Phil Neville’s Spanish adventure
Sportsmail joins Phil Neville on his coaching adventure in Valencia
The boss asked me for a drink but didn’t show by half eight so I put on my pyjamas. An hour later he texted to say he was on his way!
PHIL NEVILLE’S first day as the assistant manager of Valencia was memorable for his arrival at the training ground in the back of a police car.
‘I got lost on the way and was starting to panic,’ he explains. ‘So I stopped to ask a policeman and it turned out he was a fan. In the end I dumped my car and he drove me there.’
He had been told to be there by 9am. The police officer delivered him with 15 minutes to spare. Neville liked that. ‘Fergie rules,’ he says, referring to his former manager’s view that one should always be early. But he soon discovered he needn’t have rushed.
‘Everyone else rolled in around 9.30,’ he says. ‘“Ola Phil,” they all say. I’d been waiting and wondering if I was even in the right place.’
Three months on and he now knows the way to work. The language, however, remains a work in progress. He is sporting a buzz cut. ‘I said to the hairdresser “poco” (little in Spanish),’ he says. ‘Only a tiny bit off, I was trying to say. But she thought I wanted it really short. The first snip with the scissors and I’m like, “oh no”.’
Lost one day, lost in translation the next. These are the challenges of moving abroad but Neville is embracing life in Spain. He tries to converse in Spanish at every opportunity — on the phone, with the waitress at his local restaurant. ‘My wife and I have a Spanish lesson every day,’ he says. ‘Julie is almost fluent already.’
With their two children they have made a real commitment. The house in Cheshire has been rented and the Nevilles now have an ultramodern home in one of Valencia’s suburbs. The children attend a local school and son Harvey, a talented winger on Manchester City’s books, furthers his football education at Valencia’s academy.
After a day’s work, Neville coaches there. ‘I go down most nights,’ he says. ‘I’ll work with the under 13s and 14s. It’s great for my education and I can mess up my Spanish talking to the kids. It’s good fun.’
As self- deprecating as ever, he reveals how Nuno Espirito Santo, Valencia’s manager, soon gave him a nickname. ‘They call me Tranquil Phil,’ he says. ‘I am ultra-positive, ultra-enthusiastic, but this experience has taught me to relax more.
‘I remember Brian Kidd telling me, “When people arrive, make sure everything is set up on the training pitch so they know they are coming to work”. That was my philosophy. In at 7am. Over here it’s, “Phil, relax, have a coffee”.
‘The day before pre-season Nuno said, “Come round and we’ll have a beer — all the staff — and a chat”. He said he’d text me later. It got to half-eight and he hadn’t texted so I said to my wife, “He must have got waylaid”. I put on my pyjamas and sat in front of the telly. At half-nine he’s texted saying, “I’ll pick you up in 10 minutes”. We were up chatting until 2am. That’s the culture.’
Neville knew immediately that Valencia was the right move. He already knew the owner, Peter Lim. Along with his brother Gary and former Manchester United team- mates Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes, they had persuaded the Singapore billionaire to invest in their Salford City project.
In turn, the Neville brothers visited Valencia last season with a view to developing a blueprint for the semi-professional Northern Premier League club they one day hope to see in England’s top flight.
Even so, why Valencia when David Moyes offered him the chance to renew their United partnership at Real Sociedad last season? When Steve McClaren asked him to join him at Newcastle?
‘When it came to Sociedad, I didn’t want to come back into football so soon after the Manchester United experience,’ he says. ‘I was enjoying the freedom, working in the media, that last year gave me.
‘I like Steve (McClaren) and I went up there out of respect to him but I had set my heart on coming here. I wanted a new experience, to learn another language. I wanted to be different. I wanted people to realise I’m taking my coaching career very seriously. I wanted to create my own pathway.
‘The phone call from Nuno came out of the blue — I was on the driving range. “Do you want to be assistant manager at Valencia?”
‘It was one of those life-changing moments. You are almost shaking, nervous, excited. And I thought, “Yes I do”. Without even consulting with the family, I said yes. It seemed right, working for a good manager I’d spent a bit of time with last year. And an owner I felt I could trust.’
After a distinguished playing career at United and Everton and that difficult season as a coach at Old Trafford, Neville sees Valencia as the final part of his education before taking what he now regards as a natural step into management. ‘This feels like my last year at university,’ he says. ‘The final bit of learning and experience I need. Now I am reaching the point where I would like to be a No 1.
‘My passion is coaching and I see myself more as a head coach with a more continental approach, in charge of football, running the training programme, the players.
‘ People always view United negatively, but from a purely selfish point of view it wasn’t negative. Coaching-wise, it gave me everything I wanted. I was working with some of the world’s best players. I learnt so much. Now I am learning in a different environment.’
There have been difficulties, of course. Not least the sudden loss of his father, Neville, who suffered a heart attack in August during a trip to Australia to support the other