Coleman: This will be biggest club I’ll manage
CHRIS COLEMAN did not realise it, but just as he was settling into his seat to be unveiled as the new manager of Sunderland, Tony Pulis was being sacked at West Bromwich Albion. ‘Oh, right,’ said Coleman, somewhat hesitantly, when he was told. He had not changed his mind about joining the Championship’s bottom club already, had he? ‘No, no,’ he replied with a smile. But this was a pertinent point — why had Coleman, with his stock high following his success with Wales, not waited for a Premier League job? Why had he chosen a club four points adrift of safety and without a home win in 11 months, where there is no money to spend and an owner who would sell up if he could? ‘Three or four years ago I would never have got this job,’ said the 47-year-old. ‘I had a good time with Wales and I’m deemed fit to get a job like this. I’m thrilled
to be here. If a Premier League job had come up it would have been with a struggling club. ‘Let’s say I take it and they are relegated, then we’re in the Championship and I would have bypassed this one. There are not many Premier League clubs as big as Sunderland with a huge fanbase and the stadium and facilities they have. ‘I look at this club and I know if it’s not me, someone will do it, someone will get it right. I hope to God it’s me, if I can pull it off. ‘This will probably be the biggest club I will manage. I am excited by that. I have the duty of trying to take it forward.’ His argument was both humble and convincing and chief executive Martin Bain should be applauded for attracting a man who guided Wales to the semi-finals of Euro 2016. But Coleman, who takes his team to Aston Villa tonight, warned: ‘I have not come here with a bag full of magic...’ Bain, sat next to him, interjected: ‘S***’. ‘The challenges are here and I’m under no illusions,’ Coleman continued, ‘I knew that before I walked in the door.’ What he did not know was that a Premier League job he would have been linked with was soon to become available. Listening to him, though, it would not have made any difference.