Gary Neville admits coaching was torture for him

Not everyone is cut out for coaching. Gary Neville knows perfectly well that coaching is not for him. Speaking on 'Stick to Football', he admitted that he had never thought about having that role in a team and that he was once put in charge of Valencia as a favour.

"I didn't work hard enough, I wasn't ready, it was a favour to Peter Lim," he said. Neville soon realised he had made a mistake in taking the reins: "After a couple of months, I remember looking in the mirror and thinking I looked sick."

Measuring himself against other coaches made him realise he was in the wrong place: "We played three times against Athletic, Valverde was the coach. He played a different system to the one I thought he would use and then changed during the game, and I remember thinking I was nowhere near that level". 

It got worse when it was his turn to face Diego Simeone: "Watching Valverde was the first time I felt I was miles away and then we played Diego Simeone, and that day I felt he was outplaying me in every way, with his tactics, his intimidation and his gestures."

And then Luis Enrique arrived to make him loathe the job. "We lost 7-0 to Barcelona and when we were leading 5-0 he didn't take off Neymar, Messi and Suarez. At the end, he walked past me and didn't shake my hand. I felt he was sending me a message that I wasn't where I belonged," he concluded.