After the Brits: Valencia, Real Sociedad Now Show Neville and Moyes Differently

Gary Neville might have let go of a little shrug before feeling a dash of consolation. If he’d checked his phone just after 5 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, if he’d scrolled through to the latest from a recent home of his, he’d have seen that, beyond a few names, nothing has changed. 

Valencia had been a mess and Mestalla had fumed, things Neville knows all too well. Against Granada, it was the same thing again, all of it so old by now but somehow still surprising at the same time: defending so bad it made a case for the relaunch of Vine, an absence of ideas in attack and yet more points thrown away.

That’s 25 of them squandered in 12 rounds. After Sunday’s 1-1 draw, Los Che have only 11 to their name and sit in 16th place, just two points above relegation. “It wasn’t just me, then,” Neville might have muttered to himself. 

A few hours later, David Moyes couldn’t have said quite the same. Though the Scot might have been basking in a second straight Premier League win with Sunderland, a quick flick through his phone might have had him choking on the tea that he loves so much.

Real Sociedad had downed Sporting Gijon to the tune of 3-1. Purposeful, confident, dominant, it was their fourth straight win; their fifth win in six. Only Real Madrid have collected more points in that time. On Sunday night, Real Sociedad moved above Atletico Madrid in the table and into fifth, level on points with Villarreal in the Champions League places. “Maybe it was me,” might have crossed Moyes’ mind. 

It’s now almost eight months since Neville was sacked at Mestalla and 12 since Moyes met the same fate at Anoeta before him. The two weren’t in Spain at the same time and thus never crossed paths, but they were linked anyway, even if just symbolically and through nationality. 

They were the Brits abroad tackling La Liga in the same season, a pair of men who held a sense of fascination or intrigue for their watching public because of where they were coming from, because of what they were coming from and because of the way their potential was set against the unknown.

Neville and Moyes mattered in La Liga. But more than anything, they didn’t win, not nearly enough. Now, though, with both long gone, the paths of their former clubs since say something about each. Their stints look different now but not just in isolation; in comparison, too. 

.@RealSociedadEN’s victory at El Molinon moved them up to fifth, just outside the Champions League places in #LaLigaSantander! pic.twitter.com/sNEnRufCJV

— LaLiga (@LaLigaEN) November 20, 2016

On Sunday, after furious whistles rained down from the stands at Mestalla, after fans chanted for club owner Peter Lim to go, Valencia midfielder Enzo Perez told Marca (link in Spanish) “we have hit rock bottom in every sense.” If only he was right. 

Valencia is a club that for a year has …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com