It could all have been so different. When Gary Neville turned up at Valencia there were inevitable doubts. A Manchester United legend, Neville had no managerial experience, didn’t speak Spanish, and hadn’t even played in La Liga.
The regional and national media in Spain were understandably sceptical, but they bought into it. The idea of Neville being an expert on Monday Night Football was exported to Spain and somewhat accepted, the Englishman was to be given a chance.
When the Spanish media started to refer to Neville as simply Gary, everything looked rosy. Riding in on a horse from England’s North West, there was a potential saviour.
Of course, it didn’t work out like that and Neville’s stay at Valencia was short lived and memorable only for its oddness.
Spanish newspaper Marca get to the point in an article on Tuesday, and say Neville’s arrival at Valencia was a sure sign doom was on the way. It’s stated that when the club’s owner Peter Lim used his ‘golden smartphone’ and called Neville ‘Valencia began to die’.
‘When Peter found Gary, everything changed’ say Marca and point out that it wasn’t simply because Lim was appointing a friend and business associate, someone without experience. By picking up the telephone and calling a pal in, Lim gave the wider club a feeling of abandonment.
Here’s one of the grand teams of Spain, with historically the fourth biggest budget, chancing their management on a business associate of the owner who has no experience and no obvious credentials to do the job.
Marca’s suggestion is clearly that Lim was either reckless or clueless, or perhaps both. And since then ‘the disease has spread’ with Valencia on 12 points from 14 games, and in a very real relegation battle.
When Peter found Gary… Perhaps he also lost a part of Valencia.
