Gary Neville opens up on his time at Valencia & explains why he'll never coach again | Off Script

Gary how are you are you missing me at this difficult time yeah sometimes complain and wind on the way to matches joint you've got a drive three or four hours like Norwich oh well did you say sometimes no I mean you do don't you some you've got those long five hours or you've got the trains that sort of a you know ten o'clock at night that get back in half one in the morning and you think oh you're out done too sometimes you feel like the world can sure and then you're in moments like this and you just realize that you you do anything to be back on the road watching football and doing normal things it's a it is unbelievable this one of the very few upsides of this though because everybody is in the same boat as us we can't go into the studios now we can't broadcast in a normal way is you get great snoop around people's houses when you're on skype in I'm lugging the Dacor you got this baby bear we've gone in the background well she got there well those pictures of me I mean people people mole people might not know this probably don't know this hours well do believe I was single I think I was single a single in Manchester from the age of about 26 to 29 and I actually went on a massive photography binge in terms of just art and photography I used to just walk out in the afternoon and just loved art work and got into it and collected a lot and I've got I don't know if you can see I should take you around in a bit if I can take you around show you some of the artwork I've act and really proud it's the one thing I've kept with me for 1718 years I never have any artwork of football in my house or souvenirs or memorabilia or anything like that but I do have obviously artwork of I like in photography so it's something that I actually am passionate about I mean I I've been fortunate to be I've been in your house not the you know very very fortunate very fortunate your wife did and outsider people your passions our music and our aren't there and building yeah I love I love I love art work whenever it up in on a holiday wherever I've been in the world I've always bought a piece of art from wherever I've been and it can be a small thing it can be a little sculpture it can be a little drawing it could be a sketch it can be anything and I've always just done it and just always brought it back and hoarded it and just ended up putting up on the walls everywhere and just putting it around places so it's something that I am passionate about yeah yep a nice Spanish donkey my living room now what if during these seriously difficult time have you got have you got trophies on your back shelf there what are they for them I'm a I've got I've got a couple of my favorite books or a few of my favorite books there I think Alan Smith have got heads up book my soui and the book by Kara yes interesting reading have you a vinyl collection there at the bottom as well yeah you see that yeah you know I do like the vinyl so people that's it that takes me better than just soft you don't go most the referee did you know Joe mob the referee he's got a varnish up in Leeds called the vinyl count their big vinyl man John I didn't know that but I do remember when I was younger on the Sunday afternoon that we'd go into the front room we had the bass they lived in a a two-up two-down Terrace and we lived in the backroom of suits the kitchen dining and then in the front room which we'd never go and we only go in on Sunday afternoon and and it would be Abba or sure Waddy Waddy basically playing I'm playing on vinyl on a Sunday afternoon with a kennel key that's Kentucky Fried Chicken takeaway which is the only takeaway shop there is at its heart hey simple pleasures some simple pleasures son now I'm not sure I follow the next bit because the producer said that we can't get together so we need a bit of off script from eat something to talk about out because understandably there is the focus is on the important things which is people's health and we're always locked down at moment and by the way once again any joint everybody else fantastic what you and Ryan and your partners have done with hotels brilliant brilliant gesture they need a bit of distraction never see a bit of entertainment I should be okay I get that what we do you and I have done countless into use it should ring him and ask him about his time at Valencia now I can see what I might could have missed a lot of other people but I tell you sure that's gonna lift Gary's spirit I mean as soon as I even say the word Valencia what do you think massive lesson in terms of allowing probably a number of things really one sometimes no is a great word and I think say no to the original offer probably from Peter when he asked me to do it with such obviously short timeframes to react from it and probably thinking that but know that people in your business partner he's your partner of a number of different things and it it was a very different scenario it's not the like a a chairman of the club now ringing you out and say Karen I'd like to speak yeah this is a close personal friend and also a business associate so you've reviewed the request in a completely different fashion to being offered a job in football as it were yeah turned down to Premier League inquiries and two championship inquiries in probably eighteen months before I had no intention to go into management and obviously I was working as a coach and Deroy but I was doing more the video work with Roy and Roy and Ray were doing the coach and I was doing the more analysis type stuff that I was doing on Sky and when Peter rang me I just felt that he'd supported me and the lads didn't obviously Salford in other business ventures and you know he didn't wanna bring a manager in partway through season because he knew that he wouldn't get the manager that he wanted he didn't want to rip the squad or put him cost him a lot he wanted just somebody to navigate him to the end season that he trusted and I said I said no initially I didn't think it was the right thing but then eventually he obviously wanted to do it for him so I think say no and being and sticking to where you are but I think also a little bit of arrogance a little bit of ego I think at that point if you remember I lived through Manchester United - 20 years I've gone to Sky and it had gone well and you feel a little bit unbreakable you feel a little bit sort of in a position where you nothing's gonna go wrong and when you're unprepared you're not working as hard as something as other people are when you take something on that you're not qualified in or not as qualified in as you should be then you get a slap around the face and to be fair when I look back now at some of the decisions that I made the initial decision obviously but then the decisions that are made when I got there it was a massive learning for me I think it's helped me even in the last couple of weeks in respect of what's happened with this crisis in my businesses and in the hotels and the Football Club and now it's far more this fact decisively I now have far more definitely than I've ever acted before because of Valencia where to be fair I fluffed around a few decisions that I should have made and I knew instinctively at the time that should have made big decisions and I didn't do I sort of thought I could get away with it and get it to the end the Seas and then just you