Eight years ago, Gary Neville was sacked as Valencia boss after an ill-fated spell left him vowing to never manage again.
Neville took charge in December 2015, stepping down from his punditry duties with Sky Sports to join a club owned by his business partner Peter Lim. His brother Phil was already part of the coaching staff, having been appointed assistant manager five months earlier.
The former Manchester United captain had never planned to become a manager and was content working pundit for Sky and a coach with England under Roy Hodgson. However, when Nuno Espirito Santo resigned after a 1-0 defeat by Sevilla, Lim asked Neville to step in as manager for the rest of the season.
Despite initially saying no, Neville eventually gave in and told the Blank Podcast in 2019: "I had a four-year plan and four-year contracts with England and Sky. I was six months away from the end of that plan when my business partner who owns Valencia Football Club, who were having a really bad season, said, 'can you just take it for me until the end of the season'.
"It's the only thing I've never planned... and I said yes. I kick myself to this day, not for saying yes, but for the mistakes that I made. They were stupid mistakes. Not taking over an experienced staff with me that spoke English and Spanish was a bad mistake, it was naive."
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Neville's first game in charge saw Valencia suffer a 2-0 defeat by Lyon in the Champions League, with the club ultimately dropping into the Europa League as a result. It took him 10 games to pick up his first La Liga win, while Valencia were also thrashed 7-0 by Barcelona in the Copa del Rey in February, prompting calls for Neville to be sacked.
Opening up about the experience on The Overlap in 2022, Neville admitted he ended up losing confidence in his own abilities. "Go over there thinking four or five months, I didn't think it was gonna be easy, but I just thought I had to basically steer the ship to the end of the season, literally four-five months," he said.
"Doing a half-decent job but I actually lost my confidence over there. You played at United all those years and you don't lose your confidence. You'll lose your confidence once at United [and] you come out of it and feel strong, you feel like you can cope with anything. And over there I remember looking in the mirror one morning and thinking: 'I'm struggling.' Didn't know what to do with the players, was changing systems, all the things that I say on television now you should never do and it was too much."
Gary Neville admitted he made "stupid mistakes" during his time as Valencia boss (Getty Images)A month later, Neville was given the boot having won just three of his 16 league games as Valencia were knocked out of both the Europa League and the Copa del Rey. And when asked to elaborate on the "stupid mistakes" he made during his tenure, Neville explained: "Not then changing the squad slightly just to gain a bit of authority and control.
"There was a couple of players there I should have moved out of the club, which would have established a bit of authority to them. 'Hang on he has got some power to do something here. He's in for five months but if we don't play ball he can damage us'. I couldn't communicate with the players and the club was difficult but they were excuses. I knew I couldn't communicate with the players and I knew the club was difficult, I knew the dressing room was divided, I knew it was a difficult time in the club, I knew they'd sacked 15 managers in 13 years. I knew I was going to get criticised."
Following his sacking, Neville continued his work with England before stepping down after their Euro 2016 exit to Iceland. He then returned to his role as a pundit for Sky and has essentially ruled out ever going into management again. Summing up his stint at Valencia, Neville said: "[I was] out of my depth. I needed to get out of there but it was something that I learned a lot from. I wouldn't do it in the future. I would never do it again."
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