Kevin Nolan is sitting behind the desk of his cramped office at Northampton Town’s Sixfields Stadium and the excitement he feels to be the manager of the ambitious League One club is palpable. As is the sense of responsibility on a wider scale. It is, he says, becoming more and more difficult for British coaches to get jobs.

“Obviously when you are outside of the game and looking there are so many good English coaches who are not given the opportunity. It’s a pet peeve of mine,” Nolan explains. “I see foreign coaches my age [42] getting top jobs – from Portugal, Germany. International coaches coming over to the Premier League and be given opportunities at a young age. Very rarely do clubs go and pick from the Championship or Leagues One or Two. It’s up to us to try to change it.

“It’s like ‘Sam Allardici’ all those years ago! He was right. Because of what he did at Bolton and where he was he didn’t get those top opportunities. We played good football so they couldn’t criticise him in that way. It’s unfortunate but, look, we have got to change that. We can’t sit there and moan about it as British coaches.”

“Allardici” is, of course, in reference to Sam Allardyce. When he was at West Ham United, where former midfielder Nolan was his talisman and captain as he had been at Bolton Wanderers, the manager famously joked that he would never get to manage a top-four club because his surname was not Italian.

But Nolan does believe there is a serious point and adds that British coaches have discussed the example of Gary O’Neil, who was sacked by Wolverhampton Wanderers last month to be replaced by the Portuguese Vitor Pereira, having previously lost his job at Bournemouth to the Spaniard Andoni Iraola.

“Gaz had a real good go and a lot of his top players got sold [at Wolves] and he never really got the chance to replace them. And he got the chop. He sold and sold and sold and kept them in and around there,” Nolan says. “At times it gets on top of you but he gave a really good account of himself. It’s about us making sure we don’t get put off by that and he doesn’t get put off by that because he deserves another opportunity.

“We have got to [talk about it] because we want the jobs. We want to be in the elite. So, you have to have those conversations when you see the other coaches. Look, I am not saying I should be there or I should have the opportunity because of my playing career. But what I want to do now is prove I can do it.”

Nolan was sacked in the summer too. After almost five years he was let go by West Ham, where he was first-team coach, following the departure of another mentor in David Moyes. Nolan had a different deal to the rest of the coaching staff but there was never any chance of Julen Lopetegui wanting him to stay on.

There is no bitterness from Nolan but he explains the brutal nature of it all, having said it left him feeling “raw”.

“Because of the way it happened,” he says. “I think we gave West Ham and the fans the best three seasons of the modern era [finishing sixth, seventh and winning the Europa Conference League, their first trophy in 43 years] and I thought the way it was handled wasn’t great for us, wasn’t great for David and we just got phone calls the day after Man City [the last game of the season] saying that we won’t be needed again. And that was it.

“But, look, I hold no grudges because they gave me a fantastic nine years. I get on really well with [chairman] David Sullivan. It was raw but that’s just the life of football. One minute you are the talk of the town and the next you are kicked out of town! You just have to take it for that.

“I didn’t expect anything else. Either I was staying on and crack on with the new manager and that was a decision I had to make as to whether I wanted to be there with the new manager or it was ‘no, he’s bringing his own staff in’. And it was the second one.”

So would he have stayed? “I was on a year-to-year rolling contract so my contract was different. I am not too sure. I’ve never been asked the question. I don’t think I would have jumped ship right away. I would have spoken to David [Moyes] to see what he was thinking and how he felt. He gave me an excellent opportunity to go back to a club I admire. And also just to see what he felt about me.

“But it wasn’t to be so I don’t really have to answer the question. It is what it is and I thought we left it in a really good state so to see where they are now is very surprising. They’ve spent a lot of money and there are a lot of players who played for us. I am hoping they can turn their fortunes around now.”

After a dismal few months Lopetegui was inevitably sacked, with Graham Potter appointed. “Graham has gone in and I really hope he can get them going where they deserve to be and that’s in that top 10. It’s a great club but it’s not easy. We made it look easy and we helped them along with that,” Nolan says.

And that phone call? “Look, it’s the way people operate. Some people might have got you in and had a chat with you and give you a review of what they thought,” he explains. “But they had picked Julen and he wanted to bring his own staff so that was it. We were David’s staff and had to move on. But there’s no hard feelings and I wished them all the best at the end of the phone call. I look back now and it’s part of football.”

Had Nolan not been appointed by Northampton on December 23, returning to be a No 1 for the first time since he left Notts County in August 2018 having previously been player-manager at Leyton Orient, he may have reunited with Moyes at Everton.

He says: “If he would have given me the call and I wasn’t in a job I would probably have been going back home [to Liverpool], to the dismay of a lot of Blue Nose fans because I’m a Liverpool fan – it might have been a little bit sour at first! A lot of my Everton mates thought I would be coming back with David but, no, I am really enjoying it here.

“But I am delighted for him. It’s a fantastic story and I sent him a text as soon as I knew it was happening. He’s top notch which is why he has been at the top for so long and I have learnt so much from him. It was brilliant for me to see the intensity with which he works on a daily basis. He’s got Alan [Irvine, assistant] back which is great for him. Billy [McKinlay, another assistant], obviously, I am good friends with and I’m hoping now that their fortunes will turn around quite quickly. I really believe they will.”

Nolan feels it was fated that it would be Moyes who managed Everton at their new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock which they are scheduled to move to for next season.

“When we knew David was leaving West Ham, I said to Billy he will be the Everton boss who leads them into the new stadium. That’s no disrespect to Sean [Dyche] because he’d done an incredible job under the circumstances. I know Sean, we live in Nottingham and bump into him quite regularly, and it got to the point where he was waiting for the inevitable to happen.

“He now feels a weight off his shoulders and I can’t wait to see him go somewhere else and be a success. Sometimes it’s timing. He was great for Everton but it was not great what he had to deal with. He did a fantastic job to keep them up and I’m sure he’ll be back.”

It is timing, also, for Nolan at Northampton. After West Ham he had coached the England Under-20s along with Paul Nevin but it was always a temporary measure. He wanted to manage a club again. The time was right for him. And so are Northampton, who he first needs to steer clear of a relegation battle.

Nolan has already earned a win and two draws and without those five points they would be in the relegation places rather than 18th.

There was also a 4-1 defeat at Reading on Boxing Day, in his first match, but the reaction of chairman Kelvin Thomas confirmed to Nolan he had made the right move. “His text read ‘welcome to it!’” he says. “Sometimes there can be red flags but it was a lovely introduction and it makes me want to give even more for him. It felt like I was coming to a settled club that just needed a bit of direction from me. I back myself to do that.”

Nolan also backs himself to go further. “I want to go to the top,” he says. “I want to be there. I want to be managing at the top, I really do. Having that taste under David and seeing him pit his wits against the best managers in the world. I feel if I can continue to grow as a person as well as a manager then that’s where I will end up and that’s what I want to do.

“I want to be a top manager. It’s all I ever wanted to be. I also want to make it more powerful so they can’t ignore us. That’s what we need to do as young British coaches. Hopefully I will get the time to build and do what I am saying.”