“I have recently been doing Spanish lessons and getting private tuition and I thought about doing it when I was a club manager,” the former Middlesbrough boss said on the League Managers Association website, www.leaguemanagers.com.

“When I was working at Derby, Manchester United and Middlesbrough, we were bringing foreign players into the clubs and we were dealing with foreign clubs and foreign agents.

“It sort of embarrassed me that everyone could speak a bit of English and we couldn’t speak any of these foreign languages. I always vowed that when I had time I would learn a language.

“I have decided upon Spanish, so if you do get foreign players, clubs or agents etc then I can at least have a little bit of a conversation with them.”

He added: “One of the things that I’ve never had the opportunity to do whilst managing was just to look abroad.

“We are getting a lot of foreign players, managers and coaches in England and I thought I’d look at what is happening in terms of coaching in the likes of Spain and Holland and Italy.

“I went to Spain recently and spent a couple of days with Espanyol. Then I spent a day with Barcelona to watch them train and chat with Frank Rijkaard and that was very interesting to see the Spanish way.

“I chatted to Thierry Henry and Eidur Gudjohnsen and found out how they find La Liga compared to the Premier League, the lifestyle and the culture.

“Then I went to Holland a couple of weeks ago to watch PSV v Ajax and spent the next day with PSV manager Sef Vergoossen and his coaching staff getting an insight into Dutch football and furthering my own coaching education as well.

“I plan on visiting as many of Europe’s major football leagues as possible.

“I spoke a lot to Sir Bobby Robson whilst I was England manager and it was very interesting talking about his career after England. He spoke about how he felt it benefited him by moving abroad, widening his horizons and continuing his education as a coach.

“That’s one of the reasons why I have been visiting these countries and looking abroad and it is something that if an opportunity arose and it was the right opportunity and the right challenge then I would not rule that out.”

A job in this country would also appeal to McClaren, who believes England has a lot to learn from the global game.

“In January, I got invited to America for their coaching convention in Baltimore and it was a phenomenal event. There were about 10,000 coaches at this event over three-four days,” he said.

“The interest in it, the structure, the way the Americans put this event together and have built it up over the years was something that really got me enthused again about coaching and coaching in this country.

“Looking at that convention, I think that it is something that we should have over here with 10,000 coaches.

“There were so many sessions and lectures and exhibitions that you could go to at this event, that it was a real education for young coaches to go through which is something that I believe in greatly.

“I think we have to have something like that in our country and coach education has got to be at the forefront if we are ever going to develop our game or our English players. ”