Chris Coleman in San Sebastian: I will not run from our Real challenge

It was great to bounce back with a 1-0 win against our local rivals Alaves on Saturday in front of our biggest crowd of the season.

Elustondo scored our goal in the last minute of stoppage time, so we had to be patient. But we'd already had a goal wrongly disallowed for offside. The win moves us closer to the leaders and we're not quite halfway through the season yet.

It also proves what spirit and appetite we have in our squad, after losing in the fifth minute of injury time at Salamanca the week before.

The players have been criticised and under more pressure than any other team in the division but showed real bravery. They passed the ball and trusted their team-mates and I was proud of them. Steve Kean and I had a lot of thinking to do last week about the direction in which the new president, Inaki Badiola, wants to take the club.

I'd said before that I would leave. That was on the record and the media were on to that. I didn't want to look like a hypocrite but I didn't want to run. So we thought long and hard about it.

It was really nice that people in San Sebastian were coming up to us in the streets, saying they hoped we'd stay. We've had to work hard to win people over with what we were doing here but that started to happen with a good run of results before Christmas.

The biggest thing though was the support of the players. They wanted us to stay. We talk regularly with half-a-dozen senior players, including the captain Mikel Aranburu. It's something we started as soon as we arrived to make sure the channels of communication were open. We call it The Commission.

We explained our situation and told them about the president's new programme — a six-month project which involves signing as many as eight new players in this transfer window. At least that's the plan. I know from five years experience it's not always as simple as it looks in January.

Fran Merida has joined us on loan from Arsenal. He's a nice kid who has a sweet left foot. He did well in training but he's only a baby at 17. He was in the 19-man squad but not in the 16 on Saturday.

I first met the new president six weeks ago, when he said he was running for election. He told me his plans and helped convince me to stay. He has some big ideas and wants us to go hell for leather to get Real Sociedad back in the top flight this year. He said it was important for me and Keano to stay and work.

I've been used to buying and selling my own players in five years as a manager but the president will do that now. We'll know when they arrive at the training ground. Picking the team will always be my job though.

It's going to be different. But we will stay and do the best we can.