Four months is all it took for Gary Neville to go from being the most revered 'pundit' on television to becoming a laughing stock of the European footballing world. What precipitated that rather dramatic fall from grace was a brave, risky – and in retrospect - unwise decision to take up the challenge of managing Valencia C.F.
He had taken over at a time of deep crisis, the proud old club rocking after a tumultuous few years where they had degenerated to a lower mid-table team incapable of ever really threatening anyone who mattered. It didn't help that he had no experience coaching a professional football team (forget one of Valencia's stature) or that he knew no Spanish.
The results were not flattering – he took over when they were ninth in the league, and he left them stranded at 14th, accompanied by a chorus of boos and “get out” chants raining down from the demanding stands of Le Mestalla.
Now he says he won't be returning to coaching in the short-term; he may in fact never return at all.
“I always say never say never,” he said. “My love for football is too great. But I also genuinely believe it would be very difficult for me to go back into coaching because of my commitment now to so many different things.”
“I’ve immersed myself in it and committed to other partners, other investors. It’s my obligation to deliver Salford City to the Football League. It’s my obligation to roll out Hotel Football internationally.”
“I can’t now go back into coaching in the short-term, in the next five years. The reality of it is I don’t want to. It could be that I’m no longer ever a coach in football. But that’s not a loss. Some people might think it is but it’s not a loss to me. It was a decision that could have happened anyway.”
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Neville though accepted the chastening experience with good grace and talks about it with the trademark straightforwardness and rare clarity of thought that makes him such an excellent pundit. As the man himself puts it - "There is nothing worse than hearing someone give reasons for why they've failed - of course sometimes there are reasons - but you have to take the blame yourself."
He added, "I can't go to Spain for four months, be coach of Valencia, and blame the fact there was a difficult dressing room, I didn't speak the language, we had bad luck and we missed some chances. Why? Because I knew I didn't speak the language before I went, I knew it was a difficult dressing room, I knew they had sacked lots of managers and I didn't deal with it.”
In fact, he put a positive spin on it -with the same optimism and keen eye for learning that made him a mainstay at Manchester United in his playing days - "People will always look at that externally and think it was a negative experience. For me personally, I lost football matches but what I gained was general experience of life, culture, and appreciation for a different country”
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Asked why he had taken the risk, he said "I thought, 'When am I going to get offered an opportunity like this again?' An English manager coaching a top-four club in Spain. I knew I didn't speak the language and had been on courses where foreign coaches had talked about the challenges and problems when you don't speak the language.”
"There were two or three big things I did wrong and should have been more insistent on, but I also knew the reason why the owner wanted me to take the job was because he didn't want a coach to come in, lump six players out, create more upheaval and bring six new coaches in."
It's the kind of refreshingly positive, straightforward and downright brave attitude that young professionals in any career should strive to emulate.