know steer the ship home to the sand and let someone else take it back out to sort of see you again but it just never happened like that I got a massive bloody nose what when when you say it was a ego driven and overly confident did you only recognise that in hindsight at the time did you think more hang on you know I'm analyzing football every week I'm analyzing football for Roy Hudson I had a 20 year career one of the biggest clubs in the world a hugely successful time was it a case of thinking Waller I've seen how all the components work can't be that difficult to put it all together and not appreciating the difference between theory and practicality I think there's I think because I've never done it before I underestimated the difference between being a player being a coach under a manager and then being the manager itself I under most underestimated how difficult it would be in a different different league in a different city in a different country and the language barriers I underestimated the size of the job that was actually I was about to take on and it was gonna be difficult because the results weren't great I've been told by my brother who was over there that the dressing room was struggling but there's the scale and size of it the only way I can describe palencia in terms of a sort of hotbed of football it's a little bit like Liverpool it's a little bit like Newcastle it's like a ferocious City in the sense that it's its fans if they've take you in they love you forever but if they don't take you in they're gonna be quite difficult with you quite quickly and I think that the ego in May said that I could handle anything I could do anything I could take anything on that was a confidence that was a belief I had which is good but then you've got to have that perspective and that awareness of I'm gonna suck and am I really up to this have I done this before is this really the first job you're gonna take him football Valencia you don't speak the language you don't know the league you don't know the away ground you don't know the referees you don't know the local media you don't know the national media Europe you're a stranger in a city that to be fair doesn't expect you to come all those things I underestimated and it was my ego that felt I could get through anything and just take it in my stride and that made me probably when I was over there not realise how how difficult it was going to be I don't think I saw the warning signs or the flashing lights quickly enough I think I probably should have seen the warning lights a lot quicker and got in there in crisis mode rather than going I think I can put it right straight away what you look back now can you see what those warning signs were what those flashing lights were well they're obvious mark we think she should have said back to him should have done that she should have done that so once you past the point of course taking the job in the first place that was an emotional decision which in fairness knowing you is not normally you don't normally make an emotional decision okay if we move past that it almost doesn't sound like you because you say you're not people that people don't know you personally you are direct your you are very you can be brutal in the way you normally are so when you say you are flopping around and trying to sort of cajole it along that fella metrically opposed your national character Jeff applaud everything in sort of three and five year back you know exactly what's gonna happen in the next three years next five years what I want to get out of it I've always done the evening football with my career terms of where I wanna be the two instinctive decisions that I've made in my life which are Valencia and opening a nightclub in Manchester which is obviously a very different thing no it didn't Geoff the two the two instinctive decisions that I've made in my in my life in the last seven or eight years since football that have just been instinctive not really a great deal of thought behind it not a specialist in the industry have failed and you sort of after go through those experiences when you sort of make those types of decisions you jump them the planning you haven't done the thinking I've got the right partners on board with you in terms of you obviously going to go into an industry and when I talk about path there's obviously that could be the the the the last thing that the last thing that the staff needed in Valencia was an inexperienced manager the last thing that I needed he was inexperienced staff we just didn't need each other but all the staff are inexperienced as well but when I went over there I went over there thinking that I was gonna put this sort of framework in place for Peter to set him up for next season so I introduced a whole new data capture department with an analyst at a cobra I gave all the players iPads and wanted to sort of revolutionized the the way in which we consumed information I wanted to set up meetings weekly with the sporting director in the Academy Director to ensure that the structures were in place beyond me being there so that the new manager coming in was going to you know I even went to commercial meetings with the club's commercial directors about the club's branding and things like that I wanted to look at it as a business I wasn't there to look after the business I was there to get basically the club the first team results to the end of the see and I just completely approached it in the wrong manner but from her it from a pure point of view I shall do the right things but I never dealt with what my primary role was which was winning football matches quite quickly yeah results results yeah I will say you know to the manager you guys are in the results business I mean the other thing I'm curious there those listening gary is you again you know loads of people again but at that time were you not listening to advice from the wife of Sir Alex and Roy Hodgson and other managers that you know it's interesting so one of the big early mistakes that I made was that a couple of senior players within the first couple of weeks came to me for doctor but not nothing to do with myself one was for wanting to move back to where where his wife's family came from because there were family issues and the other play the other player had been receiving criticism from the fans and they both had very strong influences in the dressing room and they both came to see me within the first couple of weeks and said that they wanted to leave and at the time I was of the opinion look when he trying to get players out and in a January transfer window cuz I went there in sort of mid-december essentially it's gonna be a bit of a fire sale type thing if you get him players out at that time let's try and keep the ship steady to the end of the season and I should have made a couple of really big decisions on players that weren't committed to the club at that point even though they were for the non footballing reasons both of them and I remember speaking to Sir Alex on the way home from training quite early on one day and him saying to me just get rid of them son he said don't even think about it he said protect yourself only have people in the dressing room who are facing the same direction as you and that means you need to get results and why didn't you let him clue him because I went I went home and I went into training the next day and I thought I'm only here for