Valencia CF have appointed former Manchester United and England defender Gary Neville as Head Coach until the end of the season.
BREAKING: Gary Neville has been appointed as Head Coach of Valencia until the end of the season.
More on #SSNHQ pic.twitter.com/hVGk61b6MO
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) December 2, 2015
Neville has been one of the top soccer pundits on Sky Sports, alongside his Monday Night Football partner Jamie Carragher. Carragher had this to say about losing his partner:
Gutted! This reminds me of when Pegguy Arphexad left for Coventry.
https://t.co/M535r7L2qo— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) December 2, 2015
Neville will take charge of the first team officially this weekend and his first game in charge will be the December 9 Champions League match against Lyon.
Layhoon Chan, Valencia CF’s President, said of the appointment, “We are delighted to have secured Gary so quickly. He combines top level coaching experience through his role as a senior coach with the England national team, and a world-class playing career with England and Manchester United.”
Chan would go on to comment, ” Throughout his career, Gary has always shown great leadership both on and off the pitch. He is hugely respected in English football, and it was his personal qualities which persuaded us that he was the right choice to lead Valencia until the end of the season.”
Gary Neville was quoted on the club’s official website, saying, “I am absolutely thrilled to be given this opportunity with Valencia. Valencia are a huge football club of immense standing, and I know from my time as a player the passion and dedication of the Valencia fans. I am really looking forward to working with the club’s talented group of players and am excited about the challenge ahead.”
More details will be given at the scheduled press conference that will be held tomorrow, Thursday, afternoon at 4:00 p.m. (CET).
A very selfish part of me hopes that he doesn’t make the move to coaching permanent. Make no mistake, we wish him all the best officially, but we’re losing a great pundit today. If you haven’t seen the analysis work that he has done with Jamie Carragher, you should really fix that. The pair talk about extremely technical and tactical subjects, picking apart games through a brilliant use of footage and experience. What is great about the shows they’ve done is that while they do discuss these high-minded subjects, they make it very easy to grasp without dumbing it down. His work can be viewed here (search for Monday Night Football) and here.
