Leaving My Role With The English National Team Was Sad – Phil Neville

England legend, Phil Neville has come out to explain why he recently left the role he had with the English national team. He simply revealed that he just couldn’t turn down the opportunity to work as Inter Miami’s manager when the offer came.

According to him, the job in America was too big to reject, but it was very sad to leave his England role after working with several amazing players.

Neville added that he wants to instill quality football values in his Inter Miami players, while giving them the winning mentality.

His words, “I did have a fantastic job and I worked with absolutely fantastic people,”

“I’ve got to say, the players that I worked with were some of the best players I’ve worked with and I was sad to say goodbye to them a couple of weeks ago, but I think sometimes in your career you get opportunities that you can’t turn down.

“When this opportunity came up, I sat down with my boss at the FA, Sue Campbell, and I said: ‘Look, I’ve got six months left on my contract. Yes, we’ve got an Olympics, but this is just too big an opportunity for me to turn down’.

“It’s something that I had always aspired to [do], to work in America, but to work for a great football club. Sue didn’t stand in my way. I’ve got to say a massive thank you to Sue for allowing me to follow my dream.”

“I’m sad to leave such a great organisation, who will continue to do well. They’ve got a coach coming in, in Sarina, who will do a fantastic job and hopefully they will go on and get that gold medal that we’ve all strived for for the last 10-15 years.

“But, ultimately, I think in life you get one opportunity and I think this was my big one opportunity that I had to grasp and I did it with the help of everybody else. I’m really looking forward to the challenge ahead.”

“I’ve got a lot of experience – a lot of experience of being around winners, a lot of experience about winning myself as a player, but actually coaching at the very top level in Spain with Valencia, at Manchester United and with the England national team, getting to a World Cup semi-final,”

“In terms of what we want to build here, we’ve talked about identity, we’ve talked about connecting with the public.”

“We have to behave in a certain way and I call it elite behaviour. Elite behaviour is doing the right thing, every minute of every single day.

“I’ve lived that myself as a player and I’ve seen and coached that way, with some of the best players in both the men’s and the women’s game.

“I’m coming into this job to instil those values into this football club, about what it takes to actually win. I think I know those qualities and what it takes.”