four months these were to Jim when you and I Emory said that he had five captain's where he was a store manager he got criticized for it well every I think every club in Spain or most clubs in Spain our five or six captain so we had five captain's at oh these were two of the captains they were two of the senior players they were good lads they no problem with the most people down obviously individual issues and I tried to talk them round over a period of a week into accepting that let's just stay it to the end of the season at the end of the season there'll be a new manager comes in it'll be a lot more stable you can make a decision in the cold light of day it's a great club so you can sort of get through these next four or five months you're a big part of the squad started to talk to I mean that nature but they weren't happy if you remember there were a couple of other players who've been left out by the previous manager are brought back in and I did what to be fair do you only hear money just come in to a club in the dunes of yields and thousands of these types of interviews Jeff and you hear them at Humana just say look everyone's got a clean slate you start from scratch every one that's had a previous history you know gets pushed away well I adopted that approach but if you look at what yogin clock didn't liver pill with benteke or Johar or happen to Joe Hart with pep guardiola the minute that the minute that manager goes into a club nowadays he's got to get the right people on the bus that arrived for him that arrived for the club that will get him results from he believes will I went I don't think the approach of everyone's got a clean slate anymore it's actually managed haven't got time to be able to give a year to a player to work out whether they're a good a good lad or not or a bad lad or not you just got to be definite and I just an honest I understand exactly what you're saying but there's a big part of me is that here's thinking and I can also hear it in your voice too degree albeit for the right reason in your mind you've ignored one of the greatest founders ever that by did you know I did Jeff I looked at Sir Alex Ferguson in terms of you know I remembered the part of Sir Alex Ferguson that existed at Manchester United where he was incredibly loyal and kept a lot of players at the club for 10 years 15 years eight years I forgot the part that basically where he was brutal and he was clinical and made decisions that were at the time he felt right for the club that surprised everybody else on the outside and he on the inside sometimes by players leaving in such a shot you know I always remember sort of mark mark Hughes Andrei Kanchelskis and Paul Ince leave him one summer when we broke through and the kids broke through and it was a there was uproar and that even I was shocked at the time ISM as a player thinking that he'd done that and then obviously there were other players that left over a 10-year period some of them very quickly and and in a short period of time they surprised everybody I almost remembered one pastor Alex Ferguson but didn't remember the other and that day when I heard him speak on the phone do I think I thought to myself or thought well that's the easy for him to say because obviously he had the control and the authority to do that but if I go in tomorrow and get rid of two captains what will that do to the rest of my dressing room and what they do to the rest of the players you like those players will will they think that I'm just coming in here to make a statement and do something that's essentially quiet unpopular season and I went I went weak and I promised myself when I left Valencia that I would never go weak on the big decision again and that would always be definite and I would always be clinical and I'd always act decisively and quickly and that's what Valencia taught me I went weak for a period of 3-4 months where I lost my confidence eventually I'll come on to that in a bit I genuinely lost my confidence I woke up in the morning not wanting to go to training it got to the point where I didn't want to take training sessions I had to handing it over to Paco I eris down and fill it and the other coaches because honestly I felt embarrassed in doing the sessions in broken English where I had to stop with the translator that that had to be translated to the player the player would then come back to translate who then come back to me and I was absolute to be fair losing my own will to live let alone the players who were standing around waiting and in the end I just completely lost my confidence because I just and my whole life I've communicated well I've been able to speak to people well but the idea that I couldn't communicate to people I couldn't get a message across I wasn't naive in the decisions that I was making meant that it just all came on top of me quite quickly we used to bear thinking I can't do this because of the language barrier archive this is not working our Congress all we actually stood there thinking I can't I'm not a football coach I found out and the worst personal circumstances I cannot do this what were you thinking I think both I think I wasn't thinking I couldn't do this because of the speaking language in the sense that I was doing four or five lessons a week but do you know when you've got four months in a job you haven't got time to learn Spanish I ities should not have even I should have put the the Spanish lessons to the backburner and what I should have done was bring in two or three really expects experienced English stroke dual language speaking English language that basically could essentially do the job for me in a 3-4 months I didn't have to there's no chance that I was gonna learn Spanish in four months even though I was trying my best and I was doing everything that I could and it was important that I committed so I took a family over I learned the language but the things that I know the things that I knew before I went over there like I didn't speak the language I didn't know the league I didn't know the away grounds and all the referees I didn't know the media I never looked at those excuses I knew those before I took the job what I would say is in terms of did I think I wasn't a good coach what I would say is if I went into a coaching role in the future which will never happen but if I was to I would go in there with the best in class coaches to what I do feel I can do is communicate to people and see a football match and understand the football match but the ability to coach a football team of 20 a football squad of 22 players requires hundreds of hours of practice on the grass and I didn't have the hundreds of hundreds of hours of practice on the grass behind me to be a football player at Manchester United to twenty years and practice for thousands of hours playing fullback and Platt practice it being defender being it being able to pass the ball to think then I could go and be a coach having not done any hours on the grass because I wasn't doing that with Roy Hodgson I was only doing the video analysis work mainly that was just completely not a naivety in arrogance I needed to bring in three or four you know I had one or two already that were there but I needed to bring in probably a couple of others real specialists in coaching football teams to a philosophy that I wanted and that's what I think Steven Gerrard's done Rangers I think he's brought in really good quality