Nearly 3,000 Valencia fans on Monday turned out to welcome Gary Neville as the former England and Manchester United defender took charge of his first training session as coach of the La Liga club.
Appointed last week to replace Nuno Espirito Santo at the Singapore-owned team, Neville put the players through their paces along with his brother, Phil, and Miguel Angel Angulo, his two assistant coaches, as the squad prepares for today’s must-win Champions League Group H game at home to Olympique Lyonnais.
Valencia need to beat the Ligue 1 side at the Mestalla and hope Belgian club Ghent fail to win at home to section winners Zenit St Petersburg if they are to advance to the last 16 of Europe’s elite club competition.
Photo: EPA
Neville signed a contract until the end of the season after Nuno stepped down, with the team struggling for consistency domestically and in Europe.
The 40-year-old officially took over on Sunday, a day after Valencia put on an impressive battling performance to rescue a 1-1 draw at home to Spanish and European champions Barcelona in La Liga, despite being ravaged by injuries and suspensions.
“We are full of excitement and desire to get things going with him,” fullback Jose Luis Gaya told a post-training news conference.
“The past is past and a new era is beginning,” Gaya said.
Gaya said Neville had not tried to convey too many ideas to the players in their first session together and that inability to speak Spanish had not been a problem with plenty of English speakers in the squad.
“He wants the team to be compact, hard-working and supportive of each other, and Valencia to be a tough opponent,” the Spain under-21 international told reporters.
“We have to be able to have a chance of keeping the ball, as otherwise it would be impossible,” Gaya said.
“Let’s see what idea the boss has and we will follow it to the death,” he added.
There was good news for Neville on the injury front, as Germany World Cup winner Shkodran Mustafi, a centerback, returned to training after injury with goalkeeper Diego Alves, who is recovering from knee surgery and has not played since May.
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