The news that Gary Neville had been sacked as manager of Valencia has not come as a shock to many. His disastrous run saw only 10 wins in 28 games, with the former Manchester United captain actually losing more games than he had won. Valencia’s league performance was especially worrying, with Neville only winning 3 of his 16 games in La Liga.

The statistics surrounding his managerial tenure are for dire reading. But, like most sports, although results are what go on to define you, they really don’t tell the full story.

Valencia is a club in turmoil and has been for many years. They’ve not came close to winning a trophy since winning the Copa Del Rey in 2008 (that’s 2907 days for all you statisticians). They’ve also had 7 managers in the last 4 years and seem reluctant to give any of these managers the time or space to set a footballing philosophy. Managers simply don’t have the time to turn it around, and when you consider the fact they’ve not won silverware in such a long time, it begs the question; Why?

Gary Neville was always subject to an uphill battle. The nationalistic Spanish press was all over him from day one, with him eventually saying, “I said before I came that I would be judged in five months. I have been judged in six weeks”.

He often seemed shaken at press conferences, often looking unsure of himself when he was fielded questions in Spanish. When he gave his answers in English, which subsequently had to be translated to Spanish for the Spanish Press and fans to understand, the moment was gone. His passionate answers seemed to lose their effectiveness. “I’ve only ever been one way in football and that’s to win every match”, he claimed in his first interview as Valencia Manager. Many were cynical from the beginning.

Maybe it was a case of the job being “too much, too soon” for Neville to cope with. He perhaps could have come better equipped for the job. As previously mentioned, his lack of experience with the Spanish language (or Spanish football for that matter) meant he would have problems. He couldn’t take team talks or even communicate effectively with his predominantly Spanish team due to the language barrier. Instead he relied on translators and pre-prepared liaison to get his messages across. Perhaps his words of wisdom lost their magic.

His team tactics were often subject to both experimentation and injuries. With a manager coming in halfway through a footballing season, it is expected he has a concrete idea of how the team are going to play and line out. This didn’t seem to be the case, as Neville opted to experiment with five different formations in his first eight league games, trying out 4-3-3, 5-3-2, 4-4-2, 4-1-4-1 and 4-2-3-1. Injuries to Diego Alves, Enzo Perez, Jose Gaya and Sofiane Feghouli also didn’t help team performances.

And with faltering team performances came the impending passionate response from Neville. But this response ended up being his eventual undoing.

His downfall came from his own words. His own beliefs. He set himself up for scrutiny by basing his employment on the ideal that he’d turn it around, and turn it around quickly. He wasn’t shy about telling the fans of his plans to make the club great again. His claims of immediate success unfortunately didn’t happen, and the cool, calm and collected Neville was made to look foolish with his words of optimism.

Fan support wavered. Once believers in Neville, they began boo’ing the Englishman venomously. They didn’t see the product Neville had professed about. They didn’t care for his passion. All they had seen was their football club in crisis mode, losing games to lesser opposition on a consistent basis. And with club legends such as Santiago Cañizares and Gaizka Mendieta openly condemning Neville, it was only a matter of time before he was shown the door.

When taking the Valencia job, he claimed. “If I’d have turned down this job, I could have said goodbye to credibility in football because it’s a massive club”. This quote in itself describes Neville; A fierce competitor with huge wells of confidence. He believed this was his chance to shine.

His final game, a lacklustre 2-0 defeat at home to Celta Vigo was the final nail in the coffin. His team looked uninspired. He looked lost. And the fans, with their white handkerchiefs at the ready, boo’d Neville out of the Mestalla Stadium.

The real sadness from this story is the “what could have been” factor of the sacked football manager. Managers are often in and out of a job before anyone can even process what’s going on. It’s a fickle sport, with fickle fans and fickle businessmen. Realistically, four months is not nearly enough time to prove your worth in any line of work. Neville may feel hard done by, but in the long run, if Valencia don’t drastically transform their entire club, it may prove to be the luckiest break he’s ever had.