Valencia has a new manager, not that there’s much surprise in that. Since Rafa Benitez left the club as La Liga champions in 2004, 12 coaches have come and gone in the intervening 11 years, delivering a solitary piece of silverware (the 2008 Copa del Rey) between them.
The identity of the new man in charge at the Mestalla, however, has most certainly raised eyebrows. Former Manchester United and England defender Gary Neville has agreed to hold the reigns in Spain until the end of the season, alongside his existing role as Roy Hodgson’s assistant with England. It’s his first managerial/head coach appointment, and he’ll be joining his younger brother Phil in Spain’s third largest city.
So why, like a well-known fictional news anchor, is this kind of a big deal? Simply put, because we’re about to find out whether Gary Neville can live up to the hype. You see, despite having never previously managed a top-flight club, Neville is currently the bookmaker’s favorite to be the next manager of both England and Manchester United.
How has this happened?
Since retiring as a player, Gary Neville has built himself a reputation as one of England’s finest football commentators and experts, with journalist Graham Hunter going so far as to say that Neville has "changed the landscape of football in Britain with the brilliance of his analysis". UK cable channel Sky Sports paid him a reported $1.8 million a year to bolster their Premier League coverage with his mid-match insights and post-game analysis, a salary and role Neville has forgone with his move to Spain. His eloquent, intelligent critiques of the English domestic game, combined with his experience and success as a player at the highest level, have convinced many that Neville is a man set for bigger things, notably inside his old stomping grounds Wembley Stadium and Old Trafford.
But, like the budgie, talk is cheap. Managerial chops aren’t forged on well-lit, artistically back-dropped sofas, but on training grounds, in dressing rooms, at pitch-side. It’s why breathtakingly mediocre former players such as Robbies Earle and Mustoe get paid to pontificate on NBC Sports, but would never in a million years be charged with successfully steering a top-flight club.
Neville knows that, of course. But it doesn't make his move to Valencia any less risky. Certainly part of Neville’s authority as a commentator and analyst stems from the fact that he is a very successful former player. But equally, his words carry greater weight by dint of the fact that he is not a failed former manager.
At least, not yet.
That Neville has even taken the Valencia job is an indication of both his commitment to the game and his long-term aspirations. By joining Los Che, Neville has exchanged the safe, cozy and well-remunerated world of punditry for the haphazard cut-and-thrust of football management, at a very unstable club and in a country where he’s never previously lived. He'll be asking players who don't necessarily know his reputation to follow his instruction and buy into his ethos, all in a language he doesn't yet speak.
All of which makes the next six months a high stakes, zero-sum game. If Neville proves himself within that short window, and under such circumstances, then the current 4/1 odds on him being the next England or Manchester United manager will shorten further. If he fails, not only will his managerial aspirations be severely dented, he’ll also never enjoy the same media career again: every analysis and tactical insight tainted by the knowledge that Gary Neville couldn’t cut it as a manager.
