David Beckham, owner of Inter Miami CF, was furious when asked if he was signing his former Manchester United teammate, Phil Neville, to coach the team given their many years of friendship.
Neville, who was hired on Monday to coach the Major League Soccer club, played with Beckham at United from 1994 to 2003 and the England team from 1996 to 2007, and they are the fourth co-owner of the Salford City division in England. Neville coached the England women’s team from 2018 to this month, and the Three Lionesses lost to the United States in a 2019 FIFA World Cup semi-final.
However, when asked at the new coach’s introductory press conference if friendship was a factor in hiring Neville, Beckham insisted hiring has nothing to do with it.
‘Of course people will always turn around and say,’ Ah, that’s because he’s your friend. “It has nothing to do with being my friend,” Beckham said Friday. Our group of owners does not only employ friends. We employ the best people both on and off the field, in our staff, the staff who work in our training facilities, in the stadium.
“We’re running a serious football club here. And I think we’ll end up hiring the people we think are the best fit for the job.”
Neville said he is aware that many foreign coaches in MLS are struggling with salary cap, artificial turf and extreme weather conditions, with the exception of Gerardo Martino, with Atlanta, in 2018 and Gary Smith, with Colorado, in 2010. He recalls spending eight weeks observing how the coach worked Bruce Arena with Beckham during his time with the LA Galaxy towards the end of his career.
“The biggest challenge for me as a coach is to come here and show people that foreign coaches can come and be successful,” said Neville. “There will be things about travel and different time zones that we also have to adapt to. But in the end I think that in my football career, in my short career as a coach, I have had to adapt to different situations such as travel, weather, etc. .
“So I have a good experience with that. I went to America for each preseason where we were in a different city every two or three days. We had to adapt. And we did. We played a game on the east coast, the coast. West, every two or three days. So I’m looking forward to the challenge. “
Neville inherits a selection with forward Gonzalo Higuaín and midfielder Blaise Matuidi, both 33 years old.
“I think these players know there are injuries. They’re a little bit scared of last season’s performance now,” said Neville. “They want to come back this season and show everyone how good they are. So there’s that appetite, that determination that I’ve seen this week, that I’m sure we can include them in the season; with a little more quality in terms of the players we want to bring in, I think we will be a very strong team. “
Neville was assistant coach at Valencia in 2015 – 2016 during his brother Gary’s time as technical director. Phil Neville was too nervous to answer questions in Spanish on Friday, but plans to start after the first game of this season.
Neville expects a smooth transition from training women to men.
“The sessions I did at Manchester United and the sessions I did in Valencia were no different from the sessions I did last year for my women’s team,” she said. “It’s a football that is played on the same field, with balls of the same size, with a referee, with the fans in the stadium and in the end the same goal, and that’s winning.”