EVEN before he had played in the 1978 FA Cup final David Geddis stated that it was his ambition to be a coach when his playing days were over.

Nick Garnham

EVEN before he had played in the 1978 FA Cup final David Geddis stated that it was his ambition to be a coach when his playing days were over.

He was a fully qualified coach by the time he was 26 so that when he packed up playing he was ready to pursue his new career.

Geddis was initially offered the position of community officer at Middlesbrough and ran their Centre of Excellence, before stepping up to be the club's youth team coach. After three years he was promoted to reserve team coach, a position he held for four years.

He only left Middlesbrough when Steve McClaren replaced Bryan Robson as manager in 2000 and brought in his own coaching staff.

He was then temporarily unemployed before briefly working as a scout for Reading.

Geddis said: “Three-and-a-half months after Bobby Robson joined Newcastle I got a call out of the blue asking would I be prepared to go there on a trial basis for three months. That was then extended to the end of the season and it was the start of three-and-a-half years of great success, especially when you look at the decline since. Nothing stays the same in football, but it has been a dramatic fall.”

Geddis, whose role was as assistant first-team coach, said on match days he would sit in the directors' box and assess the technical aspect of matches.

“People didn't know what I did because I was not on the bench,” he reflected.

Newcastle's success under Robson in qualifying for the Champions League saw Geddis return to the European stage he had experienced with Ipswich, but when Robson was sacked by Newcastle in August 2004 Geddis again found himself out of work.

“I left within a week, but sadly it happens in football. It was disappointing in view of what has happened since.

“I loved working there and for the manager. I saw young people developing and it excited me.”

Geddis informed the Football Association he was available for work and three months later got a telephone call asking him to go to the USA to provide reports on games.

He has full-time worked for the FA since December 2004, apart from a six-month spell between July and December 2006 as reserve team coach at Leeds United, which only ended after manager Kevin Blackwell's contract was terminated.

He is employed as one of a select handful of FA analysts, filing international match reports and also analysing players under consideration for senior and under-21 selection which involves attending Premier League games all over the country and giving a full run-down on players' current form.

One of the highlights of his coaching career so far was working for the FA at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

“I was away for six weeks, not just covering the World Cup but also the warm-up friendlies. It was an amazing experience.”

Geddis, who recently celebrated his 50th birthday, said his ambition is to be a manager himself.

“The situation in England does not help people in my position, but I am fully qualified to do the job.

“With all the experience I have had the next step would be doing the No. 1 job, and starting off at a lower division club would not be a problem for me.”

Geddis has been married to Christine for 23 years and the couple have three children - Lorne, 21, Ryan, 20, and Megan, 15.

He last paid a visit to Portman Road to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Ipswich's FA Cup win over Arsenal in 2003.