Many football coaches like to tell people there’s no greater feeling than being out on the training field or inside the dressing room. Clearly, however, not all of their peers agree.
Offered the chance to become Everton manager in 1997, Andy Gray turned it down to remain in his still lucrative but substantially less stressful role as a football pundit with Sky Sports. Gray also cited greater job security as one of the other factors in his decision, making it somewhat ironic when he was then sacked by the broadcaster many years later.
For the majority of former players, however, there is something about that call to serve on the frontline again that they find almost impossible to turn down.