Of all his generation, Gary Neville had always seemed one cut out for management — hardworking, decisive, a leader and astute reader of football. Yet, it seems, we will never properly know if this is true beyond the 28 games in four turbulent months at Valencia.

A message of apparent finality is delivered without much wistfulness by Neville who, befitting the “Busy” nickname that he once had at Manchester United, says that he simply has other priorities. “I genuinely don’t feel I can go back now [to management],” he says. “I think it would be disrespectful. I think it was disrespectful when I went in first time.”

Disrespectful? To whom? “Disrespectful to all hardworking coaches who give up every minute of the working day to