Gary Neville compares Valencia stint to Liz Truss’ 44-day spell as PM

Gary Neville sent up his own abortive managerial career in a tweet mocking former Prime Minister Liz Truss’ political comeback. 

Fans were amused to see the Sky Sports pundit taking aim at himself to criticise Truss’ attempts to relaunch her front-bench career after her chaotic 44-day premiership in autumn of last year. 

The broadcaster was in charge at Valencia for four months between 2015 and 2016, having been appointed despite limited coaching experience and no fluency in Spanish. 

Truss had a similarly star-crossed short-term run as Prime Minister, becoming the shortest-serving leader in history after her mini-budget was scrapped in an embarrassing U-turn for the Conservative government. 

Quote-tweeting a post announcing Truss’ plans to relaunch her career from the backbenches, starting with a speech the former Foreign Secretary is due to give in Washington DC on Wednesday, Neville poked fun using a self-deprecating parallel. 

© Provided by Daily Mail Gary Neville sent up his own career, comparing Liz Truss planned speech to giving coaching advice to decorated City manager Pep Guardiola © Provided by Daily Mail Neville poked fun at his disastrous time in Spain which saw him sacked after just four months

In response to a Sky News headline which read ‘Former prime minister Liz Truss to urge West to ‘get real’ about China threat in political comeback speech’, he said: ‘Gary Neville tells Pep Guardiola to get real about his tactics in coaching comeback speech’. 

Neville oversaw 28 games at the helm of the Spanish club during his tenure, during which time he recorded 10 wins, seven draws and 11 defeats. 

Valencia were sitting 14th when he was sacked, after Los Che had won only three times in 16 matches. 

In 2019, Neville said that there was ‘not one single part of [him] that wakes up and thinks “I want to be on the training field”,’ on Radio 4’s Today programme. 

‘It was a clip around the ear, sometimes you need one in life.’ 

A vocal Labour supporter, Wednesday’s tweet didn’t mark the first time that Neville has mocked himself to offer a critique of the Tory government. 

© Provided by Daily Mail The former Prime Minister has been a backbencher since her resignation in October 2022 © Provided by Daily Mail Last September, Labour party member Neville appeared on stage with Sir Keir Starmer 

Speaking at the Labour conference in September – during Truss’ checkered time in office – Neville said that the recently-announced mini-budget had ‘tanked the pound lower than my reputation in Liverpool’. 

At the same event, which saw the party member appear onstage with its leader Sir Keir Starmer, Neville called the then-Truss-led administration a ‘tired, failing Government’. 

In an additional footballing parallel, Truss’ speech on Wednesday is due to call into question whether Western democracies, such as the UK, are ‘match fit to take on China’.  

The MP for South West Norfolk has been predominantly out of the spotlight since her turbulent time at No 10 came to its dramatic conclusion, with her Margaret Thatcher Freedom Lecture at the Heritage Foundation looking to begin her reputational rehabilitation.  

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