Phil Neville loves a challenge. It’s why he has taken a route far less ordinary in a career which is now being tested in the United States, a place few Englishmen have trodden with sustained success.
The Premier League will always be a pull for the boy from Bury but right now, steering David Beckham’s Inter Miami into contention for MLS titles after two poor initial campaigns would constitute a job well done.
A host of new players arriving – and 15 from last year leaving – has given Miami a more youthful look, although everything depends on star man Gonzalo Higuain – and Neville himself.
The 45-year-old is the most high profile Englishman working abroad and America is a notoriously hard nut to crack, yet Miami footprints are growing locally. Winning matters, though.
The former Manchester United defender – and his old friend on the wing – want to succeed in doing it their way. Attendances have been decent, which is very encouraging despite there being little to cheer.
“It’s an old Sir Alex thing – if I’m going to die, I’m going to die trying my way,” Neville tells i. “That’s what we have done this pre-season. We have ripped up the roster.”
Growing up under Ferguson always pops up in conversation with Neville, who can also call on the experience of playing under some other hugely influential bosses. “Sir Alex, David Moyes, Sven Goran Eriksson, Glenn Hoddle all had a humility and a human side that went far beyond football,” he says.
“My best memories of David Moyes probably weren’t football related. He was the one that took me under his wing and to Manchester United as a coach. They are things that people do beyond what they teach you on any course. Gareth Southgate has done fantastically too. I learned so much from him when I was working for the FA.”
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While opening day opponents Chicago Fire will proudly roll out new signing Xherdan Shaqiri for the first time at DRV PNK Stadium here in south Florida on Saturday, former Real Madrid and Chelsea striker Higuain, the now 34-year-old starting what could be his final season, is the home side’s biggest draw.
Well, other than their superstar, globe-trotting owner.
Beckham was a constant presence last season, both at matches and around the squad at the training ground, and will be on hand to give Neville support. Never backwards in coming forwards, Beckham regularly promotes his team and has been proudly posting pictures of himself wearing the new, pink Inter Miami shirt on a recent ski trip.
“We always joke that he has eight days in his week,” says Neville. “He’s like that Beatles song. He’s relentless.”
The importance of Beckham’s involvement should not be under-estimated.
“We get calls from some of the best players in the world wanting to come to Miami,” admits Neville, who is usually at the club’s Fort Lauderdale base as the sun comes up, working on ways to improve on a disappointing first campaign which saw just 12 wins all season and a dysfunctional team missing out on the minimum aim of reaching the play-offs.
His new-look squad is young – the average age is 24.5 years old – and needs managing as well as coaching. “Players nowadays are far more precious than before,” he says. “There is more scrutiny and distractions. You’ve got to manage every single one individually.”
Some believe Beckham has failed to make the impact he’d hoped for after a fraught first two years which saw his original sporting director Paul McDonough banned for two years following the lengthy MLS probe into a series of financial irregularities.
The legal battles involved in building what Beckham and fellow owners Jorge and Jose Mas, the locally based construction magnates, hope would be a fully functioning stadium and money generating business park and tech hub are on-going yet unlikely to be concluded any time soon, which is problematic to their long-term plan.
On the field, they should be more competitive. USA international DeAndre Yedlin, on-loan Wolves striker Leonardo Campana, highly rated Colombian winger Emerson Rodriguez, Jamaica’s Damion Lowe and former Santos midfielder Jean Mota give the team a refreshing new look along with Finnish winger Robert Taylor and ex-LA Galaxy midfielder Ariel Lassister.
Dawn Scott, the Newcastle born former US and England women’s performance director, has also arrived behind the scenes.
Neville’s son, Harvey, 19, is set to join the MLS roster for the new season after spending last year at their Fort Lauderdale sister club in the USL, which is effectively the second tier of the US soccer system and will remain the home of Romeo Beckham, David’s 19-year-old son who made his debut last season.
For Neville, family always comes first, although moving in the middle of a pandemic has been difficult. “My sister had a little baby but I have only seen them twice and I’ve only seen my mum five days in the last 18 months. It’s not easy,” he says. “You can’t just hop on a plane backwards and forwards.”
Neville, who has taken in spells in Valencia, Manchester United and almost three years in charge of England’s Lionesses before happily arriving in Florida, knows a trip home permanently at some point is on the cards.
“Do I have ambitions to one day manage in the Premier League? Probably yes,” he said. “It’s not my North Star, though. I want to have a successful managerial career, doing things that make me happy and take me out of my comfort zone.
“People say foreign coaches aren’t a success here but I want to be.”
When Neville and hia brother Gary did go to Valencia in 2015 – Phil worked for four months under Nuno Espirito Santo before the latter was sacked, while Gary was fired just 16 games into his tenure in Spain – Phil’s wife Julie, who was running a nutrition business at the time, wasn’t initially consulted. This time, though, everyone was on board.
Harvey is waiting on a Green Card and will make his MLS debut having arrived from the Old Trafford youth team, while daughter Isabella is hoping to go through the American college system.
“People talk about my hobbies away from football,” says Neville. “But my hobby is on Sunday morning I got back from a pre-season tour in Charleston at 3am, and at 9am I was on the road with my daughter giving her a driving lesson.
“I’ve dreamed of doing that all my life. So that’s my hobby. Take it away and I’m literally the most useless person in the world.
“Was I a good instructor? I was really calm. We just went on the straightest road possible.”
Life in the Miami hotbed will never be straight-forward but Neville remains undeterred. “I feel as if now it is my team,” he says. “And that is why I have said to everyone: judge me now.”
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