Chris Coleman fulfilled his ambition of managing abroad when he was appointed as manager of Real Sociedad last July. Six months on he quit a job he admits he loved and returned to England. Chris Coleman explains the circumstances to Sue McCann.

“I’d always wanted to manage abroad and see what it was like, then the Real Sociedad opportunity arose and my Assistant Steve Kean and I really enjoyed it. We were very successful and built a good young team and Sociedad were in 4th position in the league when we left. We had a change of President at the club who had different ideas. Basically he didn’t really stick to what he had said he would do and out of principle I resigned from my post and came home. I didn’t want to come back because I was enjoying it but I left them in a great position, just one point away from automatic promotion. I came back because it is impossible to work with someone who says one thing and then does another.”

At just 37, time is still on your side, so would it appeal to you to manage abroad again at some point in the future?

“Yes, I definitely think there is a bit of unfinished business there if I am honest. I think I will go back even if it is for one or two seasons. I definitely would do that because in such a short space of time at Sociedad I did learn quite a lot actually. In terms of different formations, culture and learning another language it was a very good opportunity. I’d certainly love to go back one day.”

How does managing in Spain differ from England; are there certain skills that you had to add to your ‘locker’ that you didn’t have already?

“Obviously you don’t speak the language when you arrive so you have to communicate slightly differently. Being a manager abroad in Spain is a big test for you, you can’t just jump in your car after training and drive to another game because they are so far away. So really by 1pm you are finished because you have got a Sporting Director who really is the buffer between you and the President. Your job really is with the players in the mornings, preparing them and then you pick the team for a game and that is it. You don’t really go and talk with agents or travel about looking at different games because the country is so big and it is very difficult to do that. The press are allowed in on every training session and they have a lot more access than in this country and that is quite difficult to deal with.”

Do you think in your future career , the fact that you have worked with a Sporting Director will help you delegate responsibilities more?

“It opened my eyes a bit. I was fortunate with my Sporting Director that we’d agreed that he would deal with the agents but that I would pick the players so that was fine. If you get the right Sporting Director then I think it’s not really a bad way to go because they can be the buffer between you and the agents and the directors...if they’re a good Sporting Director then I am not totally against it. I was lucky at Real Sociedad that my Sporting Director agreed that we signed the players, he was firmly in our camp and that is why it worked as well as it did.”

After you left Fulham you could have felt a bit down but you got the opportunity in Spain and soon after returning from there you were appointed Coventry manager; do you feel that your career is still very much on track?

“Yes it’s going really well and I can’t complain. We have got a big job on our hands at Coventry; everybody talked about us arriving and Premier League football and all that but we said 'slow down' because we have got to save this team first. The biggest job we’ve got is staying in this league at the moment and it’s going to be hard but we are positive we can do that.

I think people look at Fulham now and what has happened since I left and more and more people say ‘well the job he did there was a good one’. When I was there we were always really up against it because the perception was that we should have been doing much better and being in the Top 10 etc. So I was always fighting that perception and sometimes when you are not somewhere you are appreciated more and I’ve found that with Fulham for sure.

So I think the last 5 years have gone quite well really. Now I am at Coventry and have got to try and get things going; to start with it will be slow and very, very difficult. We’ve got to try and build our own team and push the club in the direction where we think it should be going but that’s going to take a bit of time to do. I know other managers say the same thing, but luckily for me I’ve got Ray Ranson as my Chairman who is very realistic in what he wants to do with the club.”