Gary Neville admitted that every defeat feels like a "punch in the face" but insisted that he will fight on as Valencia manager and sources at the club on Sunday insisted that there was no plan to sack him despite his side losing 1-0 at Real Betis, their ninth league game under him and their ninth without a victory.
Valencia’s president Layhoon Chan was in Singapore rather than in Valencia or in Seville on Sunday, and the manager continued to have support from the upper echelons on the club, including owner Peter Lim. Despite increasing pressure, and continued speculation, Neville saw no need for a public vote of confidence. He said that he is “comfortable” with the club’s owners and sporting director, with whom he said he speaks “three, four, five times a week.”
Neville was speaking after his side were beaten by a solitary Rubén Castro goal away at Real Betis. Defeat came four days after Valencia were hammered 7-0 by Barcelona in the Copa del Rey, prompting angry fans to gather at the club’s training ground to protest on Wednesday night. Neville described that as one of the most “painful” nights of his career while the sporting director Suso Garcia Pitarch had been evasive when asked about the Englishman’s future.
Neville though said he was “comfortable” after this game and, although he agreed that results had been “absolutely unacceptable,” he insisted that Valencia have deserved more under him. “I am comfortable with [my relationship with the club]; what I am uncomfortable about is not getting them the results they deserve,” he said. “There’s no doubt that at times like this, everyone needs to stay together. Everyone suffers. Conversations with the owners are between me and the owners.”
The manager is aware that the pressure is building, though. A poll run by one Valencian newspaper last night showed almost 90% of supporters wanted him to resign.
“I said before I came that I would be judged in five months,” Neville said. “The obituaries have already been written: I have been judged in six weeks. But I believe in myself, I always have. I believe in the work I am doing: there is structure, belief, organisation, far better fitness. What I don’t believe is that the results reflect the improvements we have seen.”
“I don’t think we deserved the last two defeats [in the league],” Neville added. “But the reality is that they are two defeats and I am aware of the consequences when you don’t get good results.” Despite being pushed repeatedly, he would not admit that Valencia find themselves in a relegation battle, even though this result leaves them just four points off the drop zone.
This was his 16th game in charge, during which time Valencia have lost six, drawn six and won four – all of them in the Copa del Rey. The Cup had served a release from their league form until Wednesday night, when Barcelona inflicted their worst defeat in over twenty years. Neville called that a “freak” performance and although it was humiliating, arguably more important were the defeat against Sporting Gijón – their first at home in the league since 2014 – and the failure to beat Getafe and Rayo Vallecano, who came into the match without a win in eight.
Results like this one, in other words. “Let’s be clear: we must deliver,” Neville had said. His side did not, and it was not because they were up against an impressive team. Real Betis had the worst home record in Spain, had only won once at the Benito Villamarín all season – against David Moyes’s Real Sociedad – and had scored just seven times here. They made it eight here, the ninth time in nine league games that Valencia had trailed, and after the goal they went for Valencia – as if they had just realised that their opponents were not that good.
Neville talked about the “fine line between success and failure” and insisted that his team had not deserved to lose this. In the final minute, they had an equaliser scored by Shkodran Mustafi ruled out for an offside with which Neville did not agree. But there had been few real chances; when Alvaro Negredo had a shot cleared of the line midway through the second half, it was their first shot on target. Besides, there is no escaping the result.
A league table based on the games played since Neville has been in Spain had Valencia in the relegation zone. Their opponents were one of only two teams worse than them. Not any more. If Espanyol win on Monday night, and they might, Valencia would slip to the bottom of that table and worryingly close to the bottom of the real table.
When Nuno was sacked, Valencia were four points off a Champions League place; now they are 19 points off. They are only four points clear of relegation. Fighting for survival may sound absurd but it has become a reality. “Completely unacceptable,” Neville called it.
