Gary Neville: My future isn’t in management

Valencia head coach Gary Neville is planning to make a decision on his main focus for the future but does not plan to remain in management.

Neville has been a part of the England coaching team since 2012, while he earned plaudits for his work as a pundit for Sky Sports before taking over at Valencia until the end of the season last month.

The 40-year-old is also a part-owner of Salford City and has business interests outside of football, but he has a clear idea of the path he intends to follow long-term.

Neville told Sky Sports: “I’m not going to say where I want to end up, and it isn’t in management or head coaching, so I want to be clear about that.

“That’s not my ultimate goal of where I want to be. From my point of view, I was really enjoying what I was doing, I really was, the multiple things I had on, even though I knew it was coming to a point where I had to make decisions at the end of this season.

“This (the Valencia job) came at the right time, because it has allowed me to think: ‘OK, four, five years out of football, I’ve experienced a lot in the different facets of football.’

“Whether media, broadcasting, head coach, assistant manager with England, being a part-owner of a football club and seeing it from that side, and the other business stuff I do.”

Asked whether he would eventually like to manage England or Manchester United, Neville added: “Having been in the media for four or five years, I’ve seen people dance around those questions, playing it coy, making it look like they are keeping their options open.

“But I just wanted to nip it in the bud, and just tell it how it is, and how it is going to be. It’s just not going to happen. I didn’t want to blag my way through the answer.”

Neville: I had to accept Valencia offer

Despite insisting that management is not something he wishes to continue with for the rest of his career, Neville is in no doubt he made the right choice in taking on the challenge at Valencia.

“It [Valencia] is attractive, it’s a big club. I have always said that I would be choosy after football, and I have done that.

“People say it is a risk, but I think it would be a bigger risk not doing it. The fact that I do know the owners, and that I can be honest with them and they’ll be honest with me is a good thing, and that is one of the reasons that I came out here.

“I didn’t want to look back having missed the opportunity to go and coach in this league, at a big club. It is something from my point of view that I wanted to do.

“I’ve always wanted to experience as many things as possible. But it was getting to that point where I need to come away from everything and concentrate on certain things.”