McLeish: Mortada forced me to pick some players

McLeish is convinced his recent past will help him cope with whatever comes next. Egypt was enjoyable but also a real challenge he admits.

He said: “I enjoyed it out there. I was disappointed in the way it ended because the guy (Zamalek president Murtaza Mansour) reneged on paying my coaches money.

“He was fine in the beginning, insisting he wouldn’t interfere in the team.

“But he couldn’t help himself. In the weeks that followed I kept picking the same team because we were winning matches and had built momentum. It was a bit like Leicester – when you win matches you keep changes to a minimum.

“But the president started saying we were losing value on players I wasn’t picking.

“He said I had to play them and while I understood his logic I asked him that if I played those guys and lost matches would there be a guarantee that I would be in the job for the 18 months that covered my contract. He didn’t answer that one!

“He didn’t actually have the balls to tell me to my face I had to change the team but he got his cronies to do it.

“They told me I had to pick this player and that player and I said, ‘I’m sorry, that’s not what I signed up for. I’m not compromising. It’s against my principles and I would lose credibility with the players if I dropped the ones who were doing well and winning games’.

“I told the club if they wanted to sack me to do it because I wouldn’t do what they wanted.”

“What’s the sack? If it was for winning games then that’s why I got the sack! But I did enjoy the experience.

“I really liked living in Cairo. I went because I was fed up sitting on my backside in London doing nothing, except going to games every week or watching some pals training their Premier League teams. And it was a team that had half a chance of winning.

“I got on well and could walk the streets no problem. I had to wear a bunnet and sunglasses so they thought I was a tourist but as soon as I took it off to wipe away the sweat they saw it was the big ginger Scottish coach and they’d be over for their selfies and a chat.

“Martin Jol also managed over there and lived across the road from me. It was good off the field and we got through two rounds to get to the last eight of the Champions League of Africa which isn’t played until July. I’d have loved to have had a go at that

“We went to Cameroon, having previously never beaten a team from that country, and beat them 1-0 away and 2-0 at home.

“We then faced a really slick Algerian side and we beat them 2-0 in Cairo. Over there we got a pummelling and they scored with 25 minutes to go but we scored in the last minute to get through to the lucrative last eight.

“The next day I was told the president wanted to see me and I was sure that it was to tell me my coaches were getting the cash they were due.

“I went in and he started on me again, ‘Why are you not playing this player? You have to play that player.’ I was thinking I’m never going to win here.”

He’ll win again. Where that will be he doesn’t know yet. But McLeish is adamant his next employer will get a better manager than if he’d been hired a decade ago.

He said: “I know that I am a better coach now than I was 10 years ago. I ha ve much more common sense and I’ve amassed plenty of experience. I’m ready to go again.”

Source: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/