If you exclude a rocky 44-day period at Nottingham Forest earlier this year, where internal club politics proved infuriating, Alex McLeish has been out of football for 18 months.

And even prior to that, his 2011-12 season at Aston Villa proved about as painful as it can get for a coach, ending in his dismissal in May 2012. "I'm still bruised, still a bit raw from that episode," admits McLeish. "I'm proud of my record but I've also had setbacks. Sometimes the gap between a genius and an idiot is wafer-thin. I've seen both sides of it."

I?¯remind McLeish of the famous cry from a Rangers shareholder at the club's buoyant agm in Glasgow in December 2003. He had just won five consecutive trophies, having picked up the reins from Dick Advocaat, basically using the same squad but playing a Dutch-style 4-3-3 and with erstwhile sagging players suddenly filled with new confidence.

"Yer walkin' on water, Big Man!" a shareholder hollered as McLeish took to the floor to a standing ovation. "Aye, I?¯remember it," he says with a grin. "I?¯tracked down that guy and said to him, 'you're saying that about me today, but what about next season?' I've learned you take nothing for granted in football."

McLeish is currently doing media work - TV spots and the like - and he enjoys the learned waffle of the pundit's role. But, at 54, he is a football manager with bottled-up energy and enthusiasm just waiting to be unleashed on a dugout again.

After success with Rangers and Scotland, his career has been shaped, for good and ill, in England these past six years. First came Birmingham City and relegation, promotion, a thrilling ride in the Barclays Premier League, a Carling Cup win, but then relegation again. Then to Aston Villa and 11 painful months. Last Christmas at Forest, McLeish believed, would be the start of a new adventure but that job was over scarcely before it had begun.

His three years at Birmingham remain vivid in his mind and tinged with regret to this day. "It was tragic the way it ended," he says. "We had won the Carling Cup in the February [of 2011] and the irony is, that could have been one of Birmingham City's best ever seasons. But we ended up going down, having been safe with five minutes to go of the final game. I?¯genuinely believe that, if I?¯had been allowed more latitude, I?¯would still be with them in the Premier League today. But the club hesitated financially, forcing us to recruit badly in my final season, and we paid the price. I?¯feared the worst and my fears were realised. We were frozen out financially."

It proved a giddy period for McLeish, during which he guided Birmingham to their highest placing in 50 years. Disaster would follow. "The previous summer [2009], after we came up from the Championship, we recruited really well. Guys like Barry Ferguson, Lee Bowyer and Roger Johnson arrived, and we finished ninth. Looking back, that was quite an achievement.

"But things started going wrong. I?¯was denied players I?¯wanted, plus others I?¯could have got. I?¯wanted Bobby Zamora but was forced to miss out. I?¯then had Mousa Dembele in the palm of my hands, having dropped his agent off at the train station and shaken on a deal, but two days later Dembele went to Fulham. Birmingham wouldn't pay the money; it came down to finance.

"We ended up scrambling for players that summer and I?¯knew it would spell trouble. I got Aleksandr Hleb in from Barcelona, but the Birmingham players weren't having him. He could be a genius on the ball but he played for himself, he didn't play for the team. I?¯was also forced to do last-minute deals and it left us ill-prepared. You have to get the circumstances right and we didn't do that. We didn't prepare well enough and it told in the end. A lack of foresight killed us.

"I've seen it said more than once that 'Alex McLeish is a lucky manager'. People said it after Peter Lovenkrands' last-minute winner in the Scottish Cup final [in 2002] and then after Helicopter Sunday [in 2005]. Well, I?¯can tell you, I?¯feel I've been pretty unlucky at times. I?¯could have done with more luck in that final season at Birmingham."

Even so, McLeish made a fateful decision of his own volition in June 2011. With Birmingham relegated, but with his Premier League stock still holding up, he resigned and took charge of city rivals Villa. It turned into one of McLeish's worst nightmares. He faced flak from the off and won only four homes games all season before securing 16th place - and top-flight safety - on the final day. Villa's seven league victories was their worst haul in 121 years.

The experience leaves him more bitter than sweet. "I?¯couldn't turn the job down, though it would have greatly helped me if I'd come from, say, Fulham rather than Birmingham City," he reflects. "It was beneath the Villa fans to have someone coming from Birmingham City to be their manager. I'm still bruised by what happened there. In fact, it took all my managerial experience just to keep Villa in the Premier League that year. It was a work in progress for me and it was obvious that some players needed to leave the club. I?¯felt like I?¯was walking on egg-shells all season.

"We beat Chelsea on Boxing Day but then lost at home to Swansea City three days later through some criminal defending. It was a pretty tough experience. At the end of the campaign, having finally stayed up, I?¯went to see the chief executive [Paul Faulkner] and said, 'I'll have a report on your desk tomorrow morning outlining exactly what we need for next season.' He just looked back at me with a pair of big puppy eyes and I?¯thought, 'right, I'll go and clear my desk instead.' It was right, I?¯guess, that I?¯should have left Villa."

So now, in November 2013, what next for this impressive figure of the Scottish game? McLeish is not sure but his self-belief, he says, is holding up. "One minute you are the flavour of the month, the next minute you're on the scrapheap. I?¯just know I?¯want back into football.

"I've tasted a whole range of football experiences. I?¯won trophies at Rangers, and I?¯took a weakened Rangers team into the last 16 of the Champions League on tactics alone. How we did that was quite something. I've also played all types of football as a manager. I've done the more beautiful stuff, at Hibs and at Rangers, when I?¯had the players like Latapy, Sauzee, De Boer and others who could be fluent with the ball. I've also had to do the less pleasing stuff on the eye, the fire-fighting, because sometimes that is needed as well.

"I?¯want back into the game. Maybe I'll go abroad to reinvent myself, and get back into people's minds. I've had successes in football and I've also had some setbacks. I?¯just want to take on that challenge once again."