Roy Keane decided to accept the manager's job at Sunderland on a gut feeling.
The 35-year-old admitted as he drove to meet chairman Niall Quinn and the players on Sunday that there were still doubts in his mind.
However, once he had met the players and seen them end their barren run with Monday's 2-0 Coca-Cola Championship victory over West Brom, he knew he had done the right thing.
Keane said: 'Until you have signed the contract, you are maybe going to have things cross your mind.
'But then meeting the players on Sunday and coming to the game yesterday, it just feels right.
'Sometimes you have to follow your gut feeling.'
Keane set out on the road to his latest career move when he started the process of gaining his coaching qualifications two years ago, and he turned down Quinn's initial approach during the summer to pursue his UEFA A Licence.
However, he knew from the start where his career path would take him as he followed in the footsteps of two of English football's most successful managers, Brian Clough and Alex Ferguson.
Keane said: 'When I did my UEFA B a couple of years ago, they said you have to get in your mindset whether you are going to be a coach or a manager.
'I knew straight away, anyway, what I wanted to be, and that was a manager.'
The break for international matches has given Keane a chance to catch his breath after a whirlwind couple of days.
But with yesterday's press conference out of the way, he can now start to mould his squad - he will attempt to strengthen his hand ahead of tomorrow's transfer deadline, although wholesale changes are not expected.
Quinn has declined to reveal just how much cash he and his Drumaville consortium will make available, although he has hinted it will be significant.
The chairman said: 'We will hopefully have everything Roy needs. The evidence of this club's growth will come, I would hope, in the rest of the season.
'We hope to lift all parts of the club and we know essential to that is bringing quality in.
'But we are very pleased with the attitude Roy takes, that he is not just going to bring players in for the sake of it.
'When there is quality and when we can replace players with much better players, then we will back him.
'He knows through the negotiations we have had that we mean business.
'We kind of made a pact very early on and said we would not give a figure because that puts pressure on a lot of areas and also inflates prices.
'But we will back Roy Keane.'
