Gary Neville claims Derby County job offer "wasn't what I wanted"

Sky Sports pundit and former Manchester United defender Gary Neville claimed in a recent interview that he had the chance to speak to Derby about the manager job.

In 2015, he took the role of manager at Valencia which only lasted three months, however he only took the job as he knew the club’s owner.

Neville said that he had a number of clubs that were keen on him becoming manager including Derby County, Newcastle and Middlesborough.

Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast , he said: “I’ve been asked by Middlesbrough for an interview, Newcastle and Derby asked to speak to me, all in the previous three years I had been on Sky.

“I said no to every offer because it wasn’t what I wanted to be."

His move to Valencia was somewhat of a disaster as he won just three of 16 games.

At the time, Derby County had former assistant to Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid Paul Clement in charge, he was at Pride Park between June 2015 and February 2016, and was sacked with the club fifth in the Championship.

“I had started my businesses and my media career," Neville added. "So I didn’t want to be a coach.”

Had Neville accepted Derby’s proposal then he would have been the first of a list of three former high-level England internationals to manage the club with Frank Lampard and then later Wayne Rooney taking the job.