Gary Neville to Valencia: A look back at 5 surprising managerial hirings

Valencia confused more than just a few people when it chose to hire Gary Neville as its new manager Wednesday.

Despite serving as an assistant coach for England's national team since 2012, Neville has no previous experience in a full-time managerial role.

His analysis on Monday Night Football has won him praise as one of the game's top pundits, but surely that's not enough, either.

But Valencia brought Neville in anyway, reuniting him with brother Phil after the resignation of Nuno Espirito Santo on the weekend.

On that note, here are the five most surprising hirings in recent football memory:

Arrigo Sacchi, AC Milan

Arrigo Sacchi was barely good enough to be an amateur footballer, and some would say Silvio Berlusconi was a better player. But Berlusconi hired Sacchi as AC Milan's manager in 1987 and promptly drew questions over his credibility as a football man, let alone someone who could possibly tell professionals what to do.

It led to a famous quote from Sacchi: "A jockey doesn't have to have been born a horse."

Instead, Sacchi produced the greatest Milan side ever seen, and the last to win back-to-back European Cups (1989 and 1990).

Steve Kean, Blackburn

Steve Keane had a unsuccessful playing career as well. He couldn't break into the Celtic first team, and made just 12 appearances for Portugal's Academica Coimbra. That was his story.

When he was hired as the successor to Sam Allardyce at Blackburn in 2010, the protests, understandably, came almost immediately.

And they lasted throughout his two-year tenure.

(Courtesy: Daily Record)

Ryan Nelsen, Toronto FC

Toronto FC couldn't wait to sign Ryan Nelsen. In fact, the club agreed to give him his first managerial job before he had even officially retired as a player.

Some fans thought the centre-back was arriving as a signing to shore up the defence. Not so.

Nelsen closed out his playing career at Queens Park Rangers in January 2013, and joined TFC in February for preseason training.

He was fired in August 2014, and hasn't coached since.

Tata Martino, Barcelona

Tata Martino had an established career in football and held managerial posts across South America before taking the Barcelona job in 2013. He had also led Paraguay's national team to the quarterfinals of the 2010 World Cup.

But his appointment at Camp Nou felt at least a little strange. He was an outlier, someone who had never been a part of European football before, coming to a club that already had its own style of play under managers Pep Guardiola and Tito Vilanova, who had grown up with the club.

Martino kept the same tiki-taka style in place, but yielded no major silverware. He left after just a single season in charge.

David Moyes, Real Sociedad

David Moyes tried his best to speak Spanish, but he could barely put a sentence together when he joined Real Sociedad in November 2014.

It was strange to see a British manager coaching abroad. Still, he managed to keep the side in La Liga.

Sociedad was 15th by the time Moyes came on board, and he impressed onlookers when it beat Barcelona 1-0 in January.

But that would be it. He was fired Nov. 9 - just a day before completing a full year at the club.