I’m going to take Gary Neville’s new side Valencia +2 and hope that the hostile atmosphere of the Mestalla along with a new manager inspire Valencia to a terrific performance. But my responsibility in these next few weeks is to appraise the players as quickly as possible, and to pick the best system and style of play that suits us to win matches straight away.
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Neville spoke to Rashad as part of the FBB Schools programme at the Archbishop Lanfranc Academy in Croydon. You can never imagine what it is to be a player, and then a manager. Neville’s only option was to simply want it more.
Press Association Sport understands the United board will be happy to sanction more spending by Van Gaal in the January transfer window, although as the Dutchman has conceded himself, it will be hard to land all the club’s top targets. This firmly put him in the hearts of the United faithful and there was no doubt he deserved to be there.
“It’s important to control the passion of the fans”.
“I know the business we are in”. He has his UEFA A and B licenses and 3 years of coaching with England under his belt.
‘We can try to adjust certain things but players also watch football, they know what they are up against, ‘ he said. A TV show about the purchase followed and there appears to be a lot of ambition to turn the club into a professional team. He said he had previously turned down other positions in football but that, after four years talking about managers on television, it was time to get off the sofa and prove he could be a manager, too.
Regular readers of this column will recall that, only last month, I thought the Football Association should be lining up Neville to take over from Roy Hodgson after next summer’s Euro 2016 finals.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has warned Gary Neville that the transition from Sky Sports analyst to Valencia manager will not be an easy one, adding “you can not stop the video, touch the screen and make movements happen”.
As for the Sir Alex Ferguson influence, Neville was realistic…
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“It made me think I need to communicate – so I did lessons two, three times a week and I was fluent after six months”. It was frustrating to be kept out of matches with an injury for the first time of my senior career, but I really enjoy being back.
