When Chris Coleman first stepped into the dressing room at struggling Greek club Atromitos at the beginning of the New Year he said he could sense the anxiety.
“The first thing I said to them was: ‘You’ve got to overcome that fear, take a step forward. If you don’t try and do something different, you’ll never know’,” he remembers.
He should know. In an eclectic managerial career that has taken him from the highs of a Euros semi-final to the lows of relegation with Sunderland via a stint in China before the Covid pandemic, Coleman has lived his life by the mantra: “Don’t wait for perfect, it might never come.”
It is why he dropped from Premier League Blackburn to third-tier Fulham as a player, making moves his peers wouldn’t. It’s also how he’s ended up in Athens, apart from his young family but enthused by the challenge of first keeping Atromitos in the Super League Greece and then rebuilding the club from the bottom up.
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Indeed our first Zoom call had to be canned at short notice because club president Vasilios Betsis – “the biggest supporter of the club, he’s so passionate about it,” Coleman says – turned up with a contract for next season for him to sign.
“We took a chance on Atromitos, they took a chance on us and it’s worked out really well,” he says.
“I always wanted that experience of working in different cultures, that challenge. I did it in Spain and thought ‘Yeah, I like it’. It’s got its challenges – I do miss my family – but there’s something about working somewhere new, learning new things – that really appeals to me.
“I wasn’t sure I would work back in England after the Wales job to be honest – I did in the end (with Sunderland) but I don’t enjoy it any more than I do working abroad. I had offers in England, pre-Covid, but I just wasn’t sure they were right for me.
“Then all of a sudden you’re 18 months, two years where you haven’t worked and you think ‘it’s passing me by here’. The best piece of advice I have been given was ‘Don’t wait for perfect because it might not happen’.”
As it happens, Atromitos has worked out better than anyone could have expected. A team expected to compete for Europe made the call to Coleman when they were a point off the bottom of the Super League and in a relegation battle.
Six wins and five draws later, that hurdle has been overcome. But it wasn’t easy: he has changed formations and players with every game. Dragging them out of the idea that they were too good to go down was the biggest challenge.
“It was a big shock for everybody at Atromitos because they’re not used to being in that position. Certainly with the squad they’ve assembled, they spent a lot of money and it hadn’t worked,” he explains.
“All of a sudden the teams around them had been in that fight all season. Our guys, it was a culture shock for them because they didn’t expect to be in it.”
Coleman’s natural effervescence has survived a bruising time at Sunderland, a regret that still gnaws at him.
His stock high after leading Wales to the last four of Euro 2016, he took another chance in opting to go to a team bottom of the Championship and with an owner in Ellis Short who was trying to sell. This time it did not work out.
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“It was an honour to be asked to go to Sunderland. I’m a football person, I know there’s certain clubs – they have the history, supporters, the potential. When it came up, even though they were bottom of the league, I just thought ‘I’m not going to turn that down’. They’ve got such potential,” he explains.
“It was just the wrong time, I was only there four months, with the wrong people in charge of the club. But it’s definitely the right club for anyone to manage. If anyone asked me about Sunderland I’d say ‘Walk there!’ If you can get that club going, and those people on side, it will be something else.
“It’s the biggest regret of my career because we got relegated and that was unthinkable. It was so frustrating because we were helpless a little bit.”
He has never watched the Netflix documentary ‘Sunderland ’til I die’ and admits he’d have preferred not to star in it.
“I didn’t even know there was a documentary happening. I signed the contract in Winchester, where I live, and I didn’t know about the cameras until after I signed the contract. I was a bit surprised. It wasn’t my cup of tea, cameras in the dressing room and following you round,” he says.
“But it was what it was, we had an obligation to play our part. I can’t watch it, it’s too painful for me.”
He offered to take a pay cut to stay at Sunderland until a takeover led to Stewart Donald buying the club and Coleman’s exit.
“I signed a good contract to go there, we got relegated and I said: ‘Rip that up, of course’,” he said.
“They asked me: ‘Would I consider revising my terms?’ I said ‘Of course, if you can’t afford to pay me that I’d love the chance to take us back up’. But new owners came in and had different ideas.”
Happier times preceded Sunderland at Wales, of course. He rates the win over Russia to clinch a place in the knockout stages his best game as a manager but it was about unity, harnessing the talent of Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale while also fostering a fierce team spirit.
He is mystified by the criticism of Bale. “He’s such a superstar and has been for 10 years, four Champions Leagues, 15 trophies with Real, the most decorated British player overseas. He’s such a strong character because he’s his own man,” he explains.
“He doesn’t do things because he thinks they’re going for cause and effect. He doesn’t do things to keep people happy, he’s his own man and an excellent professional, a family man who loves his football and would do anything for Wales. He was a pleasure to be around.
“Strong, strong character – people say things about him around Real Madrid and I’ve never seen anything like that in him and I’ve spent a lot of time around him.
“It’s unbelievable what is thrown at him. If you’re going to give me a parasite that gets me four Champions Leagues…. He’s not a parasite. Four Champions Leagues – they would have paid double that.”
He does not see Bale ending his career back at his boyhood club Cardiff, which has been suggested with his Real contract coming to an end.
“He’s a Cardiff boy and no disrespect to Cardiff but they’re in the Championship and I think he’s levels above that,” he says.
“But it’ll be up to Gareth, once he makes his mind up on something he won’t worry what anyone else says about it.”
From one man willing to take a risk to another, it is no wonder they got on so well.
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