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FORMER Manchester United assistant manager Mike Phelan claims he was a manager in all but name for his last five years at Old Trafford. The 51-year-old was Alex Ferguson’s right hand man since replacing Carlos Queiroz in 2008, having been the club’s first team coach for the preceding seven years, but insists his responsibilities were more than those of an obedient understudy.
Phelan, who also won a Premier League title and FA Cup as a player under the Scot, has been out of work since David Moyes took charge in the summer and made wholesale changes to the coaching staff.

“With the way things have gone, my first thoughts are to be the boss, yeah. It’s the progression for me now.
“That’s what I’ve been doing for the last five years, albeit with the title of assistant boss,” Phelan said.

“He [Ferguson] was the head of the establishment, there’s no doubt about it and rightly so. He didn’t get to where he’s got through not being a big decision maker but he’ll be the first to admit that a lot of people played their part in that.

“We all were undercover in that respect. We weren’t the face of what was going on but that was our job. There’s no problem with that from my point of view. The blinkers are off now because I’m outside of all that.

“But you were decision making so I’m more than capable of handling that. It’s a case now that if the opportunity comes up to be a boss then I’ll have a look at it.

“In my case I’ve been in a job so long at one place. I’m not saying I’ve become institutionalised at Manchester United but my qualities have been at Manchester United,” he added.

“They’ve been shown there. Now I’m going out into the big bad world of football and people who are looking for managers, coaches, whatever, probably don’t know me as me. They know me as Mick Phelan the assistant manager at Man United.

“They don’t know me as a person and what I’ve done and what I’ve delivered. I’ve no relationship that way because it’s been purely 20 years of Manchester United. I don’t know if that’s a hindrance or an obstacle or what but anybody who wants to have a look at me they can do.

“The blinkers are off now because I’m outside of all that, it’s fantastic what had happened in my career but it’s my next step from here and where I go from here.”

Former colleague Rene Mulensteen has found his feet at Fulham, where Martin Jol appointed him head coach, but for the time being Phelan’s weekends will be spent between the Setanta Sports studios and doing radio work in England’s north west.

“I’m quite open and proud enough to listen to anything really. Be it home, abroad, Premier League, Championships or below that. It’s not a worry. I’ve been in the game long enough so I know how to pitch myself in comfortably anywhere. But it’s not my decision.”

The League of Ireland and the chance to bring a club into Europe is something that appeals to the Englishman, although it would have to tick a lot of the right boxes for him to consider it.

“I would never disrespect anybody who phoned me up or got in contact. I don’t work like that. It would be what the package is as far as where the club is at, what ambitions they’ve got, who’s in charge of it all and what work you can do there.

“It’s not just a case of  ‘right, I need to get back in and do that first thing that comes along’. No, there’s got to be a point to it and a reason to believe in it. If I can find that, and I might be pushing the boat out, but if you can find that togetherness you’ve got half a chance.” -Sportsmail.