FOR a first managerial job former Burnley coach Michael Jolley couldn't have opted for a much tougher assignment.

After three years leading the Clarets' development squad 40-year-old Jolley took the jump into first team management last summer - swapping Turf Moor for the Swedish top division, the Allsvenskan.

Jolley took over as manager of AFC Eskilstuna, a club recently relocated to the town of 100,000 inhabitants around 100km to the west of Stockholm, who were sitting rock bottom of the table after 12 games, with just four points to their name and still in search of an historic first Allsvenskan win.

It would be Jolley who guided them to that moment of history and he came close to pulling off the great escape, but the former academy coach relished his experience in Sweden and believes he is a better manager for it.

"I really enjoyed it, I did three years at Burnley, that was fantastic. I’d like to think I could have stayed there as long as I wanted to stay there really. I had a good relationship with the manager and everything was great," he explains.

"But I’ve always had the desire to test myself as a first team manager and I just took the view that when the opportunity came I couldn't turn it down.

"I knew when I joined that the club was in a really tough position at the bottom of the league, so my eyes were open on the situation.

"I didn’t think I’d get many chances to work abroad as a head coach so why not give it a go?"

AFC Eskilstuna were alerted to Jolley through their admiration of the work Burnley have done in recent seasons and it was a bold appointment that almost paid off.

The club put their new manager and his wife up in a house overlooking a picturesque lake and Jolley threw himself into a job that had demands off the pitch as well as on it.

"The club is quite unique because it had just moved from Stockholm to a place called Eskilstuna and changed its name so it was kind of similar to MK Dons in some ways," he said.

"This was the first season in the new town, I had a lot of work to do with sponsors and the local people to try and explain who we were, why were we there and why we wanted to make friends in the town.

"It was an interesting aspect, it was part of the challenge to try and sell the club to the people and the crowds steadily grew as we competed in the top division."

On the pitch results improved for Jolley. He had 18 games to try and pull off a miracle and although the final league table will show that AFC Eskilstuna were relegated, Jolley briefly had them off the bottom of the table, picking up 16 points along the way.

"It was almost at the snookers required stage (when I arrived) so I saw it as a bit of a no lose really," the former Crewe academy coach said.

"The ideal would have been to have kept them up but we took it to the 28th game so I think the team definitely did improve.

"We beat the league champions Malmo, we beat Gothenburg. When I spoke to a lot of the other head coaches they said given the squad of players we had and the circumstances they felt we’d done pretty well to take it to the 28th game.

"We had full houses for several of the home games when we had victories and the atmosphere was fantastic.

"We took a good number of fans to the Friends Arena to play AIK Stockholm, who are a massive club and we got a good point there.

"There was a bit of a buzz around the team at that time, we felt we could even get out of it but we weren’t quite able to get it over the line, but I think people felt we’d given it a go."

As a player Jolley was released as a youngster by Barnsley before swapping the dressing room for the classroom. He graduated from Cambridge University and pursued a career as a financial trader with HSBC in London and New York before deciding to reignite his love for football in a coaching capacity.

In Sweden he had a well-travelled squad, dominated by a core of Swedes but including Iranian goalkeeper Alireza Haghighi, Nigeria international and former AC Milan man Taye Taiwo and the promising Sierra Leone youngster Mohamed Buya Turay.

Jolley had always been keen to manage abroad at some point in his career and with the pathway for young British coaches becoming increasingly blocked in the English game he felt this opportunity was ideal.

"I wanted to experience that but I also took the view that it going to be really tough for me to jump straight out of Burnley Under-23s and into the right kind of managerial job in the UK because it’s so competitive here," he said.

"I took the view that I’m going to have think outside the box and try something different. I’ve got no regrets for that, I think I’m much better off for the experience I’ve had.

"Tactically I saw some different things in Sweden that I’d not experienced, even in the Premier League.

"As a coach it is something you should definitely consider. The way English football is going it is incredibly difficult to get a managerial job in the first two divisions and that is filtering down."

Jolley wasn't the only English coach plying his trade in Sweden last season, with Graham Potter continuing to work miracles at Ostersunds, who face Arsenal in the Europa League this month.

"He’s a massive name in Sweden," Jolley said of the 42-year-old who continues to be overlooked for jobs in his homeland.

"I was at the equivalent of the LMA awards dinner at the end of the season and Graham won coach of the year and deservedly so, what he has done there is amazing.

"I’m surprised more clubs haven’t had a closer look at him or decided to take a chance with him. He’s competing at the top end of European football with a club that is probably League One in size at best."

While Potter ploughs on in Sweden Jolley is back in the UK having left AFC Eskilstuna on good terms recently. Jolley had plans to lead the club back to the top flight, based on the success Burnley achieved when taking the Championship title in 2015/16, but with ideas differing between boss and board he decided to cut his ties.

But having had his first taste of senior management Jolley is ready for more, whether that be at home or abroad.