Garry and Phil continue to struggle at the Mestalla
When the Valencia owner and Salford City shareholder
Peter Lim called Garry Neville to offer him the chance to manage one of the
biggest clubs in Spain, he admitted it was too good an opportunity to turn
down. After all it’s not every day someone with absolutely no hands on
experience in football management is asked to take charge of a club of such magnitude.
Although
Neville said publicly it was too good a chance to turn down, and that he
didn’t think twice about the opportunity to join his brother Phil in Spain, I
have no doubt he know the risks and obstacles that makes the job so very difficult.
Firstly the language barrier; a hurdle that he must have been confident of overcoming,
having seen Phil become fairly fluent in just 7 months since taking up the
assistant manger’s role alongside Nuno Santo. Then the task of motivating a
group of players languishing in mid-table, vastly underachieving when
considering their quality, experience, and considerable wages; but above all
these challenges, the political issues at Valencia that seem deeply set in the
core of a club that has systemic political problems, rotten from the inside out,
was the biggest of all. The fans will need to be once again brought onside at Valencia
after a loss of trust of and patience with the owner and former coach Santo,
who from their point of view had an unhealthy relationship with the super-agent
Jorge Mendes (During Santo and Lim’s time at the Mestalla many of Mendes
clients have joined for considerable transfer fees creating suspicion and unrest
among the fans).
As each week passes,
watching Neville desperately trying to secure his first La Liga win and having
seen the first signs of white handkerchiefs being waved on Sunday in the home
game against Sporting Gijon, the trip to Real Betis could be make or break! I’ll
certainly be tuning in on Sunday afternoon. Surely he’s going to have to turn
things around starting this weekend if he has any chance of survival and
success in Spain.
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