The son of a Nigerian international father and a Jamaican mother,

Mark Walters was, on his day, one of the fastest wingers in the country

but, by the time he left Liverpool on a free transfer at 31, he was a little past his best. He had been the first high-profile, black footballer to sign for Glasgow Rangers, so was used to pressure but the half season he spent at The Dell was one full of a different sort of pressure, namely an up-to-the-wire relegation scrap now known as “Great Escape III”.

Good enough to be capped by England – v New Zealand in 1991 – Mark in truth had little to offer and, once the man who signed him, Dave Merrington, had been relieved of his duties at the season’s end, then Mark’s days were numbered.

Mark, who lives in Solihull published his autobiography Winging It in October 2018 and spoke to the Guardian on his life post playing. “I provided footballing education after retiring but not as much as he would have liked. I earned all of his coaching qualifications and began what I hoped would be a long second career by taking charge of an under-nines team for Villa. I was prepared to start at the bottom and work my way up because I had never coached before,” he explained. But the highest he climbed was to be head of Villa’s Under-14s, apart from a brief stint coaching the first team at the invitation of manager David O’Leary before the Irishman was sacked in 2006.

Walters spent five years coaching in schools on behalf of the Football Association. “But I never really got a chance to manage young professionals, players at the level or near the level I had played who could really benefit from my advice,” he said. “In my opinion unless you’re a manager’s son or have been playing golf with the head of academies or something, you’ll never get a job. Jobs were going to guys who had never even played professionally. I said when I went into it that I’d give it 10 years and if I didn’t get close to the level I had played at, I’d knock it in on the head. I had all the badges and every award going – in fact, I was overqualified for every job I had. I applied for lots of others but most didn’t even bother replying. I realised it was about who you knew. The nail on the head (sic) was when I was when Villa asked me to take the Under-10s … Fortunately I don’t need coaching to be able to live because I have properties and other things that keep me busy but I would love to have an opportunity to give back some of my knowledge.

The only opportunities at the level I wanted would have been abroad. I had the chance to go to the US but I was going through a divorce at the time and didn’t want to continue that cycle of a father not being around for his children – I made it my priority to be part of their lives.”His son and daughter are now 23 and 25 respectively and he says his opportunity to coach at the highest level may have passed. But he believes measures must be introduced to ensure other black coaches can rise as high as their ability deserves: “The ratio of black coaches to black ex-players is ridiculously low and that can’t continue.”