Inside 'worst coach ever' Gary Neville's doomed Valencia tenure: From being 'tortured’ by Diego Simeone to being snubbed by Luis Enrique

Many past coaches had earned the Valencia job through years of hard work on the touchlines, and so for Neville it was a first job that was too good to turn down. He said at his presentation, which was attended by scores of British journalists: "If I’d have turned down this job, I could have said goodbye to my credibility in football because it’s a massive club and I’m honoured and proud to be here. Sitting on television, talking about coaches for these last few years, the time had come for me to stand up."

England’s then-director of football Dan Ashworth egged Neville on, telling him it was "the perfect move" to eventually succeed Roy Hodgson as Three Lions' boss, perhaps as soon as the following summer once Euro 2016 was out of the way.

But before he had begun work, Neville was given a warning by club legend Santi Canizares, who said: "Being a good analyst is not the same as being a good coach. Valencia is not a team for experiments, it’s not a place for a coach to get his apprenticeship. It is one thing to give your opinion and another to get things working on the pitch."

Canizares was soon proven right. Valencia were beaten 2-0 by Lyon in Neville’s first game in the dugout as they exited the Champions League group stage. Neville demonstrated his lack of experience when he turned his 4-3-3 formation into a 4-2-4 in search of an equaliser, but all he succeeded in doing was cede the midfield to Lyon, who soon scored again.

Neville made a worrying start in La Liga too, taking just two points from his first three games. In his fourth, Valencia held Real Madrid to a 2-2 draw, a result which led to Los Blancos sacking Rafa Benitez, but no corner was turned as Los Che went more than two months without winning a league game. 

There was some respite in the Copa del Rey, though their cup run ended in harrowing fashion as they were slaughtered 7-0 by Barcelona in their semi-final first leg at Camp Nou. Neville's television colleague Jamie Carragher watched that game from the press box, laughing his head off as each goal went in, while on the touchline, Luis Enrique showed no mercy, keeping Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar on the pitch until the end before snubbing Neville’s attempt at a handshake after the game.

Neville felt the then Barca coach was "sending a message that I didn’t belong" before he then faced a firing squad made up of the Valencia media, several of whom urged Neville to resign during the post-match press conference.

Fans did the same, chanting 'Gary go now' in the stands of Mestalla, while one individual waited for Neville as he got off the bus after one away game, urging him to go home.

"I lost my confidence," Neville later recalled. "It got to the point where I didn’t even want to take training sessions – I was handing it over to my coaches. I felt embarrassed doing the sessions in broken English where everything was done through a translator."

Neville ended a 10-match wait for his first victory in La Liga when his side overcame Espanyol, and they followed that up with victory at Granada and a 10-0 aggregate win over Rapid Vienna in the Europa League. Things were starting to look up, and Neville was feeling hopeful when he took a group of journalists out to lunch in early March.

But it proved to be a false dawn. Valencia lost five of their next seven games in all competitions, including being knocked out of the Europe by Athletic Club on away goals. The final straw for Lim was a 2-0 defeat in mid-March at home to Celta Vigo, which left Valencia six points above the relegation zone. By contrast, when Neville took over, they were only five points off the Champions League positions. 

The defeat to Celta came the day after the Las Fallas festivities, when Valencia locals set effigies on fire, and among them was one with Neville’s face attached to it along with the 7-0 scoreline against Barcelona. By the end of the game that followed, the chants of ‘Gary go now’ were deafening, and Neville was swiftly informed by Lim that he was going to be relieved of his duties, although the announcement did not come until 10 days later.

Neville had few allies during his short-lived spell in Spain. "I came out of many press conferences feeling like I’d been given a right grilling," he recalled. "There were no fellow managers putting their arm around me either."

Athletic Club manager Ernesto Valverde changed his system three times in one game and Neville had no response: "He toyed with me like I was a little puppet. I could feel it on the touchline. That’s what inexperience feels like."

Then there was Diego Simeone, whom Neville felt was "strangling me gently, he was almost torturing me in football terms over 90 minutes" as Atletico Madrid stormed to victory at Mestalla.

Neville approved Valencia hiring the former Liverpool assistant Pako Ayesteran to help him communicate his ideas in February 2016 and insisted that when he left, so would Ayesteran. Goalkeeper Diego Alves did not understand the news when Neville first explained it, believing the coach was resigning and told him not to. As it turned out, Neville was gone a few weeks later, with Ayesteran replacing him.

"The biggest problem Gary had was not being able to express himself," Ayesteran said later. "It is not the same through a translator: you can’t transmit the same passion, the same emotion." Indeed, Spanish television show El Dia Despues poked fun at his communication problems almost weekly. Take his hilarious exchange with the Granada manager Jose Sandoval, who accused Neville of "protesting all game". Neville responded: "No protesta, no protesta. F*ck off."

Ayesteran steered Valencia away from the threat of relegation, but he ended up being sacked early into the following season after posting an even worse record than Neville. His successor, Cesare Prandelli, resigned after just three months in the role, and Valencia have had nine managers since Neville left, though only two have lasted more than a year. 

Marcelino, who won the Copa del Rey and achieved back-to-back top-four finishes, has been the only success, and he left after falling out with Lim. The Singaporean owner is hated by Valencia fans, who have held countless protests against him, while he has not attended a game since December 2019. 

Valencia flirted with relegation in 2022-23 before eventually finishing 16th, and last season they looked destined for the drop until West Brom boss Carlos Corberan came in and turned results around. You could say that history has been kind to Neville, showing that he was far from the only problem at the club, but his issue remains that he was an ally to Lim, meaning he has few sympathisers among the Valencia fanbase.

A couple of former Valencia players have sought to set the record straight on Neville. “Tactically we understood what he wanted but we couldn’t execute it and couldn’t get the results," Brazilian left-back Guilherme Siqueira told the Mirror. "The players weren’t good enough at the end of the day and we take responsibility."

Alvaro Negredo recently said he was surprised that Neville didn’t continue managing in England: "Perhaps in Spain at that time, due to the language barrier, he didn't get more opportunities, but in the Premier League, I would have given him more. For me, he was a good coach who came with a very good attitude and a desire to improve."

Not everyone associated with the club has been so kind, however. Take former president Fernando Roig, who said: "The pundit who came, the Englishman, was the worst coach I have ever seen."

Neville never took the chance to prove Roig wrong. Asked earlier this year why he has never gone back to coaching, he said he had learned his lesson: "This idea that I thought I could have all the businesses, the media career and be a head coach was nonsense, absolute nonsense. Stick in your lane, stick to what you're good at."