Why Gary Neville made the 'wrong' decision to sack Preston boss Graham Alexander as Salford City manager

It’s not often that a football club owner publicly admits they made a mistake, but Gary Neville did just that with his decision to sack new Preston North End boss Graham Alexander in 2020.

Alexander has enjoyed a successful career in management and had finally landed his dream job by taking charge of Preston, his seventh managerial role.

The 54-year-old’s third club was Salford City, which was and remains co-owned by Manchester United legend Neville, taking charge of the side while they were in the National League.

Alexander guided The Ammies to League Two in his debut season and secured an 11th-placed finish in their first season in the EFL, though the campaign was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

When football restarted, Salford got off to an unbeaten start in their first five league matches, winning two and drawing three. However, with the club sat 5th in the table, Alexander was sacked on October 12, 2020. Then co-owner Paul Scholes was put in interim charge before Richie Wellens was hired on a permanent basis.

It’s a decision Neville went on to regret.

Why Gary Neville sacked Graham Alexander

Salford’s undefeated streak came to an end in the very next game, though more good streaks of form would follow.

Explaining the decision on Sky Sports a month on before his club lost to Bolton Wanderers, Neville cited ‘style of play’ and the desire to earn promotion in every season as motivations behind the decision to relieve Alexander of his duties, while still praising the job he did in Greater Manchester.

“Graham had done a great job for the club over two seasons and the ambition of the club has been quite clear from day one: we want promotion every single season,” he said.

“The first manager that left the club was third in the league, the second who left the club had won promotion and Graham was in a really good position in the league, but we always change at a point where we’re doing quite well.

“It’s been our methodology for the last seven or eight years. Sometimes our own personal beliefs in how you approach management is different to the club’s in terms of what we have to do here.”

He continued: “We’re intent on winning promotion and we won’t let anything compromise that. We just felt we wanted to change the way in which we approached it this season, the style of play.

“We were a little disappointed in last season’s performance but Graham getting one promotion, getting us to a cup final and being fifth in the league. It wasn’t a reflection on him as he’s a fantastic manager who did a good job for us.”

Salford finished the 2020/21 season two points outside the Play-Off places. Five years later, they have still not been promoted from League Two.

Gary Neville has expressed Graham Alexander sacking regret

Wellens left Salford after just fourth months in charge and was then replaced by Gary Bowyer, who would last just over a year.

Speaking on Sky Sports in August 2021, Neville admitted he had made a mistake when he sacked Alexander.

He said: "Last season, I've got to take the blame for it. I think in every season we haven't gone up I've made bad decisions or we haven't done certain things well.

"Last season, to be fair, Graham Alexander should have never left this club last season. I should have never made that decision that I made.

"It goes against everything really that I believe in and that's what owning a football club does to you. It takes you to that place where you do things that you don't believe you ever would do.

"But it happens and you've got to make sure that you don't go and do that again.”

The decision clearly haunted Neville, as it wasn’t the only time he brought attention to the blunder.

Again on Sky Sports, this time in October 2021, the pundit pointed towards his decision to get rid of Alexander as a reason why Manchester United shouldn’t sack then manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

"I sacked a manager last season after six games,” he said. “It was the wrong thing to do and I should have let it breathe.

“I should have left it until the end of the season and I think Manchester United will do that."

Alexander doesn’t let ‘bruising experiences’ get him down

Alexander doesn’t appear to be a manager who lingers on the past.

Speaking in his first press conference as Preston North End manager, he pointed towards his reaction to some of the difficult moments he has suffered during his 14-year managerial career as motivation for his new players to forget about their tough start to the Championship campaign.

He told the Lancashire Post: “When I first interviewed for the Bradford job, I'd come out of a difficult spell at MK Don's for two months and I'd been out of work for a year before that, half it, my own choice.

“A couple of really bruising experiences, but I didn't walk around with a bag of bitterness on my shoulder, walking around, woe is me, victimisation, all that sort of stuff.

“It's not for me, and it's not for my teams, and I don't want the players to be like that. Looking at the league table, this idea, forget about it. We've got a fresh start from now on. “