Gary Neville has mocked Liz Truss by comparing her brief stint as Prime Minister to his unsuccessful spell as a manager.
Truss was the shortest-serving PM in British history, having managed just 44 days in the role after taking over from Boris Johnson last year. She was forced to resign in October amid turmoil in the Conservative Party following a disastrous mini-budget, which was scrapped in a humiliating U-turn.
After dropping out of the public eye as a Tory backbencher, Truss is now attempting to revive her career by making a speech in the US. But she is being widely ridiculed on social media before even making the speech, which will talk about the threat to western democracies from China.
Former Manchester United defender Neville – a strident Labour supporter – has joined in the fun. Quote-tweeting 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 wrote: “Gary Neville tells Pep Guardiola to get real about his tactics in coaching comeback speech.”
Neville is a successful pundit with Sky Sports, but previously had an ill-fated coaching career. The 48-year-old worked with England as an assistant coach between 2012 and 2016, but his one effort at management did not go well.
Despite having no management experience and not speaking fluent Spanish, he was made Valencia manager in December 2015. The appointment was not a success, with Neville overseeing 10 wins, seven draws and 11 defeats in 28 games before being sacked with Valencia 14th in LaLiga following a run of three wins in 16 matches.
Speaking on the Sky Sports Off Script Podcast in 2020, Neville admitted he should never have landed the job. “When you take something on that you are not qualified in or not as qualified as you should be, you get a slap around the face,” he said.
"I underestimated how difficult it would be in a different league in a different city in a different country and the language barrier and all that entails. I underestimated the size of the job I was about to take on.”
Neville is a regular critic of the Tory government and made headlines during the Qatar World Cup by accusing Rishi Sunak of “demonising” workers. After discussing the Kafala system and Qatar ’s poor human rights record, Neville turned his attention to the UK.
“It is just worth mentioning we've got a current government in our country that are demonising rail workers, ambulance workers and terrifying nurses,” he said on ITV.
“In our country we've got to look at workers rights but when football goes, we have to pick up on workers rights wherever it goes because people have got to be equal and treated equal.”
