Had he taken one of the opportunities that came his way, Jesse Marsch might this week have been preparing for a busy programme of Christmas fixtures.
But when he left Leeds United in February he decided to turn down two Premier League job offers that came soon after.
After what was an abrupt end to 11 intense months at Elland Road, first Southampton and then Leicester City made Marsch, 50, offers to join their respective battles against relegation.
Both were tempting prospects but he reflects the emotion of his rise, and eventual fall, at Leeds meant he could just not envisage himself jumping back in immediately.
Since then he and his wife Kim have moved permanently from the US to make their family home in Europe and he is ready to work again.
Marsch has rarely spoken since he was sacked by Leeds, the day after a 1-0 defeat by Nottingham Forest.
“It broke my heart when I left,” he says, and in the months that followed he says the Leeds hierarchy of the time admitted to him in private they had moved too quickly.
After Marsch, Leeds went through three more managers in three months, culminating in the short-lived, high-stakes appointment of Sam Allardyce. Leeds did not survive in the Premier League.
“I invested everything I had into that club and into that team,” Marsch says. “It was painful for me to watch them getting relegated and the manner in which it happened.”
A potential return to Elland Road as the opposition manager was one of the factors in him choosing not to take the Southampton and Leicester jobs, although it was not the only reason.
“[The] Southampton [offer], it was right after Leeds. Literally days. I was very serious about it.
I could see internally they had a few different ideas on the direction they were moving forward … but wonderful people.
“Leicester I was incredibly close to taking but in the end I just felt that I wasn’t ready to jump back in.
In hindsight I think it’s a wonderful club and a great place and maybe if my mindset had been in a different place I could have – and should – have maybe taken that job.”