coaches in around him all the good soldiers but they're at Manchester United Ryan Giggs have seen the obviously I know was doing it with Wales if you bring good high-quality yeah look and say look no further than the example was in front lead for 20 years he didn't do that much the coke typically no swirlix never didn't either coaching on the grass but he had fantastic coaches in Brian case Steve McClaren Jim Ryan mcfillin Rennie Mullins Dean Carlos Queiroz and they were the changing element of the Sir Alex Ferguson era but they were all brilliant on the grass now from that point of view I I went over there and in Spain the coach goes onto the field the coach goes on to the coaching pitch on the training pitch and he does the sessions so I felt that I had to go on the training pitch and do the sessions and again I should have just stuck to what I knew which was I can read a game I can deal with people let other people coach the team and do the sessions and me pick up even if they had to do the actual some of the team talks and the video analysis because obviously there was communicating the language I couldn't or don't I do generally believe the players liked me and the players wanted to do well for me I don't think I lost the dressing room as such in terms of me as a person I think I lost the dressing room maybe in the quality of the training sessions that I put on the communication skills and that maybe then just wore them out a little bit and I think ultimately it was just not setting you up it was not setting it up right when I went there straight away it was not understanding where my pitfalls were going to be and where my weaknesses were which every other part of my life you know the reason I used to give the ball to you know David Beckham ah Cristiano Ronaldo's is because they were better on it than me I understood well I was a football player I was a server I should have played the roles as a cold strong manager that I could play at that time and I didn't do I tried to basically do everything and it was just naive of me really there was the Real Madrid game early on where we could have won it in the last minute there was a one-on-one Rafa Benitez was manager of Real Madrid II I think he actually lost his job the next day believe it or not but that was an amazing night that we drew to - the atmosphere was incredible it was out of this world in terms of been on the you're seeing Chrystia Carrie if they're not part there they're not part of you and I understand you and you have been very honest about it but is there a part of you that is proud the unit managed against Real Madrid no I never think of em I've never think about anything that I've done and felt proud about it absolutely what I remember about that game is that that obviously we were struggling in the league and Real Madrid were absolutely outstanding the unbale Cristiano Ronaldo and all the other sort of great players and we left the grass really long on the pitch so that the ball wouldn't travel very quick and we didn't water it either and I remember Cristiano coming over to me honestly this is a true story came over to him before the game he said Gaza Gaza a disgrace they said he's cut the pitch cut the pitch I said you've no chance of occurring the honestly it was like a farmer's field honestly it was we left it that long there's not there was no way he was dribbling that night and he but Joseph it at that point I had to thought was that's in the players heads and it's in cristianos heads that before the game this was I thought that they're not that young I always knew when we were distracted before a game a be United the up time where we thought maybe I remember once at Bradford that the dressing rooms were big enough and we all went house and it would but it was boiling hot we all went outside into the corridor before the game about an hour before just sat in the corridor and what we were selling Bradford word that the changing room wasn't good enough so it probably lifted them a little bit and I suppose that message from Cristiano that behind gave me a little bit of a hole but then there was another period partway through where I think we went I think we won three games and drew - I think we were like a little on beat around including cup games and we got the first league win and I thought here we go we've got it now we'll go on a good run that was a period where I felt as though we were starting to get their descent the Packer would come in the training sessions it started to become a lot more yah with film would have become a lot more smooth the communication had become a lot more smooth the players seemed to be responding a little bit the new that we've done quite a lot of fitness work with them in the early days and we were trying to get them fit there were quite a lot of injuries at the time when I first joined and the players were coming back from injury and we're starting to get quite good and I could see the bones of a really football team and there's some really talented players I mean Gaia can sell oh now who's at Manchester City Gomes who was a Valencia back well the father who was a it went to Barcelona but Mustafa was there we had five or six players that you could say were really sort of good players and some decent young players as well and I just felt that we were getting there and things were improving and then I think that's when the seven nil came against Barcelona and probably a couple of weeks after that and he started to get really bad quite quickly you've you're hugely experienced they even supplier you always comfortable doing media yours comfortable doing interviews and you were quite happy going on the front foot you were quite happy - taking journalists on over here how different was it how different were the press conferences to what you were used to Geoff honestly I will stand in front of any camera and speak at any time and as many times as after I've done that throughout my career you know in England got knocked out of a World Cup or European Championships I'd show up I'd stand up and I'd do the press conferences know at Spillman you know you're what we call him to me you're what we call a go-to player right who come out the dipping down who will come out yeah he always if we lost and I'd be the player that would go out and speak and or if it was you know with England I'd be one of the players that should I say I was over there I think had 30 matches and the rules in Spain are as they are in in England that you have to do a press conference the day before every game and obviously straight the game full press comments exactly the same I was over there I think 120 days or hundred 30 days something stupid like that and I did 60 press conferences I don't if people I don't know if people remember they won't remember we did not because we were in the cup at the Copa del Rey and the letter and the Europa League to the point whereby I left we had a game every midweek whilst I was there so we played Santy when's he sat knee Wednesday we didn't have one single free week from the moment I arrived until the moment that I left and that was one of the other big mistakes that I made that Peter rang me up about January mid January and said other than the Christmas break which everybody had so basically every time we played a game with a game three days later every single game so there was never any training time at all which is one of the big frustrations