Mark Bonner has revealed he turned down job offers abroad after leaving Gillingham last month.
Bonner, sacked by the Gills on the back of a 3-0 home defeat by Bromley, returned to his boyhood club Cambridge United in a director of football role on Wednesday.
The 39-year-old will be working alongside another former Gillingham manager in Neil Harris, who has also returned to the U’s as their manager for a second time.
Bonner left Gillingham with the club in 14th place in League Two, 10 points outside the play-off places.
But he won promotion from that division when he was Cambridge manager and still has a lot to offer.
“I had some really exciting coaching opportunities potentially off the back of leaving Gillingham, in terms of management roles here and abroad,” said Bonner.
“Really this is the only place I’d do this job at, it took a bit of thinking to step away from the role I have been doing.”
When Bonner was asked how he reflects on his time at Gillingham, he replied: “That’s for another day. I can make money out of my previous stories on after-dinner speaking!
“My history at Cambridge and my history at Gillingham you’ll have to pay for when the book comes out.
“For now I’m thinking about how can I help Neil (Harris) with the team for Saturday and get on with my actual job.”
On Bonner stepping away from management to take up a different role, he added: “I don’t know how much I’ll miss it, time will tell, but I’m fully on board with what the job is and really looking forward to it.”
Having previously held the position as head coach at Cambridge, Bonner was also keen to dismiss any notion of a potential conflict of interests.
He added: “I wasn’t coming back to do the job that Neil is doing. I don’t want that job. I’ve done that job and I’m not going to do it again here.
“It’s really simple for me. Our jobs are really different but we’re going to work closely together and the experiences I’ve had in that role, I think can support Neil in a good way.
“But that’s not the job here for me. It’s sitting in the background and trying to create conditions for whoever is in that (head coach’s) seat to be successful.”
