Gary Neville's souring story at Valencia points to young managers' quandary

In Roy Keane's autobiography, The Second Half, he describes his first managerial job with Sunderland and the newness of everything. He had a secretary but was embarrassed to ask her to do anything he couldn't do himself. He felt uncomfortable in his office. He'd never had one before. He was immediately suspicious.

“Your own office can be a lonely place,” he said.

“I remember thinking 'I'm not going to get too comfortable here.' Even when things were going well, I thought, 'If things go badly, I want to be able to clear out pretty quickly. One box. Keep it clean, keep it tidy and be ready for a quick getaway'.”

Keane was cutting his teeth as a young, in-demand coach. Still, and as much as he's the melancholic sort anyway, he was already thinking of what would happen when he'd be fired by Sunderland. There was no youthful optimism, no confident swagger, just the cold reality of being a lodger in someone else's home.

I thought of Keane and his "glass half-empty" perspective on management this week, as his former Manchester United teammate Gary Neville tries desperately to hang on for dear life at Spanish side Valencia.

Having been a surprise and risky appointment as head coach in December, Neville has failed to win a league game in eight attempts while the team's run to the Copa del Rey semifinals is over after a humiliating 7-0 thumping by Barcelona on Wednesday evening.

But, the fine print is so widely and bizarrely ignored.

Neville, who won 20 major trophies during a 19-year spell as a player under Sir Alex Ferguson, has never managed before. He's taken his first coaching job in a different country where they speak a different language. And doing it midway through a season. As the club's 14th manager in a decade. With British coaches also having such a famously complex relationship with working overseas, Neville has signed up for something resembling a perfect storm. He's been in the job for 15 games. And, perhaps most importantly of all, as a young, developing manager, is it not fair to expect Neville being granted just a little more time and a little less condemnation?

A divisive player – adored by United supporters and generally despised by every other club's fan base – Neville quickly became something of a national treasure in England upon retiring from playing. Hired by Sky Sports as a soccer analyst, his incisive, astute and illuminating TV contributions were championed by all and sundry. Newspaper columns waxed lyrical about the refreshing way Neville had reinvented soccer analysis – his critiques always measured, controlled and meticulous.

And now, here we are. Given the reputation he's built, particularly in the last years, many had looked forward to this first managerial role for Neville. But as he struggles the general response has been less calm and composed, more of the usual hyper, frenzied variety.

What is strange is the reaction in the UK, where Neville's initial appointment was greeted with intrigue. The soccer media opined at the time that it was a fascinating move -- that Neville's intense, perfectionist ways were ideally suited to management, and that it was a brave decision to take on his first job outside of the comfy, familiar surrounds of the Premier League. It wouldn't be easy, they predicted, but with Neville being such a doggedly determined character, a workaholic and a passionate student of the game, he had a chance.

But the UK media are all in a tizzy right now, chomping at the bit, anxiously, and rather gleefully it seems, waiting for Neville's removal. Why? It's hard to know. But it's all a little embarrassing. One red-top columnist pondered on what all of this means for dear old England. He says that Neville, who has remained part of the national team's coaching staff, could be tarnishing his reputation by continuing to struggle at a club, thereby ruining his chances of becoming England boss. Anyone who watched Liverpool under Roy Hodgson will argue that's not really how it works.

But there is a bigger concern here. It's not just about Neville but the wider treatment of younger managers generally.

Also last December, and just days after Neville was announced as Valencia's new head coach, Garry Monk lost his job at Swansea.

The 36-year-old Monk had been the youngest manager in the league, and brought the club to its highest-ever top-flight position of eighth in his first full season in charge. He had worked more miracles 12 months earlier when, after being parachuted in as interim coach (no previous experience) in February 2014, he managed to keep Swansea in the Premier League when it had looked ominous under former boss Michael Laudrup.

But the line of credit is a short one. In December, the only statistic people wanted to mention was how Swansea had one win from 11 league games. Not many detailed how Monk had been awarded a three-year contract extension five months earlier, or how some had whispered he could be a potential candidate to replace Hodgson as England manager.

You can go back further to the travails of Andre Villas-Boas, who arrived in England fresh from claiming the Portuguese title and Europa League with Porto at just 33 years of age. But he was always an outsider in the Premier League, an oddity who didn't fit in.

His time with Chelsea and Tottenham was neatly and eloquently summed up by lovable scamp Harry Redknapp in 2012, who claimed, in a less-than-subtle dig, that modern managers baffle players with "70-page dossiers ... (and) bullshit."

By not allowing young coaches to find their way and to make mistakes, where does it all end? Neville, Monk and Villas-Boas all share some common traits –- youth, passion, hunger and an unrelenting work ethic. Surely such characteristics should be embraced and allowed to develop? Surely, young coaches in particular should get to play by slightly different rules? The same way young players do.

Or maybe, like Roy Keane, they should glumly sit in their lonely office, waiting for the end to come.