because we just felt I just felt like we needed to jump off the roundabout that was spinning and just rest and give the players a couple days off and what I should have done it actually was probably give the players two or three days off and said turned up for the game on Wednesday just to give him a break but I didn't do I always went through the same routine but what Peter said to me in mid-january was look Gary get out of the Coppa del Rey get out of your old Polly it's the league that's the priority that's the that's the competition that's killing that's killing us and we kept on winning in the Europa League and the lid and the and the Copa del Rey obviously until the semi-finals and the quarterfinals but we stuck no energy the week and then the pressure was building every single weekend with Salford over the last five years I've always said the FA Trophy or whether it be the manage to Senior Cup when were in the lower leagues they're not the priority forget about them we deal with the league that's our priority but even Sir Alex when we was younger and you know he put the kids into this off Carling Cup teams or the League Cup teams and he played the the main team in the Champions League and the Premier League you know I've been surrounded by this all my life in terms of sulphur diamonds United and again just a really weak decision not to play the kids in a game in the Europa League and Copa del Rey getting up out the competition take the initial what would be here in terms of criticism and then get to a priority whereby we are the week's recovery before each league game so we just I just made a massive mistake with that in terms of priority and it was at the press conferences were relentless every single game the questions were detailed and I'm not being critical of the English press here the questions were a lot more tactical a lot more pointed a lot more specific around why he did this in a game and why didn't do that in a game and if you have to think of them the right answer you get a follow-up which would actually chase it down the road with you and he felt as though you're being questioned in terms of your understanding of the game and your tactical knowledge and in the early you you were sorry to interrupt you what will me the donkey is and colleagues Pat and Laura when we were interviewing managers it's a different culture here right at the pep rally Ola why did you play a car walker as they sent it back in a3 as opposed to wingback because of his pace either can look at me and he's like oh well sorry Geoffrey yes Ramon me who did you play for who did you coach Oh Jeff honestly the questions that the coaches are a story Spain are a lot more technical precise and they hit you exactly where you don't want it so it wouldn't just be a case of to pep guardiola why didn't you play pet why didn't you play Kyle Walker in the back three it would be look you could see this wasn't working after 36 minutes why didn't you shift Kyle Walker from a back three in to arrived I can go with a conventional back four and you got a but in the second that's G that and then the next question would be you know your substitution that you brought on you know you'd probably ask Pequea all the question what was the thinking behind the substitution of Kyle Walker for the port's you'd ask him the question and he would say well okay I think it's because they said he'd give you some sort of what be bland answer probably that you know however in Spain it would be it would be it'll be completely different it it would be that was a ridiculous substitution that was you know that was a highly questionable substitution that you made by putting quail Kyle Walker instead of the pole why didn't you put Bernard or silver on the crowd were asking for it the beat the bead you were asking for everybody in the stadium could see it it would be a lot more clinical and maybe that was because they were going for me as well because obviously I was the stranger in town a little bit and I was young and I think they realized that they could potentially go for me a little bit more than some of the experienced managers but there's no doubt some of the press conferences became brutal I mean the one after the one after say for instance games like against Bilbao where I lost or against Atletico Madrid or against Barcelona the seven nil obviously and they were brutal press conferences where you know I'd walk out after and had sauce Mertz myself thinking I tell you that that is a it's a pretty severe grilling that I've just taken and there was no forgiveness and why would the be there was no putting the point and you know there was no one fellow managers putting their arm around me saying you know you'll get through this it was you were on your own in fact I do remember Simeone and we got me a home to kneel off athletic or Madrid and I remember them going one nil up and we were in the game if I think nil nil I think up to 60 minutes and we're in the game then they scored after 60 minutes or something like that and he scored later on but when they scored the first goal it during that match it was interesting because there was there were a couple of games that I felt as though I was up against coaches where I thought I'm out of my league here I am totally out of my league here and it was Valverde he went on to manage Barcelona for Bilbao he changed it changed system three times inside the game and he was always one step in front of me and I always felt like he was toying with me like a little like a little puppet you knew it you hate him smoking honestly Jeff I could feel it on the touch line I thought this is what inexperience feels like and I remember being on the touch line against Atletico Madrid and I felt like Simeoni was strangling be gently through the game I felt like it was nil-nil up to sixty minutes and I felt as though he put his hands around my neck after about five minutes and he thought geo something I'll just keep I will literally carry on with you and now I'll just tie with you a little bit but help he was almost torturing me football-wise over 90 minutes at the end of the game I went to shake his hand and he just stormed off past me down the tunnel I always thought can I swear on this podcast this time I think we know what you thought news yeah I thought she also thought you absolute because and to me respect that he's always at the end of a game whatever happens you're going to shake your opponent's hand or you shake your you fellow manager and he stormed straight past me and I thought you are one horrible so-and-so you which obviously I admired in his team's when I'd watched them I have admired and his team since his team represented him he's been she's all over the place during the match they're all that's it they're all shouting they're all screaming but it honestly felt that in two or three matches that I was well out of my depth in terms of I was up against coaches was there a spot and Gary wasn't a possibility that the reason he did that was it he was looking at you thing you know and the way he paid to play the go there you go Gary Neville have some of that out there you think you can just pick up here in La Liga be a top class coach take all your ideas your media career and do what he's easy to do some of that I think you look whether he's like that anyway I don't know or whether it's just something that like you say he thought no I think I need to leave one on you AI think