Gary Neville was teased by Jamie Carragher over Salford City’s decision to fire Richie Wellens (Sky Sports).
Gary Neville tends to have an opinion on anything and everything – and whether you agree or disagree, he is always worth listening to.
No wonder his Sky Sports sparring partner Jamie Carragher was so delighted to retweet some of Neville’s old words after Salford’s ruthless firing of Richie Wellens this week.
“The scary thing is that a huge chunk of people actually support these layoffs as they get used to them,” Neville tweeted in early January 2018.
“How can you build a soccer team without getting 2-3 years? A rule change is required to moderate the mid-season layoff of managers in their freshman year with a club. ‘
That rule would not only have been tested this season at Salford, as Carragher would have compared Neville to the infamous owner of Atletico Madrid, Jesus Gil, because of her revolving door.
Graham Alexander was fired in mid-October with the undefeated Ammies in fifth place in the table after five games.
Richie Wellens was fired from Salford City earlier this week (Getty)
Wellens was poached by Swindon – much to the annoyance of Robins fans, who not only enjoyed the League Two promotion campaign last season, but the way it was achieved. Neville had publicly admired Swindon’s football from afar and picked a man who had spent his formative years at Manchester United while Salford’s famous co-owners were at their height.
But that didn’t bother the 40-year-old much when Neville apparently led an investigation last week into why Salford missed his promotion ambitions.
The blatant facts are that Wellens has won eleven, drawn ten and lost nine of his 30 responsible games. After four wins from the last 14 games, they were six points behind the play-offs.
Gary Bowyer has been hired as the new manager of Salford City (Getty).
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Salford’s owners won’t be the first or last club in this position to make a change. According to reports, Neville is frustrated that Wellens is unwilling to give up his possession game for a route-one approach.
You have invested in the club and want to be successful yesterday. Gary Bowyer has played the last 11 games in the hopes of bringing Salford to the play-offs and repeating the promotion from the second division he achieved with Blackpool in 2017. And yet the strangest part of the whole thing was Neville’s public silence. Not a word. It really wouldn’t feel very classy if we had to wait for the documentary.
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