Former Real Sociedad boss David Moyes has questioned Valencia fans’ expectations after claiming the club have “no chance” of competing for La Liga.
Neville secured his first League win at the 10th attempt over the weekend and followed that up with the appointment of Rafa Benitez’s former No 2 Pako Ayesteran as his assistant, and Moyes feels his fellow Brit is going about his business correctly at Mestalla.
“He will be glad to get that first win out of the way, but I can tell you, anybody who has been to Valencia, their expectations are through the roof,” he told Sky Sports programme Goals on Sunday.
“Of all the clubs in Spain, they are the one club who think they should be challenging Real Madrid and Barcelona. It is very difficult to touch those two teams.
“They had a good team last year, they qualified for the Champions League, they played good stuff, they have got a really demanding crowd.
“After the game when we played them, the first thing in the Press conference was, ‘do you think Valencia can compete and get above Barcelona and Real Madrid?’ and I felt like saying, ‘you have no chance of that happening’, because the two teams are too powerful and too strong.
“I have spoken to Phil [Neville] a couple of times and I know how hard it is, winning games in Spain. There isn’t a lot of goals in Spain at times. Teams defend very tightly.
“I watched the second half of the game last night and Espanyol missed a great chance to make it 2-2 but Gary probably needs that little bit of good fortune you need in management to get one or two results and get started.
“[On Neville bringing in Ayesteran as his assistant], I think Gary is doing everything he can to make sure he has got the right backroom staff.
“He’s got enough Spanish people around him and people who understand the club itself.
“I think that’s really important. It was like myself; I only took Billy McKinlay with me and we brought in the staff from the B-team and the people around, people who were connected to the club because we didn't want to go there with a British entourage to say, ‘this is what we do’.
“And I'm sure Gary, with his brother there, will make sure they get the right people around them, so it'll help Gary.”
