Neil Lennon has spoken out about the difficulties of getting back into management.
With foreign coaches being imported into English football at the same rate as players top jobs are at a premium for those brought up in the British game.
Alongside Chris Hughton, Tim Sherwood, Steve Clark, Tony Pullis and to a lesser extent Davie Moyes, Lennon is in the market for any job that arises.
Regular media work is helping to overcome his image as a hot-headed scrapper but four months after leaving Celtic he is still looking on from a distance rather than the dug-out.
“You are an outsider trying to get into that exclusive bunch,” he admitted in an interview with The Times. “There’s a lot of politics involved. You might need someone fighting your corner just to get in front of people.”
Looking an another coach in a similar situation he added: “I was watching Tim Sherwood last season and I could see a lot of my younger self in him in that desperation to win.
“But I’ve definitely mellowed. You have to. Sitting in the stand, you can’t affect things. It hurts you. So you learn. The last two years I didn’t get involved.
“I like intensity as a manager, but I like it controlled. I’m big on discipline. Martin hated it if you were suspended, a bit like Cloughy really. I’ve learnt 70, 80 per cent of my stuff from Martin.”
Looking at his current predicament the three-in-a-row title winning manager admitted: “You are sitting there looking at results almost hoping that it doesn’t go so well, that’s a horrible place to be because we are all in the same profession. It’s alarming how many managers lose their jobs.”