After officially stepping down as head coach of the England Women’s National Team Monday morning, Phil Neville is set to become the Inter Miami CF manager. The Athletic has reported that the club is expected to make an official announcement within the next 24 hours (as of 7am Monday).

Reports have been buzzing around for a while that this move was set to take place. Even before the club announced that they had “mutually parted ways” with former club manager Diego Alonso, it was rumored that David Beckham had been in talks with his former teammate about becoming the manager at his MLS side.

After retiring as a player in 2013, Neville started a managerial career and took numerous jobs as assistant manager before becoming the Lionesses first team manager in 2018. Actually, in 2012 Neville was given an essential assistant role for the England U21’s before officially retiring from play. David Moyes at Manchester United in 2014 gave him a first-team coach role before Neville went on to purchase Salford City and help manage there as part owner. From 2015-2016, Neville took a job as an assistant at the Spanish club Valencia CF before landing his most recent job.

In January of 2018, the England Women’s National Team announced that Phil Neville would finally become a head manager leading into the 2019 Women’s World Cup. Neville’s goal was to take the Lionesses past what they had done in their previous World Cup run and finally make a final. After falling short of that goal in 2019, Neville and the National Team never found a good run of form, and he’s leaving the side on quite a sour note. There were seven defeats in their last eleven games, and Neville himself admitted he was personally responsible and would step down in July of 2021 when his contract ran up. But when David Beckham is on the other line, it seems like you step down even sooner.

Beckham and Neville were teammates at Manchester United until 2003 when Beckham ended up leaving for Real Madrid. There is some familiarity between the two sides, and with Beckham reported to take a more “hands-on role” at the club, a familiar face heading your club’s roster is likely the first thing you look towards.

Many criticisms that supporters and even non-supporters will have about bringing in Neville is that he is not decorated or seasoned enough in the coaching side of football just yet. Neville has no head experience coaching a club’s men’s side after only being a head manager for a national team and a women’s side. Although still VERY high level, there are drastic differences in both games. His time as an assistant at Valencia, Man United, and Salford are the only things on his resume to give him coaching experience in this aspect. However, like Diego Alonso, Phil Neville has no experience with MLS through his playing AND coaching career up to this point. That proved to be an issue as Alonso seemed never to have found a good comfort level here in the states with Inter Miami.

It has been said that an announcement from Inter Miami CF is to come in hours. Phil Neville will be taking over as the club manager, who also has other front-office vacancies to fill.