While his mates remain top-class Premiership players however, ‘Cookie’ has started a new life as the Boss.

A near-fatal car crash in 2001 effectively ended Coleman’s playing career.

But instead of giving up on the game altogether he has developed into one of the game’s outstanding young managers, as Fulham’s current seventh place in the Premiership will testify.

The likeable Welshman – who played with Southgate for Crystal Palace and Shearer at Blackburn - will be the first to admit the development from senior player to young manager hasn’t been easy, but it’s clear he is a quick learner. After all, his first coaching promotion came within weeks!

"It’s been a huge transition to stop thinking like a player and to start thinking as a coach or manager," he says.

"As a player you concentrate on your own performance, as a coach you need to look at the big picture.

"The most nerver-wracking time of all was when I started at Fulham as coach of the under-10s, I would go onto the park and realise they were all looking at me waiting for me to teach them something!

"The idea was to coach all the age groups but after six weeks, the manager Jean Tigana promoted me to work with the first-team."

Tigana’s departure last April gave Coleman an unexpected chance as caretaker-manager and results were so good he was asked to stay on as permanent boss.

He admits that to become an effective leader, you can’t be one of the boys – even if the age difference with some of his players is slight.

"I am under no illusions – I had a good playing career but I have to prove myself all over again as a coach.

"If I don’t do the business on the training field and put on good sessions, the respect I had built up as a player would go.

"There was no point in developing another personality straight after playing, that wouldn’t work. At the same time, I had to change my image gradually."

The late Ray Harford – Coleman’s manager at Blackburn – gave the Fulham boss some excellent advice as soon as he was taken on the coaching staff.

"Ray said it gets easier as you get older. He said he found it hard at 30. All the Fulham players knew me as their pal but when new players arrive, they only know me as a coach or manager."

Possibly the only cloud on Coleman’s season was having to sell Louis Saha after initially saying the player would leave Manchester United "over my body".

Eventually, money talked and the Frenchman left – but again Coleman has taken vital lessons from the episode.

"When I spoke, it was as the football manager who wanted desperately to put out the best team possible. But I learned a lot. The team manager can’t be responsible for everything, he can’t decide everything. Other people have an input as well and at the end of the day the owner Mr Al Fayed did explain why it was best for the club."

Coleman had six operations on his legs after his car accident and didn’t play for 14 months. An emotional comeback was followed by the realisation that his ankle wasn’t strong enough to cope with the twisting and turning required at the top level of the game.

Now, the central defender has to be disciplined and NOT join every training session with his team-mates.

"It would be easy to see the ball and a training pitch and go out there and be with the lads every time. A bit of physical contact, get a sweat on, that is brilliant – but I know that isn’t what I am being paid for.

"I have to take step back. I have to be looking on rather than join in every time."

As one door closed for Coleman, another has opened. A highly-successful player, early evidence suggest he could surpass those achievements as manager.