United legend Neville opens up over his coaching future

Joe Williams

Former Manchester United defender and Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville claims he is “a million miles away” from another coaching role.

Neville was sacked after 16 league games into his reign as Valencia manager in 2016, while he has been out of coaching since he left the England set-up in the summer of 2016.

And, although he hasn’t completely ruled out another role in management or coaching, Neville admits it couldn’t be further from his mind at the moment.

“I’m a million miles away,” Neville told the Daily Mail. “I suppose never is a strong word because in 10 years you might wake up and say: ‘I want to coach.’ I love football and the camaraderie but I don’t want to be in that environment anymore.

“Up until 15 months ago I was coach of England and 19 months ago I was coach of Valencia, so it would be impossible to say at that stage that I’m never going to be a coach, but I had turned down two or three Premier League jobs, I turned down two Championship jobs and I wasn’t going to go into coaching.

“I did it because it was my business partner and I thought that the opportunity for an Englishman to manage one of the top four or five clubs in Spain was never going to happen again.”