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Gary Neville not expecting swift return to coaching

Gary Neville is looking forward into a five-year break from coaching following his disappointing spell at Valencia.

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Former Manchester United defender Neville was appointed Los Che boss in December 2015 but lasted just four months with Valencia, winning three of his 16 LaLiga games in charge.

He also stepped down from his role as part of Roy Hodgson's backroom team with England following the Three Lions' dismal Euro 2016 exit at the hands of Iceland.

Since then, Neville has been working on commercial ventures as well as his part-ownership of non-league team Salford City and his media commitments.

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And those projects are set to occupy most of his time - for the foreseeable future at least, meaning a return to the dugout is not currently on his agenda.

He told Sky Sports: "I always say 'never say never' because my love of football is too great, but I genuinely believe it will be very difficult for me to go back into coaching because of my commitment now to so many different things.

"It's my obligation to deliver Salford City to the Football League. It's my obligation to roll out Hotel Football internationally. I can't go back into coaching now in the short term - the next five years - and the reality of it is I don't want to.

"It could be that I'm no longer ever a coach in football but that's not a loss. Some people might think it is, but the fact of the matter is it's not to me."

Looking back on his spell at Mestalla, Neville was not interested in making excuses for his failure.

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He added: "I can't go to Spain for four months, be coach of Valencia, and blame the fact there was a difficult dressing room, I didn't speak the language, we had bad luck and we missed some chances.

"Why? Because I knew I didn't speak the language before I went, I knew it was a difficult dressing room, I knew they had sacked lots of managers and I didn't deal with it.

"People will always look at that externally and think it was a negative experience. For me personally, I lost football matches but what I gained was general experience of life, culture and appreciation for a different country."

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