Steve Coppell is sipping afternoon tea in the lounge of a hotel just off the M25 when the conversation turns to football’s ‘f-off mentality’, as he calls it. ‘A lot of young players have an “f-off mentality” these days, but I honestly didn’t mind it because I was the one picking the team,’ he admitted. ‘The dressing room is a heated environment at half-time and full-time, and if a player said that to me and could justify their argument then no problem. If not, they were down the road.’ Steve Coppell has been out of work since leaving his role as director of football  at Portsmouth a year ago . Coppell played as a winger for Manchester United for eight years between 1975 and 1983 . Coppell leads his Crystal Palace side onto the Wembley pitch in the first 1990 FA Cup final against United . Coppell knows all about the sport’s ‘f-off mentality’, on the receiving end after leaving an unpaid role as director of football at Portsmouth last March. It seems incredible that this man, with more than 1,000 games in the dug-out and who has twice been named League Managers’ Association manager of the year (2006 and 2007), is out of work. No-one really knows why. It just doesn’t feel right to see Coppell, a man of integrity and honour, on the fringes of football. Something, somewhere, has gone wrong when Coppell is working on his golf handicap every day. ‘I won the LMA award two years on the bounce with Reading and looking back, yes, massive,’ he admitted. ‘They talk about comedians being on the road for 20 years and suddenly they become an overnight sensation — I had done that time. ‘All John Madejski ever asked of me was to come up to the boardroom after a game and have a pint with him — no interference, nothing. Sometimes we wouldn’t even talk about the result.’ At 59 Coppell is a statesman of the game, one of the shrewdest operators in the sport. After a playing career on the wing with Manchester United he spent nearly 30 years in the dug-out. Coppell issues his side with instructions after drawing 3-3 with United in the final before extra-time . Coppell poses with his Manager of the Month award in 2006 during his spell in charge of Reading . ‘I just wanted to be known as a good manager, I never wanted to be famous,’ he admitted when he was reluctantly coaxed to the Runnymede-on-Thames Hotel. It is clear, after a couple of hours in Coppell’s illuminating company, that he has the itch to work again, but it will only be on his terms. ‘There are 70 clubs you don’t want to manage because you have no chance. ‘Steve Heighway always talks about Bob Paisley at Liverpool: create an environment for your players to win matches. That is the art of management. I can get you promotion within two years if you back me, the Championship is my division, I know what it’s about. If you want a five-year plan, fannying around, building from the bottom up, I’m not your man. I have done that.’ He did it at Palace, taking over at the age of 28 and leading them into the top flight when he put together the team that included Ian Wright, Mark Bright, Geoff Thomas, Andy Gray and John Salako. ‘You could never do that now because the game wouldn’t give you five years to get promoted and because Bosman changed everything in favour of the players,’ he said. ‘Pre-Bosman Ian Wright could have been on £100 a week, his contract could be coming to an end and we could offer him £101 and he would have no choice but to stay. ‘In modern terms, Ian Wright would have disappeared from Palace after a year.’ Coppell celebrates with then Crystal Palace chairman Ron Noades after winning the 1997 play-off final . Coppell, pictured at the Spain 1982 World Cup finals, won 42 international caps for England . To recap, Coppell won two promotions with Palace, took them to their only FA Cup final, won promotion with Reading to the Barclays Premier League and finished eighth in their first season in the top flight. There has been the occasional blip, such as the aborted spells at Manchester City and Bristol City, but after three decades in management, it is no more than a footnote to his career. ‘If I got really busy around football clubs then I could work again but I choose not to be, in the footballing sense,’ he admitted. ‘I don’t go looking for it. I have an agent but he doesn’t go looking for it, either. ‘I still go to games and I enjoy the core things that football gives me, which is working out how people win matches and influence players.’ Coppell is a student of the game, a manager who travelled all over the country to watch players at every level and build up an encyclopaedic knowledge of teams and tactics. He would rather sit in the stands than head for the directors’ box, convinced that speaking to the supporters who watch the players week in, week out will give him a far better education. ‘It is a simple game and the fans aren’t fools, they know what they’re watching. They will give you a far better idea of who is consistent and who is a fanny merchant than listening to anyone in the boardroom or allowing your mind to be affected by another scout or coach.’ Palace players doused Coppell with champagne after winning the Division Two play-off final in 1989 . Coppell admits being a manager consumes every part of your life and he found it difficult to switch off . Coppell's last job in management was with Bristol City in 2010 . Coppell is a fascinating man to listen to as he talks through his management career. ‘Managing clubs is unhealthy because you are time deprived. It is all-consuming, certainly the way I did it. You can be at the cinema and all you can think about is: how can we beat Arsenal on Saturday? It gets you like that. ‘The game has changed. The Premier League is a handicap system, with the big clubs putting 25 or 30 players out on loan — football should be provocative and change it. Have a squad of 25 by all means, chop and change them in January, but you don’t need 70 players. ‘If you know someone at a big club it’s all so sycophantic — “we will guarantee him a game, he will play”. We are prostituting ourselves to get a few scraps from the big boys. ‘Greg Dyke is trying to improve things but the FA are a toothless tiger. The Premier League are 100 per cent successful in what they set out to do, which is to make as much money as possible. When I was a player, if Manchester United played Oldham in Division Two they had to share the gate receipts.’ When you sit down with Coppell, he is a million miles away from the monosyllabic character who would turn up at press conferences when he was in work. The 59-year-old won consecutive LMA Manager of the Year awards in 2006 and 2007 . ‘I look at Bill Belichick, the head coach of the New England Patriots, and he’s won four Super Bowls in 11 years. Watch his press conferences. One-word answers, but he delivers.’ So did Coppell, a popular figure in dressing rooms at his clubs. He knows how to knit together a winning team. This is a man who consciously spent a year out of the game when he left Reading after they failed to beat Burnley in the Championship play-off semi-final in 2009. ‘I used to go to Fulham to watch Roy Hodgson. A lot of people don’t share my opinion of Roy but to work across Europe consistently and mainly be successful — and to act with integrity — and do things the right way, is something I admire.’ Coppell is tempted to move abroad himself, to test himself in another country if England really has turned its back on him. ‘Football owes me nothing but I feel I have something to contribute to the game,’ he said. ‘I don’t expect people to bend over backwards. Ideally I would probably like to work abroad and I am at an age where if it doesn’t happen now it might never happen. Maybe football’s finished with me.’ With so much still to offer? You’ve got to be kidding.
Steve Coppell has been out of work since leaving Portsmouth last March . Coppell was working in unpaid role as director of football on south coast . Former Reading manager was twice named LMA manager of the year . Coppell has racked up more than 1,000 games in managerial dugouts . Coppell says he can win promotion to the Premier League in two seasons . The 59-year-old admits he would contemplate managing abroad .