Valencia fans call on former manager Gary Neville to ‘help them get rid’ of billionaire owner Peter Lim… who helps fund the ex-Manchester United defender’s partly owned club League Two club Salford City
- Valencia fans have been protesting against the club’s ownership under Peter Lim
- Cash strapped side have sold key players in recent years including Ferran Torres
- Yet the Spanish club appear to be slipping into the lower reaches of LaLiga
- Gary Neville is a friend of Lim and managed Valencia in the 2015-16 season
Valencia supporters have pressured Gary Neville to admit that his close associate Peter Lim is doing little to halt their side’s dwindling fortunes under his ownership.
The Spanish club’s fans have been protesting against Lim, who has been a majority shareholder since 2014, as they struggle without a win in their last six games and reside in 14th just six points above the relegation zone.
Manager Javi Gracia was dismissed on Monday but fans have turned on Lim, and have called on former manager Neville to help drive him out of the club comparing his running of the struggling outfit to that of the Glazers’ ownership at Manchester United.
Gary Neville had a brief four-month spell as manager of Valencia during the 2015-16 season
Valencia are enduring a tough season in the bottom half of the LaLiga table having failed to win any of their last six games
Valencia have sold off many first team-stars in recent years, including Ferran Torres to Manchester City last summer, while their new stadium still lies half-complete after construction was halted over a decade ago in the wake of the last financial crisis.
Lim’s distant relationship with fans from the background at the Mestalla has earned him little support as with the cash-strapped outfit badly hit by the coronavirus outbreak.
A statement from a fan group Libertad on Twitter read: ‘Gary we can forget the past. We all know that the Glazers and Lim are the same, they attack the spirit football and the fans, help us get rid of him too. #GlazersOut #LimOut’.
Under Lim’s ownership, Neville spent four months in charge of Valencia during the 2015-16 season before he was sacked at the end of March – with the club also six points from the relegation zone at the time.
Fans have now called on Neville to help them get rid of controversial owner Peter LIm
Their relationship has remained on good terms though with Neville owning 10 per cent of League Two side Salford City – with 40 per cent of the club funded by Lim.
Neville has now come under criticism for supposed hypocrisy by former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan.
The United full-back appeared to share sympathy with Red Devil fans this week after they controversially stormed Old Trafford on Sunday leading to the postponement of their side’s Premier League encounter with Liverpool.
Supporters broke into the stadium and onto the pitch before the game to protest against the club’s ownership under the Glazer family, while fans outside of the ground clashed with police as projectiles including bottles were and railings were thrown.
Neville has sympathised with Manchester United supporters in their protest against the clubs ownership under the Glazer family
Fans stormed Old Trafford on Sunday leading to a game with Liverpool being postponed
Fans clashed with police with metal railings being thrown in ugly scenes outside the ground
Jordan didn’t hold back on his views about the 46-year-old’s hypocrisy of preaching about United fans unhappiness about the club losing money as he claimed the same thing is happening with Salford too.
‘The hypocrisy of his ownership of Salford when he got a billionaire owner in there who is funding Salford who are, to my mind, losing money left right and centre, who probably breached financial fair play, and all of this is being utilised by Gary Neville to advise a soap box wrapped in hypocrisy,’ Jordan said on talkSPORT.
‘Yes, these owners and the ownership models in football right now are flawed, but why are they flawed? Why has it got to his point? Because of the greed across the board in football and the hypocrisy embodied by people like Gary Neville.’
