Gary Neville reveals he was being lined up to take over as England manager

Neville took his first steps into management as Valencia boss in 2015, while he also had an extended spell as a coaching assistant to Roy Hodgson during his time as England boss.

Now Neville has spoken for the first time about the discussions he had with English Football Association chief Dan Ashworth over succeeding Hodgson, as he spoke on the latest edition of the Stick To Football podcast with SkyBet.

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“I’ve never said this publicly, but I remember getting the Valencia job in December, and Dan Ashworth rang me and said this was the perfect move for me to be on that next step for when Roy Hodgson decided he wanted to leave the England job, for me to take over,” said Neville.

“I always remember that phone call and him saying this was the perfect opportunity, but I look back now, and it was right that I failed in the job because I didn’t put the work in.

“With how my work ethic is now, I needed to fail to have that slap in the face moment, for me to get back to it, which is where I am now.”

Neville went on to discuss the management jobs he turned down before his disastrous spell as Valencia manager.

“I had started my businesses and my media career, so I didn’t want to be a coach and I had said no to Newcastle, which came from someone at Sky who had a contact at Newcastle as they wanted to speak to me, which was the same with Middlesbrough, and I’m not saying that I would have got me the job but I could have,” he stated.

“When I first came out of football, in those first two years on television, I knew every player, I knew football inside and out and I felt like I could communicate the game well, which is different now 10 years later as I’ve distanced myself from the game, but I didn’t want to be a manager and I didn’t want to be a coach.

“I said no to Peter Lim (Valencia CF owner) the first time, but he said that he really wanted me to do it. I signed on a five-month contract, and I didn’t last that time because it became impossible for Peter, for me and for everyone.

“By the time I was manager of Valencia, I had done my UEFA B license which was when I was 31. I had done my UEFA A licence at 34 whilst I was still at Manchester United, and I had done my UEFA Pro licence at 37, so I was fully qualified and could sit on the bench for any team in Europe.

“I said at the time that if you do your coaching badges, it will help with your punditry and it does for a period because you’re talking about the game with 20 other coaches doing their badges. Despite doing the badges, I didn’t want to go into a managerial role because I was enjoying the media side.

“The lessons from Valencia were massive for me about saying no. At the time, I said ‘yes’ to a couple things that came my way, and the one with Peter at Valencia was purely to do him a favour.”