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. 

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 seemed to hit rock bottom at monthly intervals, but each time it seems they don't; each time there's always further still to fall.

It felt like rock bottom when Valencia surrendered to Sevilla last November and Nuno was sacked amid a tumultuous background picture. It felt like rock bottom when Barcelona put seven past them in the Copa del Rey in February. It felt like rock bottom when they lost to Real Betis that weekend, extending a winless run in the league to 12 games. 

It felt like rock bottom when Neville was sacked in March with the club lingering just above the drop zone. It felt like rock bottom when Valencia made the most incredible hash of a trip to Eibar in August. It felt like rock bottom when Neville's replacement, Pako Ayestaran, was dismissed in September after less than six months in the job, having overseen the club's worst-ever run in La Liga. 

Perez says they're at rock bottom now. The fear is they're not. 

For Neville, such a situation won't please him even if it consoles him to an extent. The Englishman regularly expressed his respect and awareness of the club he parachuted into last season. He spoke of the fans' passion, the intensity of Mestalla and the scale or magnitude of Valencia as a club. He meant it, he just couldn't impact it. 

Neville arrived at the club at a time when even managerial heavyweights would have felt up to their necks in the same position. He was a rookie at a club split down the middle; a club at which new ownership had disposed of the old regime in what was seen as a civil war; a club at which business relationships painted a messy picture; at club at which spending had been reckless and misguided; a club with an unbalanced and overrated squad; a club defined by internal tension. 

"[Neville's] back was up against the wall from the moment he took charge," said goalkeeper Mat Ryan of his former boss in May, per the Mirror.  

Neville went to Spain's east coast with conviction and the aura of a winner but found a situation he was unprepared for. The language barrier blunted his most obvious skill, communication. He couldn't impose a style or identity on his team. His relationship with Lim counted against him for fans and media. Nothing worked. 

But nothing has worked since his departure either. Valencia are getting worse by the month, new rock bottoms appearing each time. Neville's biggest error was to go in the first place rather than what he did once there. It's an important distinction to make. 

On the north coast, though, things look different. Real Sociedad are flying, a year on from Moyes. Fifth in the table, there's something building at Anoeta that wasn't there before. 

Sunday's victory over Sporting was even more emphatic than the scoreboard suggested. La Real had more than 60 percent possession and took 20 shots to four, nine on target to one, per WhoScored.com. It comes on the back of their toppling of Atletico, when they played the Champions League finalists off the park. 

Under Eusebio Sacristan, a new method is flourishing. La Real are neat and crisp in possession, strong in midfield, and they attack with an order to their play, a sense of structure maintained even as they push forward. Eusebio's strong ties with Barcelona can now be seen to a certain extent; only four teams have had more of the ball this season, and only four have more goals, too. 

The situation is in stark contrast to the one Moyes left behind. When the Scot departed last November, the Basques had two wins from 11 games and sat in 16th place, level on points with Las Palmas in the bottom three. 

But more than numbers, it was the nature of the team that was the problem. Real Sociedad had nothing about them. There was no verve or personality to the side, no defined way of doing things. At the end of Moyes' first season (a half season), Inigo Martinez expressed a sense of inertia. 

"Moyes came in with the intention of improving and changing things and it hasn't worked out so well," the defender said, per AS. 

It wasn't received well that summer when the Scot tried to temper expectation. He did the same with Sunderland this season. It's easy to understand the intention behind it, but lowering expectations has a funny knack for lowering standards, too. 

As La Real laboured through the opening months of last season, one couldn't see what the side was, who they were. "We need an idea," said David Zurutuza, per Sport.

Like for Neville, the language barrier was a problem for Moyes. He looked isolated and unable to turn to his strengths. Living in a hotel didn't help. Going there, he'd wanted to impart some of his identity on the club, to give a British twist to a Spanish institution. There was some resistance to that but also a disconnect; the Scot's year there amid a comparatively settled environment to that of Valencia was defined by drift, not progress. 

Things look different now, though. At Valencia, they still look the same. On Sunday, if they flicked through their phones, Neville and Moyes, retrospectively, might have felt differently about their stints in La Liga.