Gary Neville to Valencia: What type of manager will he be?

We know his forthright views but what does a Gary Neville team look like? It's time to find out, writes Adam Bate...

Gary Neville has established himself as the pre-eminent football pundit of his day. There has been praise. There have been awards. He talks. People listen. And that includes players and coaches.

But while popular predecessors such as Alan Hansen never attempted the transition from in front of the cameras to inside the dug-out, Neville has opted to take the leap.

While the announcement that he is to be the new Valencia head coach was a shock it should not have been too much of a surprise. Neville has made no secret of his desire to test himself in management. This was not a choice between television and the training ground. Instead, as he made clear on The Big Interview with Graham Hunter, the plan was always about making the proper preparations.

"Four years ago I made the very clinical decision that I wasn't going to take a coaching role," Neville told Hunter. "That I was going to watch football. I'd only ever seen Manchester United. Watching a game live, analytically, is completely different. I wanted to go and watch every single different type of football that I possibly could over a three, four or five-year period."

Neville has developed into something of a footballing polymath but this is still a fresh challenge. While he's coached with England, he's been keen to stress that it's Roy Hodgson's team. Meanwhile, as co-owner of Salford City, he's maintained a deliberate distance from the club's managers - wary even of proffering opinion let alone insight.

The Valencia job will be his first foray into management. As a result, if and when he is able to put his stamp on the side, it will be our first glimpse of what a Neville team actually looks like in practice. What's already apparent is that while he's chosen to begin his management career in La Liga, the Spanish champions Barcelona will not be the template.

The Barcelona style developed by Pep Guardiola has left a huge impact over the past decade. But while Neville has always expressed admiration for those Barca sides, having spent his playing days whipping in crosses and growing up on the attacking adventure of Manchester United at their best, his vision is very different. He's studied the world game but don't expect too much tiki-taka.

"All these matches, I never would have watched if I'd been a coach at a club and you change over time," Neville told Hunter. "But you end up finding yourself and what your beliefs are in football. Barcelona during the first few years of my Sky career were probably the best team that's ever lived in most people's eyes and in my eyes. But they don't meet my principles on football.

"The Borussia Dortmund team over that period. The first Bayern Munich team under Jupp Heynckes. They were more aligned to me. That's what I like. The Barcelona philosophy is unique to them. Of course, I want teams that press from the front. But the endless possession? I believe in possession but I don't believe in constant possession."

So what does he believe in? Perhaps mindful of his imminent move into management, Neville offered a straight answer to that question only last week in his most recent column for the Telegraph. "Ask me who I would model myself on as an aspiring coach right now and in a flash I would give you the name of Mauricio Pochettino," he claimed.

Neville even went to watch Pochettino's Tottenham train last season. He has been effusive in his praise this term, describing Spurs' key elements - "high-energy, passionate, good to watch, defending high up the pitch" - and noting that these are "all the things I would love to instil myself, as a coach". Now he will have his chance.

Of course, knowing what he wants is only the first step. Implementing it is another matter. But the groundwork has been done and the coaching badges acquired. Neville has watched and waited. He's even had his brother in Valencia working out the lie of the land. At the weekend it's Barcelona. But it's over the next five months that we'll begin to find out what the Gary Neville way looks like.