0 defeat to Seville that that was likely to be the Portuguese’s last game in charge. He also knew that without his Uefa coaching badges he would not be able to replace him.
Now he is joined by his brother as they try to restore confidence in a squad that had grown tired of Nuno’s distant management style and failure to offer his players the tactical solutions they need in what is a fiercely competitive league.
Last season the Scottish coach, Ian Cathro, played a huge role on the training ground before leaving to join Steve McClaren at Newcastle United. The players have missed that proactive approach.
There is young talent to work with – 22-year-old Paco Alcacer has broken into the Spain team recently and 20-year-old left-back Jose Gaya is wanted by Real Madrid. Once Negredo comes back from a recent operation on his appendix he will be welcomed back into the fold and the Nevilles may even pair him with Alcacer – something Nuno rarely did.
Elsewhere, the sooner Mustafi and Alves return to full fitness and the January transfer window opens the better. Finishing the side in the top four will almost certainly mean the England pair are offered the job full-time.
If Neville succeeds in his first managerial job it will be a significant achievement. It has been a long time since England produced a great coach. Neville has long been tipped as someone who might buck the trend.
Bobby Robson and Terry Venables were perhaps the last leading English managers to earn the respect of European football. Both ventured into La Liga but only after considerable domestic success. Neville is diving headfirst into the unknown. They will be unforgiving in Valencia if he does not succeed.
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