A SILVER-plated managerial entrance with Adelaide United generated headlines and hot global currency but ego has never driven Guillermo Amor.

If Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho is the ‘special one’, decorated Amor, 48, is the ‘humble one’.

Having basked in Barcelona dream team immortality, Amor is relieved his coach train “came in”.

Amor wasn’t riding a top job trajectory until friend Josep Gombau’s sudden exit from Coopers Stadium in June last year.

“There are doors that don’t open for a lot of people. Thousands of coaches wait for the moment in Spain coaching across the divisions and it doesn’t arrive,” noted Amor.

“They want the train but it doesn’t arrive.”

Ingenious mentor Johan Cruyff’s fabled Barcelona ensemble yielded a dozen coaches headlined by Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola and Southampton manager Ronald Koeman.

Stepping up from technical director, Amor delivered an inaugural A-League title in 11 months that had eluded Adelaide for 11 seasons.

Surviving a serious car crash eight years ago had prompted Amor to ‘see life differently and try to enjoy every single second of it’.

The move out of Amor’s Catalan “comfort zone” paid off.

“At Barcelona we always thought about winning whether it was in training or matches. We are winners here now, that is the mentality now. The players feel it,” said Amor, integral to Barcelona’s four consecutive La Liga titles from 1991-94.

Conquering Australia in an initial coaching foray won rave reviews in Spain and across the continent, prompting expectation of a high-profile return.

Amor is playing the long game, appreciative of the opportunity Adelaide afforded and spurred by the fresh test of fighting on three fronts this season.

“All you can be is happy. We have too much work to do with Adelaide to think another year ahead,” said Amor, who figured in Barca’s 1991-92 European Champions League triumph.

“If we don’t enjoy what we are doing it is impossible to stay whether it is here or Barcelona. You must enjoy the profession, training, games.

“I want to complement the team, to compete across the A-League, Asian Champions League and start off by winning the FFA Cup.”

Press Amor on the possibility of a European coaching journey and the 37-capped Spanish international’s modesty kicks in.

“We will see. I like to go step by step and be calm,” cautions Amor, always impeccably dressed, polite and composed.

“When you win there is a lot of interest. This is normal. I did a lot of different media in Spain while on holiday. There was awareness about the success and results with Adelaide. People followed it.”

Successful players often envisage a seamless transition to the coaching caper but many stall. Gary Neville flopped at Valencia this year, Maradona fizzed with Argentina while Roy Keane imploded with Sunderland.

Amor recalled how his Australian odyssey could have ended prematurely had Adelaide been controlled by a nervous board. “Imagine if we had lost all the games at the start of last season and the club had said, ‘that’s it’. It’s impossible to predict in football,” Amor said.

Wife Marta and 15-year-old son Guillermo junior — a graduate of the La Masia academy his father both attended and directed — have adjusted well to Adelaide

Amor insists only titles can truly justify the sacrifice of periods away from family in Barcelona where his adult sons Alexander and Daniel remain.

“The grand final made us stronger. I am now thinking about the next games,” he said.

Amor’s mantra ‘even in losing we stick to our beliefs’ held through the barren start to his Reds reign

Adelaide staged one of Australian sport’s great turnarounds after the January break before rolling Western Sydney Wanderers on a magical May night in front of 50,000 fans at Adelaide Oval.

Adelaide won’t be giving rivals a headstart this season having grappled with Amor’s pragmatic tweak to Gombau’s aggressive style for eight winless matches last year.

“We have retained most of that starting side. We know how to use our style and have confidence in this,” he said.

“It’s true the squad needs more players and we are working on this. To achieve across all competitions will be difficult but exciting.

“It is a science.”