Ex-Portsmouth, Swansea, Leyton Orient and Wolves boss 'doubts' return to football management - and targets future in different role

Instead the former Pompey boss has revealed he favours specialising in recruitment and squad planning as he seeks a return to the game.

Jackett has been out of work since February 2022, following nine months with Leyton Orient in League Two.

Previously he spent more than three-and-a-half years at Fratton Park, leading the Blues to the Checkatrade Trophy in March 2019 and twice reaching the League One play-off semi-finals.

However, now aged 60 and with right-hand man Joe Gallen as assistant coach at Perth Glory in Australia, Jackett is eyeing a very different role in the game.

And the ex-Wolves boss favours working in recruitment for his next position within football.

He told Watford fans’ Do Not Scratch Your Eyes podcast: ‘I do want to get back into the game.

‘I think probably my future maybe lies in recruitment now, the squad planning side of it, I do think is very interesting.

‘There’s several roles, there’s different ones, I am open-minded, I do want to get back into football, but, similarly, it would have to be the right thing and the right role which uses my experience - but I doubt whether it would be front line management.

‘At the right place, at the right time, yes do I think that there is a role there in terms of myself at the moment, the recruitment and squad planning side does interest me a lot.

‘I do think it’s a key, particularly now with multi-year contracts, you have to be thinking and planning ahead.

‘Those areas are really key to every single club, not necessarily just Watford.’

Jackett arrived at Pompey in June 2017 following Paul Cook’s departure for Wigan.

Inheriting the League Two champions, he established the Blues in League One in his first season, finishing a promising eighth.

Then followed successive League One play-off semi-final defeats to Sunderland (2018-19) and Oxford United (2019-20).

Having overseen Pompey for 109 wins in 211 matches, he was sacked in the aftermath of a Papa John’s Trophy final defeat to Salford on penalties in March 2021.