Football
8y

Gary Neville will not quit Valencia as stuttering start continues

Valencia coach Gary Neville has admitted results have not been good since he took charge last month, but insists there is no chance at all of him stepping away from his first senior coaching job.

Valencia have not won any of their first six La Liga games under Neville, and their progress in the Copa del Rey now looks in danger after Thursday's disappointing 1-1 quarterfinal first-leg draw at home to Las Palmas.

Neville's side were 1-0 down at half-time due to an own goal from young French midfielder Wilfried Zahibo, with the equaliser coming on the hour mark from new captain Paco Alcacer.

Asked at his postgame news conference if he was considering resigning from his position, the former Manchester United defender did not like the question, and said he was committed to working hard to turn a difficult situation around.

"That is not something which will ever happen here," Neville said. "I've been here four weeks. From my point of view the work that is going on is excellent. We've not been in a position yet where we've had the full squad able to play.

"Yes, the results have not been what I would want, or what the fans want. I'm fully aware of that. I would have liked a bounce, result after result after result. But the situation when I came in was one where results were not going as perfectly as the club would want. I am comfortable we will get there."

Neville was relatively happy with how his team had played against a Las Palmas side which rested many regulars for the game, with the performance being an improvement on Sunday's 2-2 La Liga draw at home to Rayo Vallecano.

"I'm a lot happier tonight than I was after the game on Sunday," he said. "There was a lot of order in our performance, we were good defensively. They just had one moment all night -- from a set-piece.

"We were a little bit anxious in the final third, but I'm glad we are talking about that, as a lot of the other parts of our performance were good. They are such a young team, the average out there was 23. They have still got their best years to come.

"We are going through a difficult moment, but we will go through it together. This was a far better performance, than last week against Granada, when we won 3-0.

"You need to trust me on that, from a football point of view. If we continue to do these things we will win games. We have the return game next Thursday. It will be a difficult game, but for them too."

A decision to take the captaincy away from skipper Dani Parejo and give the armband to top scorer Alcacer, who finished the game with an injury and is now a doubt for Sunday's La Liga game at high-flying Deportivo La Coruna, was explained.

"It's a decision we came to together," Neville said. "If there was a problem between me and Dani, or the club or Dani, I would not have played him tonight, or you would not have seen such a fantastic performance from him.

"We feel it is better for Dani to play with freedom, without the captain's armband, and tonight I decided to give it to Paco."

^ Back to Top ^