You have represented your country at two World Cups. You have scored a cup-final winning goal at Wembley against Manchester United. At the club where you made your name, your status as a legend is secure. While there have been a few downs after hanging up your boots, your managerial career has been rich and varied, with promotion won and trophy lifted.
At 57, it has been a football life well lived. Aside from becoming a grandparent, there is now a project to keep you busy in the shape of a new house, alongside a property portfolio. In the depths of winter, the warm years of retirement stretch out in front of you like endless golden sands.
So why? Why on earth would you jettison that - albeit temporarily - to become the latest of 11 changes of manager in four years (an average of 18 games each) at British football's biggest basket case?
A Premier League founder member in ruin, whose very league existence is under threat. A freefalling disaster whose last game, a 3-0 defeat at the mighty Harrogate Town, saw them drop seven points clear of safety. A crisis club whose fed-up fanbase hurled expletive insults at its own players as they trudged to the tunnel which was, helpfully, located slap bang in the middle of a seething away end.
For John Sheridan, the new Oldham Athletic manager, the logic was simple. 'The other half is as happy as Larry to get me out the house!' he jokes.
Mrs Sheridan is not the only one with a smile on her face. In protest at the self-harming regime of current owner Abdallah Lemsagam, and his deeply unpopular brother, sporting director Mohamed, long-suffering Latics fans have mostly been boycotting or invading the pitch.
Their base has never been known for its temperate climate but a strange phenomena descended on Boundary Park this week after news Sheridan was returning for a stint in charge was posted in a hasty tweet posted in the aftermath of the Harrogate humbling. Optimism rolled down from the surrounding Pennines.
They call him Lord Sheridan in these parts. In two of his previous five (including caretaker) stints he has overseen miraculous escapes from League One relegation. Those supporters, a week ago disconnected and disillusioned despite Lemsagam seemingly accepting defeat and finally putting the club up for sale, are now hoping they will witness for a third time what they refer to as a 'Shezurrection'.
On Saturday the size of the task — and the goodwill — was laid bare. More than 8,000 were at Boundary Park, easily the highest crowd of the season. They witnessed a newfound determination at the back, but a woefully impotent attack in a fortunate 0-0 draw with Rochdale which lifted them off the bottom on goal difference.
That turnstile-clicking depth of feeling gives the biggest clue as to the real reason why he is here.
'It's the love of the club,' Sheridan explains. 'It gives me a chance to get back into the game when I thought I wouldn't but it's the love of the club. Oldham's been good to me. As a player towards the end of my career and when I went into coaching and then management. It means a lot. Every week I see the results and watch the goals and I couldn't sit by. I'm not just saying that, it means a lot.'
Sheridan called weeks ago, with Oldham seemingly in a death spiral after Tunisian head of academy Selim Benachour was promoted to interim manager following the sacking of Keith Curle and promptly failed to win a match.
Nothing transpired, but on Saturday night his phone rang.
'I was only too willing,' he says. 'It might be a big gap but there's 21 games to keep them in the league.'
Rumours swirled that, with club strapped for cash, the ex-Sheffield Wednesday and Ireland playmaker had offered his services for free.
'No manager in their right minds would do that!' he says. 'But it's not about the money.'
On Monday, he met his new charges for the first time. Already, there have been changes. Scholars are back to cleaning first-team players' boots, the traditional home dressing room has been restored (it had been swapped with the away one) and the new manager pops into the offices every day to chat to staff before and after training.
The biggest task, however, has been to instil confidence into a thin, struggling and youthful squad.
'It's been difficult with things going on off the pitch and some of the younger players need an arm around them,' he explains. 'I think everyone is very frustrated and unhappy the way things have been going in and around the club for the last two years but I've not come in thinking about anything like that. I am coming in purely to lift the players if I can. I know the fans will be lifted - obviously they've got a bit of respect for me, so I think it's time now for everyone to look forward, stick together and try and push us to the points we need, end of story.'
Sheridan will be assisted by fellow Leeds youth product Tommy Wright, who was given a suspended prison sentence and six-year ban after being caught in the same newspaper sting which saw the downfall of England boss Sam Allardyce.
Wright, who also played for Oldham, was banned by the FA for six years but is now permitted to coach.
'He's my best mate. I don't ask questions - if he's got something to tell me he'll tell me. He got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. He's free to be in the game now. He's a good friend and a good coach who knows the game inside out. He's ideal.'
The pair have been commuting to what Joe Royle christened Ice Station Zebra from their homes close to each other in Yorkshire. You get the impression the car drives itself across the M62.
'We know the way.' Sheridan jokes. 'It's still freezing, still like Russia.'
Should he prevail, the Mancunian Irishman would class it as the finest achievement of his managerial career. One Oldham fan has already started petitioning for a street to be named after him - although some would tell you he should have had one of those 31 years ago, when he tripped Latics full-back Andy Barlow to concede the injury-time penalty which gave Oldham the Second Division title when West Ham's name had already been engraved on the trophy.
'I still get reminded about that now,' says Sheridan, whose Sheffield Wednesday side were also promoted that season.
'I was in the players' bar after having a pint and I said: '"I'd rather Oldham won it than West Ham". You could say I've always had a fondness for them.' The fondness is wholeheartedly reciprocated. And should he perform his latest, and most likely last, miracle, that bar will be rocking again.