Valencia (Spain), Feb 5 (IANS) Valencia coach Gary Neville insisted he was not going to resign after suffering what he described as the “most painful night” of his career.
Valencia’s 0-7 thrashing away to FC Barcelona in the first leg of the King’s Cup semi-final would have been a disaster on its own, but it came on the back of a run of eight league games without a win, reports Xinhua.
Neville, the former Manchester United player, has not enjoyed a league triumph since replacing Nuno Espiritu Santo in December.
The Valencia players needed protection from the police as they returned to the club’s training ground in the early hours of the morning after the defeat, while the Valencia based sports paper ‘Superdeporte’ called the defeat “Historically Ridiculous”.
Names such as Manuel Pellegrini and Rafael Benitez are already being banded around as possible successors to Neville for next season.
However, despite seeing his side suffer their worst Cup defeat since 1928, Neville remained positive.
“I won’t resign,” he insisted, adding that he wished the side’s next game, against Betis would… “start in 10 minutes”, so they could put the Barcelona defeat behind them.
“We have three painful days ahead of us… we made so many mistakes and you can’t do that against Barcelona,” he said, before pointing out that his side had drawn at home to Barcelona and Real Madrid in the league.
“The result is unacceptable, but we have to be strong, we had made progress in recent weeks, but we took a step backwards against Barcelona. It was painful and the Valencia fans don’t deserve it. I have to ensure we beat Betis on Sunday,” said Neville, whose Spanish adventure could well end if his side fail to win at the weekend.