you need a lesson and after the game I remember you're all these things that happen to me there were the games that I remember like Real Betis away and that's when I knew that that's when I knew I was gone the moment that the moment I knew that I was gone when when you go from when you gold from starting off as for 33 I then went and played Villarreal away and I went to five three two not even like the system I hate it I then went to four for two with a with a narrow midfield for about probably mid-february and then I went to Real Betis away and that new I was finished as I was doing the team tour probably but I knew I was finished during the game if I wasn't sure during the team talk I actually put two big men up front and I thought let's go direct let's beat les beep let's beat the press that they have let's go full on and get up behind it let's go old-fashioned let's be awful let's be aggressive let's go messy let's let's go on wing tackles and you know when you do that you realize you've run out of ideas and essentially you were prepared and at that moment alone I knew after that game that I had to be sacked I knew that I was in trouble I knew that this just was something that wasn't right for me yeah at this moment in time because I'd literally zigzagged around like I was on the waltzers for four months changing systems trying different things and players just need that consistent message that message of and that direction of I believe believe in what we do in believe in the coaching sessions believe in the processes that you're going through and the results will come eventually if all of a sudden after three four games you change the team you change the system you honestly it all over the place and it taught me a lot in terms of it taught me a lot and I think that's where there were these a lot of sort of little messages I know I think against for your Bettis was the one where the team talked where I think álvaro Negredo came up to me in the morning of the game we were a from home and I got to a point where I could speak reasonable football Spanish I was learning I say I was doing four lessons a week and I was you know I was really trying hard and I was I always made sure that the team talks were in Spanish and I always made sure that our coaches meetings were in Spanish and I always wanted to immerse myself in the culture because I'd seen what had happened that United when the international players came over and we tried to merge them in the sort of your Mancunian culture straightaway you speak English in the dressing you do the things that we do you basically make sure that you would dare to the scoff culture that we've created in this club and all the players did that and that's why we had a successful team that could be from sort of South America Africa Europe Scanlan whenever it was in the world we had a great spirit because everybody adhered to the culture and the spirit of the fact that they were in Manchester and so before that game Alvaro came up to me and said Gary we want you to drop your translator put it sit him down and we want you to do the team talk in Spanish and we'll help you through it and we know what you're gonna say all you have to do is get a couple of words out and we know where you're going with it a part way through that team talk I went to say you know I want you to play lots of passes and went to say one two three but I said earned and my friends from school kisses and we're thinking we gave it I remember looking at Alvaro on the front row in fact they're all laughing the players to be fair I remember thinking to myself oh my gosh you down yeah you've got remember you got some money to be fair as spoken on television for five years confidently and then you stood up there in front of 22 players it's trying to speak in a foreign language one that you've only learned for the last two months and you've completely lost your confidence in yourself you've completely drained yourself of every little bit of belief that you've ever had I remember around that time saying to Paco and to Phil and Phil was an awesome thing I don't think Phil's ever spoken the truth about this Phil became incredibly frustrated with me out in Valencia because he'd seen someone who'd been relatively strong and resilient and robust throughout the whole life breaking down in front of him in terms of the principles of that allowed allowing other people to take the lead allowing other people to do things not not really standing up there and being from and central and say no I'm taking the coaching sessions I'm doing it everybody else moved to one side and I remember saying to Paco and Phil one day I'm there was a point where by the trade he was probably stood still for about three or four minutes and it was stood still for three or four minutes because I was trying to get a message to one player that was asking me questions back and you've got remember if I answer for what if I answer a question for 30 seconds it then takes 30 seconds to translate he then comes back so you just doubling everything up and it was so frustrating for me let alone for the players and I remember coming off the side of the pitch and it been stood and the players were messing around some were jogging on the spot some were kicking balls some were talking because I was dealing with one or two players and I remember coming off a side of the pitch and saying Phil Paco I want you to Philip been out there for about eight nine months a SPOC a lot more Spanish and Paco was fluent obviously in Spanish he Spanish so I just said to them that's it do all the sessions from now on I'm not stopping the players I would have hated this is a player myself and at that point I lost the confidence to stand out on the training pitch in the middle of the training sessions and actually communicate with the players as well so you got to imagine I've gone from this person who entered into Spain who come over who was sure of himself who obviously was confident to two or three months later it said it essentially dismantled me piece by piece and I always retain my composure never lost my temper I never lost I never I never sort of started snapping at me I think a couple of times at half time I think I lost my temper with the players I felt as though there were moments where they they weren't it's one of the things that I learned from that session from there from that experience sorry that when maybe fans sometimes and maybe windows in the media look at a group of players and we think are they're not they're not doing all they can for the club they don't care Joe sometimes they're just lost they just haven't got any direction they just haven't lost that they've lost the confidence they've lost their belief they've lost the hell of a football momentarily because the team that because the pressure is so much and that's what made me see things differently I don't think the players ever gave it in Valencia they never once give less than 100 percent but all there were times where by there were questioned for that but I could never question them for that they just didn't have the right coach for them at that moment in time that's all really what effects do you think the whole experience I don't you sure medium and long term in do you know something at once I was so once I was sad I have to say that because of my experiences I had when I was younger in football when I lost my confidence around the age of 23 24 