Sunderland is the biggest club I’ll boss

SAYS CHRIS COLEMAN

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 We s t Bromwich Albion.

‘Oh, right,’ said Coleman, somewhat hesitantly, when he was told.

With a position in the English top flight now available, he hadn’t 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 i n 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, who was also sounded out by Rangers about their managerial vacancy before opting for the Stadium of Light.

‘I had a good time with Wales and I’m deemed fit to get a job like this. I’m thrilled to be here,’ said Coleman. ‘ 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 cl ubs as bi g as Sunderland with a huge fan base 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 ever manage.

‘I am excited by that. I have the duty of trying to take it forward. I do think that there is something really special waiting to come back to the football club.

‘I wanted to come here and try to build something and get away from the position that we are currently in.’

His argument was both humble and convincing.

Sunderland chief executive Martin Bain, who once held the same position at Ibrox, should be applauded f or attracting t he man who guided Wales to the semi-finals of Euro 2016.

But Coleman, who takes his new team to Aston Villa on l eague duty this evening, warned: ‘I have not come here with a bag full of magic.

‘The challenges are here and I’m under no illusions.

‘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 yesterday, though, i t would not have made any difference.