“I loved almost every minute, and was very grateful for my time in the game. Now I’ve no interest whatsoever of going anywhere near a touchline. Or, to be honest, football.”
Eric Black’s stark summation of where his life at now.
A winner of all three domestic competitions with Aberdeen, a goalscorer on the night they lifted the European Cup-Winners’ Cup against Real Madrid and capped by his country, the former striker has much from his playing career to reflect on with fondness.
His tilt at coaching and management also makes for an impressive CV, with spells in charge of Motherwell and Coventry City, caretaker roles at the likes of Sunderland and Aston Villa, and being John Barnes’ assistant when he was Celtic manager.
Now, however, the 58-year-old has turned his back on football, and is happy selling furniture with his son in the tranquil surroundings of Leamington Spa.
His last involvement was as Claude Puel’s assistant at Southampton, leaving the club on November 29, 2017, after defeat to Manchester City.
Black vowed never to return to the game – and has been true to his word.
“I’d lost that ‘washing-machine’ feeling sitting in the dug-out,” he recalled. “I’d always had that in my stomach.
“Southampton asked me to stay on after Claude left, and Mauricio Pellegrino came in. But I wasn’t doing much. Scouting the opposition a little bit, watching training.
“He brought his people with him. That’s the way it works. I was slowly not doing anything. I wanted to win, but didn’t get that desperate feeling for victory.
“I thought: ‘There’s something far wrong here. I’m not emotionally attached. It’s either now or never.’
“I’ve not been back to a stadium since.”
Black approached the Saints Board to sever the final years of his contract.
Two days later, his son, Jonathan, swung by in his van to help his dad literally build a new career at his bespoke furniture business in Leamington Spa.
“We went to the workshop and started my apprenticeship there and then,” Black recalls.
“I was back learning, making coffee, tidying up. I’d no skills whatsoever.
“He’s the gaffer, so that was different. But I’ve never really been a No. 1, to be fair!
“Now I mainly do the designing, the first visits, sales and customer relations.”
Black admits in the first six months after stepping away there were temptations.
“I constantly thought: ‘Should I get back in? Claude asked if I’d go to Leicester City with him,” he revealed.
“The money was good, it was the Premier League, and I was very close to accepting.
“But something about being back with family, enjoying a different type of life made me think: ‘It’s not for me.’
“When I was at Southampton, my wife, Nina, was on her own five nights a week.
“It was ridiculous, and getting to the point where you’re away all the time. And when I was at home, my mind wasn’t necessarily there.
“I was 55. I realised I was indoctrinated into a way of life, and constantly going to bed thinking about the team and, as soon as you get up, about training.
“Can we sign him? What’s the opposition like?’ Constantly in football mode, even on holiday.
“I loved it but, coming out, the mind adjustment took a year. The Leicester job was the first hurdle I got over, and for me to say: ‘That part of my life is over.’
“It was then easier to say ‘No’ to offers I got from Championship clubs in England. Then they stopped.”
Black coached elite English top-flight performers, including Jordan Henderson, Virgil van Dijk and Darren Bent.
Today he confesses his knowledge of events in the game is now ‘just about zero’.
Black admitted: “How detached am I? Very! I maybe watch an Old Firm game, or Scotland, out of interest.
“I’m on a WhatsApp group with the Aberdeen Gothenburg team. I feel involved with them, firing bits and pieces back and forward. It was busy recently, with the Aberdeen job available.
“I enjoy that but don’t participate much. I don’t feel qualified to have a view because I don’t watch any of it.”
Black only has cause to reminisce if invited to deliver talks on management for The Envoy Group, a company owned by Iain McGregor, son of the Ross County chairman, Roy.
A few “all our yesterdays” is more palatable for Black than dealing with the today in football, and elements he cannot abide.
The hiring-and-firing cycle in Scotland is out of control, as Jack Ross at Hibs, Dundee’s James McPake and Stephen Glass at Black’s old stomping ground discovered.
Fellow Gothenburg great Mark McGhee’s hunger is at the other end of the scale to Black as he settles into the Dundee hotseat that ejected McPake.
Black was Steve Bruce’s trusted No. 2 at Birmingham City, Wigan and Sunderland.
Fresh from incessant abuse from the Newcastle United support, Bruce has thrown himself into a fading promotion effort at West Brom.
“I can understand those guys doing that,” said Black. “Mark is an extremely qualified manager. I hope he’s successful.
“He feels he wants to get involved. I don’t.
“I don’t miss some problems managers face with club structures. I don’t miss the travelling, which didn’t help my back problems, a souvenir from my playing days.
“I’ve a different life. I enjoy it very much – family, grandkids, dogs and watching the Six Nations rugby.”
Black was deflated to note how faceless social media accounts could dictate the policy of petrified club hierarchy.
He said: “It’s got worse, but that’s society isn’t it? Everyone expects instant success.
“Social media now seems to have direct contact with people in clubs. There’s 30,000 at the game. There’s 200 posts on social media.
“I saw at Southampton who they listened to, and how it would sway really intelligent people. They feel they must react to it.
“They’d say: ‘Oh my God. I’ve counted 50 critical messages about the manager online!’ And some of the critics weren’t even at the game.
“It’s harder now to build a portfolio of success to sustain you as a coach. At the drop of a hat, they’re gone after working tirelessly – and well.
“It’s proven that’s not always the right thing.
“That’s the modern football world we’re living in – and it’s one I’m glad I don’t work in.”
Enjoy the convenience of having The Sunday Post delivered as a digital ePaper straight to your smartphone, tablet or computer.
Subscribe for only £5.49 a month and enjoy all the benefits of the printed paper as a digital replica.
Subscribe