‘Darkness and disappointment’: Chris Coleman starts the rebuilding process after relegation with Sunderland

The first relegation of Coleman’s managerial career comes just 13 months after he led Wales to the European Championship semi-finals, but he insists there are no regrets

(Getty)

He was sporting a grey suit and a black shirt, unbuttoned at the top, and his wife was wearing a dress that matched the red carpet. It was Leicester Square and life was good and Chris Coleman and Charlotte Jackson were on their way to the premier of the film, ‘Don’t Take Me Home’.

Together stronger; that had been the motto of a Wales squad that had reached the semi-final of the European Championships. It was time for reflection and celebration.

“It’s just obviously been a major success and the unexpectedness of it all,” said Jackson, who had been pregnant during the remarkable run.

Bright lights, glamour, success and a position of an international coach whose reputation was high.

Fast forward 13 months and there was no red carpet on Wednesday night at the Stadium of Light. Coleman would admit afterwards that he had been pensive before attending the Sunderland Supporters’ Player of the Year awards.

There were emotive phrases, about the darkness he felt as he drove away from the stadium on Saturday night, following the club’s second successive relegation. It was his first as a manager, he revealed, worse than the only one he had suffered as a player, more than a quarter of a century earlier.

“The weight of the disappointment and the failure was overwhelming really,” he said. “Personally I’ve been low. It's a horrible experience, a terrible feeling. It's frustration and anger that I couldn't affect it more, I can't say it's been a great week, a club like Sunderland almost floating aimlessly in the dark.

“The fans definitely picked us up, for sure. We walked in and just their whole manner with us and the players, they were fabulous and absolutely first class.

“Did we deserve it? Probably not.

“They were really positive and saying how we can get back. That was the first time since Saturday that I've driven home feeling a bit better. That was because of them.

"Even in the darkness where we are I can still see this place in a much different position. Even in League One, there's hopefully a sense of freshness, newness about it which it needs, and who wouldn't want to be a part of that? The over-riding factor is who is going to come in and dictate when that actually happens.”

Chris Coleman insists he has no regrets about leaving Wales for Sunderland (Getty)

Coleman did not quite know what he was walking into, back in November. There was what proved a forlorn hope that Ellis Short, the American owner, would be energised and would reengage in the January transfer window. He did not. It can’t be known if Chris Martin and Dimitrios Konstantopoulos, players available and the top targets of Coleman, but out of Sunderland’s salary ceiling of £15,000-a-week, would have made a difference, but they certainly would not have hurt.

He could fashion only five victories from the hotchpotch of a squad left to him by years of transfer market madness.

Fernando Santos, the Portuguese coach that Coleman lost to in that semi-final, is readying himself for a World Cup campaign. Joachim Löw, in charge of Germany in the other semi-final, and Didier Deschamps, the defeated finalist, are also off to the World Cup.

It sits at a sharp contrast to Coleman, who is unclear of what comes next, with no movement at boardroom level, and no sale imminent at the club he is contracted to.

“No, I don’t regret coming here,” he added. “Sometimes, to win big, you have to risk big. I came here because it’s a big club and I want to be part of something big.

“I like it here, but it’s a cut-throat business. I moved my family up here because I didn’t see it being a short-term fix. I didn’t think I’d be sat here, I thought it would be different. I don’t want to leave, but I do find it tough sitting here and saying the same things. When results change on the pitch, it (the mood) will change, that’s what I want to be a part of. There are some great people at this club. So until something changes, it’s hard for me to say I’ll definitely be here. A new owner might come in and say ‘I want my own guy’.”

Sunderland's plight is a far cry from Coleman's success 13 months ago (Getty)

If there is solace for Sunderland supporters, and perhaps even Coleman, it comes in the early part of his time in charge of Wales. He lost his first six games, after stepping into the breach left by the loss of his friend, Gary Speed. After the fifth, a punishing 6-1 loss in Serbia, Coleman went and sat in a darkened room.

“We had a room upstairs with no lights,” he said. “I remember sitting in there with Kit [Symons]. I didn't want to come out and talk, I was shell shocked.

“If anyone says to you that they expected the next three years to go the way they did then they'd be lying. I never thought we were going to end up in a semi-final, I never thought we’d go on the run we went on.

“All I wanted was a crack at another campaign to put things right. Leaving like that in the first campaign would've been drastic for me. I could never get that time back and I could never make it right again, so thankfully I got a chance to do better.”

That flame still flickers inside Coleman, to rebuild Sunderland. Just.