Gary Neville has spoken about what Rafael Benitez did when he played against him as Valencia’s manager.
Gary Neville is so settled in punditry now that it’s easy to forget he once had a very brief foray into management.
Back in December 2015, Neville was appointed as Valencia’s manager, and spent a very short few months in charge of the club.
It’s fair to say Neville’s time at Valencia was far from a succes, and he didn’t really show he was cut out for the life of a manager.
He was sacked in February 2016, with Valencia only winning three of their last 16 matches and unable to keep a single clean-sheet.
Gary Neville on what Rafael Benitez did when he faced him at Valencia
Despite only being at Valencia for such a short amount of time, Neville was still able to rub shoulders and take on some real managerial juggernauts.
That includes former Liverpool legend, Rafael Benitez, who was in charge of Real Madrid that season. And Luis Enrique, who is currently in charge of Paris Saint Germain, and was then managing Barcelona.
“Luis Enrique, that night of the 7-0, it was the Copa Del Rey.” Neville recalled on the Stick to Football podcast.
“Not that important a competition to Barcelona and they were 4 or 5-0 up and he didn’t sub Neymar, Messi or Suarez.
“Enrique – and I watched him last week actually during the Barcelona game – and I was thinking I can see why you’re going to get PSG over the line maybe.
“That night at the end of the game I went to shake his hand and he walked straight past me, he ignored me, and I just thought [he’s got that] nastiness, that horribleness and he was like ‘go home, little boy’. I felt that was like what he was like the message he was sending to me.
“Do you know who was good to me though? Rafael Benitez was good to me. We played Real Madrid and he was under pressure at the time and after the time we had a chat, he had been at Valencia, and he was actually very good with me. He gave me four or five minutes.”
What is Rafael Benitez up to now?
Most recently, the former Liverpool manager was in charge of Celta Vigo in Spain, but he was dismissed from his position back in March of this year with his club sitting two points from the relegation zone.
64-years-old now, it remains to be seen what the future holds for the Spaniard.