Like I said, I’d dipped my toes into coaching while I was still playing: first, up at Blackburn, where I was shadowing their academy training while doing my badges. It was a chance to see what coaching was about, to be around it, and to occasionally run a few sessions.

I didn’t know it at the time, but many of the boys I worked with at Blackburn – Alex Bruce, Junior Hoilett, Jonathan Walters – would go on to have very good careers.

As I progressed through my badges, the opportunity to manage Blackpool reserves had come up. That really was learning the hard way. It meant maintaining my first-team playing commitments and cramming the reserve-team management into the rest of my time.

I could get back from an away game with the first team at 5am, then be up a few hours later for a midday kick-off with the reserves. Blackpool was a club with little money – barely anything to run a reserve team.

Driving to reserve games I’d have the kit on my back seat, the bibs and balls in my boot, and more than likely I’d have to pick up a couple of youth-teamers on the way to the ground.

“I wanted to manage players in the way that I’d want to be managed if I was in their shoes”

It was a great opportunity to learn.

But it could never have prepared me for what happened next.

Almost overnight, I’d gone from playing alongside my mates to leading them as their manager – albeit only on a temporary basis.

In situations like that, you’re always going to have doubts. Do I have the right authority? Do I have their respect? Am I ruthless enough to succeed?

It was never going to be easy.

What I couldn’t do was go from one extreme to another. I couldn’t go from being their mate to becoming unapproachable. Instead, I had to find the right balance.