and around the world the European Championships in 2000 and giving the goal against Vasco de Gama the season after the treble I lost my confidence for about eight months and I learned coping mechanisms and strategies to be able to deal with losing my confidence in that time and when I was in Valencia my losing confidence in myself came out of the fact that had never been there before so once I got back into England and I decided that I was going to take a two-month break to the end of the season I wasn't gonna go back on television for that two months it was right to take that break but I recovered really quickly I realized that ultimately I was more experienced as a pundit than I had been before outs they went to Valencia I had more experience and lived through the heat we were you were were you worried that your credibility and abundant would have been damaged no I mean still to this day people refer to Valencia but actually like I say you know if you remember before I went to Valencia people quite often would say that you know I'm a really good pundit because of the fact that I could articulate what was happening in a football match and I still can't articulate what would happen in a football match when I come back from Valencia I've actually got more experience in football and I had before I went so in essence I feel as I'm all rounded pudding there particularly now being an owner of a football club as well and seeing it from that side I feel as I've seen it from the plain side the older side the coaching side the head coaching side obviously from a media side and I feel far more rounded in there able to being able to describe the game I'm a lot less cutting than I was seven or eight years ago in terms of my poetry I think I'm a lot more forgiving I'm a lot more round in terms of understanding sometimes the challenges that ever no I'm still obviously have to be critical at times because there's some times that there are some things I still can't forgive whether it be that I failed as a coach or I was a successful player or a not successful player sometimes the case may have been but when I came back in the short term I recovered really quickly where it's helped me most and without a shadow of a doubt had the biggest impact upon me is in the decisions that I make moving forward and respect to say like I'll say this these last few weeks I see trouble coming quickly now if I see trouble out quickly I'm decisive that's why I was critical of the Premier League ins in it when they announced that they were going to continue with the continue with the the weekend of fixtures when when the rest of the world was shutting down and it was obvious that there was a major crisis looming and that something bad was happening I felt there was enough intelligence enough information out there to be able to make a strong decision and I always think now that when I look at Valencia is my experience of being weak and not making strong decisions I think that ultimately now I always look at situations I think right what if you're in a position whereby you're in charge of a business are you in charge of a league are you in charge of a football club or whatever it might be in charge of a family or in charge of a you're the leader in a family are you the leader in a whatever it might be you've got to be decisive you've got to be clinical in your decision making and the biggest thing that Valencia taught me was that if you mess around with decisions if you if you week if you're inconsistent by changing systems and changing tactics and that's why I've been a little bit vocal against Boris in the last few weeks because if you think about on the 3rd of March he publicly went into a he publicly went into her into the country and said that he wanted to he was shaking hands with coronavirus patients which was reckless at the time and three weeks later he's obviously asking us all to lock down so inconsistency of message and lack of clarity and message is dangerous and I found that in Valencia more than ever that's why I now look at Lee doesn't think I want clarity I want consistency and I want really decisive actions and ultimately I wasn't decisive in Valencia I was really poor around that type of thing okay didn't typically wrap up on Valencia then even though you admit it along with the things that you got wrong is there still part of you is glad that you did it and what it taught you the only thing that I think about Valencia is one well sorry there are a couple of things that I think about Valencia one is that I was disappointed that I couldn't do the job that I wanted to for pizza which was stabilized the the team stabilized the club and get him to the end of the season because he'd shown great faith in me and I wanted to repay him and I wanted to do that I want to do a good job for him so that was my first and biggest sort of disappointment given a partner in danger friend that's a given but it came a great cook a game a personal cost you in terms of your confidence your reputation to a degree all those things but where we are now four years on is there a part of you that can honestly say even though you've you is so critical bit you're still glad that it happened Jeff do something I loved being over there I love the challenge I love the city I love the fact that I took the plunge to actually go abroad and go to Spain and take my family there and go for it and try and the worst thing for me would be looking back and not having done it and thinking do you know something you bottled it you didn't go you didn't go you didn't help your friend out he didn't try to help your partner out the person he wanted you and you didn't he said so what at the beginning was that no is a very important word sometimes however also sometimes you've got all of the you know you've got to go and do things and you've got to step up and you might not be qualified and I did that and I made the decision so I'm torn between the thought of I had to do it because it was the right thing to do because I needed to support Peter and I wanted to help and you know I'd sat on television for five years telling every the English cultures didn't get a chance and the idea that I got a chance however fortunate I was to get a chance to do connections I didn't take the job you know it's almost like a bottle merchants really if you do if you don't go and take it so from that point of view I ultimately don't regret doing what I did because I did it for the reasons that still stand true today but I made a series of decisions that were weak decisions that weren't that weren't right don't regret meeting did it be you Breton why he did it yeah I regret the way I did it I regret the fact that ultimately what I should have done when I went over there was that I was out of my depth that I was out of my league that I was out of my country that I was out of the language that I spoke and I didn't adapt to be able to cope with all those things that I knew that were there when I went over there I didn't prepare myself into fare that's probably because I had two days to think about it partly but also because I didn't react in a crisis which was you know the clobbering crisis this actor manager I should have taken it as a crisis situation and dealt with it in a crisis fashion I went in there thinking right I can set up the club structure I can set up the club systems in terms of it your biggest mistake was not taking me as the press