Sitting in the press room of the Nou Camp, a stadium which previously held glorious memories for both Neville the player and the commentator, the usually radiant 40-year-old cut a sad figure after Valencia’s worst defeat in 23 years, their worst in the cup for 88.
“I stood out there both halves feeling helpless, trying to change it in some way, knowing the tide of the game was against us,” he said.
“Positivity has been immovable in my life but when I have moments like this I don’t enjoy them at all, it was painful.”
Neville did not snap when asked repeatedly by journalists if his position was in danger, refusing to answer the question altogether. But he must know that unless his team can win at Real Betis on Sunday his position is under serious threat.
Like Betis, Valencia now face a battle to avoid relegation, a scenario few would have believed possible when Neville took over at the start of December, with the team just five points off the Champions League places.
Eight games without a league win later, they are five points above the relegation zone.
There is a feeling that Neville is not necessarily to blame for the predicament, but that he was never the right man for this job.
“Neville could well be a great coach, he is proper football man, but this Valencia side, which is so young, needs a proper, experienced coach to lead them out of this situation,” says veteran Valencia journalist Conrado Valle.
“He has not made too many errors, but he has not been able to change the team’s dynamic. You can see he is not an experienced coach who can draw out a path for the team.”
Neville has made every effort to integrate as quick as possible, taking Spanish lessons every day at 6am, but he walked into an almost impossible job, a club with huge expectations and one of the biggest budgets in the league, yet with the youngest squad and one short on leaders.
Neville soon acknowledged this by stripping Dani Parejo of the captaincy, believing the 26-year-old midfielder was not captain material. At half-time in a game against Rayo Vallecano, Neville compelled Parejo to have the final say and rally the troops. His response must have fallen short, because four days later Parejo was on the pitch against Las Palmas without the armband, passed to Paco Alcacer.
This was a huge statement from Neville, a clear signal he was ready to give the team the shake up they needed, but it backfired when Alcacer ended the same game with an ankle injury. None of the four club captains were on the pitch against Barcelona, so Shkrodan Mustafi was the temporary leader, but he quickly showed his unsuitability for the role by diving in on Messi and getting sent off. While Parejo looked on, the armband was passed to Sofiane Feghouli, who has just four months left on his contract.
Another ill advised move has been to constantly change the team’s formation, shunning the 4-3-3 used by predecessor Nuno Espirito Santo and experimenting with a raft of formations, lining up at the Nou Camp with an unfamiliar 5-4-1 without a natural striker, but the cagey plan was quickly sliced apart by Luis Suarez scoring twice in the opening 12 minutes.
What happened next was the inevitable conclusion of when you pit an inexperienced side full of doubt against the most fearsome attack in the world. Although few expected the bloodbath witnessed at Nou Camp, few really backed Valencia to get past Barcelona over two legs.
The real test of their level, and of their coach, comes on Sunday at Betis. Neville’s task is to quickly resuscitate a group of players who Mustafi admitted are “in the gutter” after Wednesday’s result. How he copes with it will determine whether he remains at the club the following Monday.
- Telegraph