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Former Manchester United and England defender Gary Neville has been named as Valencia’s head coach until the end of the season.
The 40-year-old, who will take charge officially on Sunday, will remain part of the England coaching set-up.
Peter Lim, Valencia’s Singaporean owner, has a stake in Salford City, the non-league club co-owned by Neville.
His brother Phil, who joined the Spanish club as assistant manager in July, will stay on the coaching staff.
“I am absolutely thrilled to be given this opportunity with Valencia,” the new head coach said.
Neville will attend a news conference with club president Layhoon Chaan on Thursday.
He will not lead team when they face Barcelona in La Liga on Saturday, instead taking charge for the first time when they host Lyon in the Champions League the following Wednesday.
Neville replaces Nuno Espirito Santo, who resigned after Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at Sevilla, which left Valencia ninth in the Spanish league.
The club finished fourth last season, but have won only five of their opening 13 league matches this term.
Editor’s N0te: Well I think that one has caught people off guard. I mentioned on Monday that Phil Neville was the most likely candidate to take charge certainly in the interim but it seems as if Peter Lim has not wasted anytime in naming a replacement until the end of the season.
Again there is a strong connection between Gary Neville and Peter Lim thanks to their ownership of English Non-League Side Salford City so the Singapore Businessman obviously knows what Gary Neville is capable of and feels he is the right man for the job.
It will be interesting to see a Neville Dream Team take charge of Los Che but I bet their fans didn’t expect this happening at the start of the season. Maybe Peter Lim had to move quickly due to the fact that Fulham were also meant to be interested in appointing Gary Neville as their new man in charge at Craven Cottage.
Will this mean that Gary Neville can no longer do his punditry at Sky, him flying back each Monday for Sky’s Flagship Monday Night Football could be a bit of a stretch so I expect Jamie Carragher to hold the fort in his absence
In terms of England I can’t see this being any detriment to his current role on the coaching staff and if anything may be of benefit to the National Team. As I stated on Monday the more English we can have coaching in top level jobs abroad can only be good in the long run. So Sky’s loss is very much Valencia’s gain, it will be interesting to see how Gary Neville fares in his first job as a head coach. Best of luck Gary
