Gary Neville's Return to Football

[Geezar10]

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Gary Neville has returned to football just 10 days after he announced his retirement. He is believed to have accepted the post at PAOK at around 2 a.m in the morning on 12/02/11.His contract is believed to be approximately £4,000 per week on a deal that lasts until June 2014. He has accepted the job with PAOK sitting in second to bottom position. The league currently looks like this.

Gary’s first game will be this afternoon at 5 p.m and will broadcasted live on international TV. They will be playing against the team directly above them, Ast. Tripolis. BBC Sport caught up with Gary this morning.

Media: Gary congratulations in getting a job so quickly after you retired. Was this why you retired?

Neville: I did know that I wanted to become a manager but I wasn’t expecting an offer so quickly. I was as surprised as you at getting the job.

Media: Is this your dream job?

Neville: No, my dream would be to replace Fergie at Manchester United but I will put my heart and soul into my job and I can’t wait until the first match this afternoon.

Media: What are your hopes for the rest of the season?

Neville: I would like to turn this team around and hope to finish in the top half of the table.

Media: Isn’t that a little ambitious?

Neville: Yes it is ambitious but not impossible all we need to do is string together some good results and we will be up there in no time.

Media: Does it worry you taking over the club without a league win in 7 games?

Neville: I have the utmost confidence in my players to be able to get a win soon and then build on that.

Media: Have you had time to speak to your players yet?

Neville: Yes, we have had a quick chat and I have made it clear to them what I expect from them and what I hope to achieve in the rest of the season. I believe the league is very close and it will only take a couple of good performances from the lads to get us in the position that we want to be.

Media: Thank you for taking the time to talk to us and good luck in your new job.

 

[Craig Dunning]

good start

 

[Geezar10]

Neville Unbeaten in First Month ​

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PAOK 1-1 Ast.Tripolis​

Gary Neville’s first game as a manager ends in a draw after an exiting 90 minutes of football. Neville was set a major set back in the 26th minute after Garcia dived into a reckless challenge resulting in a deserved red card. On the stroke of half time Muslimovic popped up out of nowhere to head home from close range. After the break Ast.Tripolis came back fighting and instantly began to dominate. This resulted in a goal just 2 minutes after the restart. Rios scored a screamer from 25 yards. Both teams pressed for a winner but to no avail with the game ending tied.

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Muslimovic (45+2) – Rios (47)​

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Kerkyra 0-3 PAOK​

Neville claimed his first managerial victory in impressive fashion. The away fans had to wait 33 minutes for their team to score and it was the same man as last match who got it, Muslimovic. This time he scored a lob from the edge of the area. Salpingidis got his first goal under Gary’s management after the break with a headed goal from inside the six yard box very much similar to Muslimovic’s against Ast.Tripolis. Vitolo sealed the deal with a slide from a cross. Kerkyra were given one last thing to lower there hopes of survival when star player Ioannou was injured by a tackle from Cristiano in the 79th minute.

Muslimovic (33) Salpingidis (49) Vitolo (61)​

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PAOK 1-1 Panathinaikos​

Panathinaikos got off to a bad start giving the ball away far too often. This got even worse after 13 minutes when Cisse got injured. The frustration shone through when Christodoulopoulos lunged viciously at Ivic, he was dismissed adding to anger of the Panathinaikos players. PAOK then took the lead before the break with a pure power shot by Salpingidis that flew into the top corner. PAOK again lost concentration after the break leaving Katsouranis unmarked in the box to easily slot home. PAOK came the closest to winning the game in the 3rd minute of stoppage time when Basinas hit a shot from 20 yards that was deflected against the bar.

Salpingidis (42) – Katsouranis (49)​

 

[Geezar10]

Despite Neville's best efforts his career as a manager took a wrong turn and he ended up losing all the last 6 games capping off this terrible run was the 8-0 loss to Aris on the last game of the season. He formally resigned from the club and gave this statement "Life as a manager has proved much tougher than I first thought it would be. I am happy to have been offered a job by the BBC and have now been hired as the new host of Match of the Day. I am very pleased with my time with PAOK but am sad that despite my best efforts I could not keep them in the league. I have now retired as a manager and am going to focus on my new job."

THE END
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[AndySams10]

Like this, will follow. Never managed in Greece be interested to see how you get on.

Please check my story when you can.

Thanks

 

[Geezar10]

Like this, will follow. Never managed in Greece be interested to see how you get on.

Please check my story when you can.

Thanks

What was the point in that post? I had clearly just ended the story. I cannot continue the story as my save file has been lost as my computer destroyed itself and is now running on half of its memory. I will make another story though when I have got my computer running propaly again.