Thursday 3 December 2015 07:11, UK
Guillem Balague analyses Valencia's "fascinating" decision to appoint Gary Neville as head coach and the challenges he faces at "the most demanding club in the world"...
Why have Valencia chosen Gary Neville?
It is an extraordinarily brave and fascinating decision by Valencia and Peter Lim, the owner of the club. He is absolutely in love with Gary Neville. He feels he is a leader and can communicate very well even though he will have to learn some Spanish or use Phil Neville, who does speak Spanish and has been working hard to do so.
Lim feels that Gary is the perfect man for the job and what an opportunity it is for Gary and Phil Neville at one of the big clubs in Spain.
What a brilliant move for British coaching as well. We are talking about two guys who could have made a career in England at the top end of the scale, instead they are going to go out of their comfort zone, go to Valencia and try to impress and meet the targets of the club, which are at least to make the top four this season.
Why the change at Valencia?
The experiment with previous manager Nuno worked last season because they were only playing in one competition, but now they have been spread more thinly in the Champions League and it's hard to get to where they wanted. Nuno basically resigned a minute before he was sacked so they needed to look for someone else.
Names like Michael Laudrup and Frank Rijkaard were mentioned, but Peter Lim is so in love with Gary Neville and what he brings and he trusts the work that Phil Neville is putting in so much.
Phil is a hands-on coach, speaks Spanish and has completely embraced what Lim is trying to do at Valencia. To bring Gary as well is extraordinary and brave.
What challenges await at the Mestalla?
Valencia is a very particular club. At the beginning of the season they expect to win the league and be at the level of Barcelona and Real Madrid even though financially they are not there and the quality of players are not there. But they feel they can be there, which means the demands on the coach are so huge.
Nuno had not lost a game at home for a year, finished last season with the highest number of points in the history of Valencia and they are still fighting for top four and not out of the Champions League. But every week for the last two weeks it has been 'Nuno go home, Nuno go home'.
The criticism of Nuno was because fans believe the ownership is taking the club away from them, for Gary and Phil it is not going to just be about convincing everybody they have the quality to coach a club like Valencia, but they have to convince everybody that the essence of the club has not moved an inch from what the fans think it is.
It is probably the most demanding place in the world and they didn't even have patience with Unai Emery, who for three years in a row got them third in the league. That didn't feel good enough for them so he was sacked.
What squad will he inherit?
It's a young squad that has been far too often based on business and not the demands of the team. The agent Jorge Mendes has got 10 players in the squad and in a way he was a sporting advisor to Peter Lim.
Once Nuno - who is a part of Jorge Mendes' agency - left then it was very clear that the club and the ownership wanted an approach that has nothing to do with Mendes. They wanted somebody else who had nothing to do with him.
Neville has to use the quality he has in the midfield, the youth and energy and get back the likes of Alvaro Negredo who has been out of the squad for a while. There is enough there to be top four, so good luck to him.
Watch Valencia v Barcelona live on Sky Sports 2 HD on Saturday evening from 7.30pm.
