Amadeo Salvo Backs Valencia’s Gary Neville

The ex president of the team of Valencia – Amadeo Salvo – gave his support to Gary Neville, saying that the now-coach of the club had a tough start at the managerial position. Salvo also backed the club’s owner Peter Lim and the latter’s effort to bring back Valencia’s former glory.

Amadeo Salvo was a president of the football club in the period from 2013 to 2015 and played a major role in bringing Lim in. He left Valencia in the summer of 2015 along with the team’s sporting director Francisco Rufete and Robert Ayala.

After the departure of Salvo, the club’s first team manager Nuno Espirito Santo as the only senior figure at Valencia who had any experience of top-level football. Then, in December 2015, the then-coached got the sack and was replaced by the former Manchester United player Gary Neville who was an assistant coach in England national football team at the time.

Unfortunately for Neville, the manager got more and more unpopular among both players and experts because of the fact that he could not lead Valencia to a win over his nine La Liga games in charge of the club. Things got even worse, when the team got defeated after the smashing 7-0 result in their Copa del Rey semi-final first-leg game against Barcelona on February 3rd.

Still, ex Valencia president Amadeo Salvo backed Neville at a press conference, saying that the now-coach had been put into a tough situation as there was no support structure he could have depended on, despite the fact that Valencia had recently brought back Jesus Garcia Pitarch at the position of sporting director.

Salvo also explained that Neville’s appointment was Lim’s decision. He also said that these were the first steps of the Englishman as a manager at the top level, so the lack of experience plus the fact there was literally no structure of the club to back Neville can easily explain the situation.

The former Valencia president also insisted that there have been someone such as Garcia Pitarch, Ayala or Rufete, they could have given Neville advice and guide him. He said there was almost nothing left with the club at the time Neville was appointed, so the outcome would have been the same no matter who had arrived at the team.

According to Salvo, the people in charge of the club up to date were well-aware of the fact that they have made a lot of errors, but they also know that they must improve. He added that the club’s structure is professional again, so the results would improve with the new sporting director and Neville on top of Valencia. Moreover, further €100 million have been invested by Lim in new capital, which is a long-term project for Valencia.