Forget Newcastle, it's been a circus in Spain, says Coleman

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Instead, we drove over the border to a small town in France on Thursday night for a quiet meal. This week has been a real circus. It feels strange to no longer be the manager of Real Sociedad but one or two things happened to change our minds after we'd agreed to work with the new president.

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I had to swallow my pride by accepting I wouldn't buy and sell my own players. Originally, I was promised I could but it didn't happen. The first player in wasn't mine.

Then I was told the staff would all stay but on my way back from a trip to England to see Belinda and the children I got a phone call to say the sporting director, Salva Iriate, had gone. We were being told one thing and then the exact opposite would happen.

The sports pages were full of the battle between me and the president and the atmosphere at the club had changed when I got back. We were in the middle of a political nightmare.

Normally there's a great atmosphere after a win. All the doors are thrown open and everyone is happy. But when we got back, all the doors were closed.

In the media, no one was talking about one defeat in 10 or tomorrow's game against Cordoba. It has all been about the power struggle and it was only going to get worse.

I think there were too many contradictions for them. I said I'd go and then I stayed and they dug me out about that. I was probably wrong to try to work under a programme I didn't believe in. The people who were going to lose out were the players.

We talked it over, Keano and I, and decided the right thing to do was to step down. I explained our position to the captain but the president was in Madrid on business.

Our lawyers contacted him but we didn't get a phone call back. He tried to call me on Thursday to talk but that was closing the door after the horse had bolted.

It's been an experience, you can say that. But it's done our confidence the world of good, working under such pressure and leaving the club fifth in the league and looking good for promotion. I hope they go up. The players deserve it.

I'll fly home this weekend to see the family and come back next week to tie up some bits and bobs. Then I'll think about the future. Things come out of the blue in football. I won't rule out working in Spain again but I would want to be in the top division.

Some people thought, because of the timing, I was off to Newcastle to join up with Kevin Keegan again. Newcastle are a fantastic club and Kevin is a man I respect, but I'd be a very poor No.2. I wouldn't entertain that after five years as a No.1.