Any player who has retired will tell you that those first few months of not going into a football club – not having a role, identity or structure in your life – are a challenge.

I was trying to find my own way in the world.

In a way I was fortunate that, financially, I needed another career after football. It meant I had to be proactive.

During my last year of playing, I had started studying for a degree in Social Sciences – so once I finished, I threw myself into that full-time. I also did some voluntary coaching and started my qualifications.

The idea of coaching had grown on me as I’d got older and began to think that I had something to offer back to the game. But as I was going through my qualifications I realised that relying on my playing background wasn’t going to be enough. I needed to trial and error things. Really develop some skills as a coach. Learn how to communicate a message.

So after my degree I started a teaching qualification, worked at a college and did some coaching there. Tried to get as much practice as I could.

“The players are the ones who will make the decisions. It’s not me telling them what to do. Football isn’t like that”

The coaching development path is so individual. It depends on the person and on the experiences they’ve had. The top players absolutely have the potential to be top coaches because they’ve experienced the game at such a high level. But with my personality and skillsets, I realised that I needed to develop in other areas.

And that had to happen outside of the professional game. In the game, if you make too many mistakes, you can end up losing your job.

In that sort of environment, it’s not so easy to develop and learn.

My first two jobs were in the university sector, where I could combine coaching with a job in football development. It was an important time for me. A lot of the players I coached were lads who had been released from professional football. They were at a good level, so I had to develop a method that made it stimulating for them but at the same time helped them enjoy their football.

Working in that arena also gave me the opportunity to see how Olympic programmes work. How they create their own culture. How they work with and improve the athletes.