officer I could have smoothed it all over took one round would have been probably a better pair all right don't worry need to be appalling Jeff I'm not sure the Spanish for the taken to you to be honest to the honestly the other one the one thing the one thing the one thing that kept asking me in the first month and I didn't get it until I came back is what she kept saying what's your football idea and I never got it and I kept saying to them what do you mean my football idea and he says what's your football idea and I said well I wanna win matches no no what's your idea and I kept thinking yeah and it was obviously the philosophy the values and I understood where they were going with that I said well look if we're playing against a team that's brilliant in possession we'll play one way if we're playing against the team there's a little bit more direct like Athletico Madrid will play a different way because that's how we were united but I lost the fact that now players the media and managers when they go into a job they've got to sell the story of what they're going to do the idea that they have for the team and just going in and saying I'm here to get results you've got a clean slate you know we'll adapt to different games it isn't good enough anymore it's not but it's not good enough for the media it's not good enough for the fans and it's not good enough most importantly for the players because the players in the first two weeks have you been there they want to know the idea that you've got behind how we gonna win games and the one big thing that I should have spoken more to Roy Roy Hudson because one of the things that I did when I got there they've been conceding goals Valencia I worked a lot on defensive work for the first two or three weeks to try and get the defense right Roy said to me that if he has spoken to me before you went Gary and so I did speak to him but not through the detail of my coaching sessions he said the first principles you should work on the attacking principals he said make sure the players in the first few weeks understand how are you going to make them win games and I think about Sir Alex is training 99% of it was always around how we were gonna win the game not how we were gonna stop the opposition and I think ultimately even the structure of how I went in there from the training sessions in terms of what I worked on initially and the idea that I had I couldn't actually define my idea I couldn't define the thing that was going to underpin what the players were gonna say when they went out to speak about what Gary was like as a coach so I couldn't give them a definite idea that they would all come behind and I suppose again that comes back to leadership that when you go in when you go into a company are you go into a business or you go into a situation the first thing you have to do is grab the attention of the people that you're working with and say right this is what we're going to do this is the idea that happened this is how we're going to achieve it and again I went in there and didn't grasp with the players what we're going to do last question you've said repeatedly you have no intention of becoming a football manager you not become a coach or a manager it's just not going to happen it's not going to happen again I just I suspect I could well be wrong that there's part of you all those things you learn at Valencia all the errors that you made don't things you can't put right at Valencia now there may well be an opportunity down the line where I don't agree about proving number people right or proving yourself right where you say all actually given what I learnt there yeah I think I think I would like to try and put that right different clubs different country different scenario you the reason that I can say quite categorically that it will never happen it's because to be a football coach either there's a number of things firstly to be a football culture manager you've got a wake up thinking about it every minute of your life or else how can you think that all of a sudden I can think right I'm gonna be a football coach tomorrow there are people who think about this 24 hours a day seven days a week and they become even some of those that think about it 24 hours seven days a week struggle to become a call to the manager at the highest level or even at a lower level so the idea that I could just rock up and basically be a coach for a Premier League team or ally to team or in hospital about that but if you want the you could prepare okay I think ultimately the ideal scenario well the dream scenario for me is you become the manager of salt but because you're because you're the owner of salt food as well but one of the owners of salt and I'd like you having a word with yourself please call yourself into the boardroom yeah please because I don't work hard in a fire and you've got to committed to something to do well that's it the second thing is that every single day of my life Jeff I mean I'm other than the weekends where I work obviously with sky I am in my businesses every single day for five days so salford the hotels and the development side of things and I live and breathe those things every minute of every single day and think about those things and they're the things I want to do so for me the business of Spore I love so sulfur dialects your experiences is when we do our meetings we'd say the the football that the coaching staff with Graham and his team with with Chris who's a sporting director or with the you know I can really use my experiences that I've gained from England we working with Roy and with Sir Alex and with and with obviously the Valencia experience to try and give really good important feedback to to say Graham on occasions where he needs it and I always speak to Graeme probably once every two three four weeks I don't speak to him weekly I really do try you know he gets on with the job of coaching the team but what I really am passionate about is sport and business and I work in that every single day both of them and that's where my passion is in the future my passion I don't want to be on the training pitch coaching players I genuinely don't want to be there I want to be go in quick it's Sophie come here there we go so bit so they see me Harry don't forget Oh he's asking me about Valencia have you got any experiences in Valencia that you can remember yeah you did the scoop she didn't like the school because the breaks were two hours there like a break for two hours in the lunch times and they got sleepy fret a siesta yeah but that wasn't quite lentils for lunch I think she's a very good judge I think she's a very good job yeah deal weather might better though it's been great to talk to you off switch and no doubt all this will continue quite a bit in the coming month but as we say so every right now you and your family stay safe and stay sane and thank you goodbye

Channel: Sky Sports Football

Views: 1,750,483

Keywords: sky sports, premier league, Football League, football, Sky Sports live, Sky, Sports, stream, sky sports football, premier league highlights, epl other 1920, Off Script, Gary Neville Off Script, Gary Neville honest, Gary Neville Sky Sports, Sky Sports Football, Gary Neville podcast, Manchester United, podcast, Football podcast, Soccer podcast, Cristiano Ronaldo, Phil Neville

Id: _qk04dh4Rxg

Length: 59min 52sec (3592 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 26 2020