da wazamba： When Gary Neville walked through the doors of Valencia on the in December, many thought that this was going to be the start of something beautiful. Gary was getting to work with brother Phil again, and it looked like it could’ve been the start of one of the greatest management teams ever.
da spicy bet： However, one month down the line everybody has been brought back down with a bump, and Valencia currently sit in 11th, 16 points off the top four, which begs the question: Did Neville jump in the deep end too soon at Valencia?
Before taking the job, Neville was of course one of the best pundits for Sky Sporrs, and had been a coach in Roy Hodgson’s England set up. Neville himself said that he was not ready for management.
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Now though, he is looking very much like he has been put in the deep end by his brother feeding him ill-conceived information, inviting him into an establishment when neither is fully prepared for the big job.
It could partly be down to the fact Spanish football this season is more competitive than ever, with more teams taking points off the big boys like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. With the club in debt, it has meant stars such as Otamendi, Soldado, Mathieu, Silva, Villa and Mata have all been sold on over the years. The club is great at developing world class talent for the Spanish national team, but they never get to benefit from it for long. Though with acquisitions like Abdennour, Negredo, Perez and Cancelo, they should be aiming higher than they currently are.
In La Liga, Neville’s Valencia have not won a single game yet since he took the hot seat, which highlights just how frustrating this tenure has been thus far. This is mainly down to having such an imbalanced squad, with a lot of the players, according to Balque, ‘too scared to play in front of their home fans’.
With Neville experiencing management for the first time, the players need to do more to ease his transition from coach to manager. The performances have not been down to a lack of passion, with Neville being animated on the touchline in their most recent match away to Deportivo. It is only a matter of time before Neville experiences his first win in the league, but until then the frustrations continue to boil over.
Yet in the Copa Del Rey it has been a completely different story, with Valencia winning three matches under Neville, and just one win away on Thursday to actually getting through to the semi-finals. In reality, the success in the cup is probably the only positive thing Neville can take, and it is a timely distraction from the poor league form. Should Valencia get through to the final, it could completely change the way people look back on Neville’s reign.
With a home match to Sporting Gijon, who have also struggled for consistency this season, it could become the perfect opportunity for Neville and this Valencia team to finally register that elusive league victory. With world-class strikers like Alcacer and Negredo, they really should be firing Neville and this team to glory.
Their best hope now would be to get a Europa League spot, or win the cup to get in Europe, in order for Neville’s reign to look successful.
Lets not forget that he took the jump to a very risky job he didn’t know much about, and the fact its his first managerial role shows his guts. The only reason he was chosen is because Valencia’s owners also owns Salford, so it is not entirely his fault for being under qualified at such a big club.
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