Butcher is back in the UK after his stint in charge at Sydney which saw the side only just scrape into the finals - and then get booted out in the first round.

After he left, it was revealed he had only organised one proper training session during his whole time in charge.

And caretaker replacement Branko Culina walked into the job to discover there had been no homework done on the sides the club is now facing in the Asian Champions League.

But in an interview with Scotland's The Herald newspaper, Butcher blames the club for its own woes and writes off A-League football as being only equal to the third tier English Championship League One or worse.

"Everything was a test and day after day there was another problem but we got through them," he said. "We were like a gypsy club and I felt like a nomad. My office was on the 18th floor of a shopping complex, we had a rented stadium and no home.

"We were docked three points for a salary infringement and still qualified for the finals. We had broken collarbones, a guy played 45 minutes all season, and sometimes we had to keep an outfield jersey ready for our goalkeeper in case we needed him.

"Football [in Australia] is only two years' old and in its infancy. They cannot get to the standards of other leagues unless they go abroad for the best coaches and the best players. There are a lot of things they can improve on. I would say some games would be League One and sometimes below that."

He added: "They were a testing nine months but I always preferred jobs that were challenging and instructive.

"I had a great rapport with the players and fans and I think we did well to achieve what we did, especially when the circumstances were largely self-inflicted. We had six players sent off in 23 games and obviously there were other events on the outside that didn't help."

Butcher says he is still owed money by Sydney and is prevented from speaking out about his relationship with the Sydney board - and especially celebrity director Anthony LaPaglia - by a confidentiality clause.

But he now fears he may be unemployable after his Sydney nightmare despite the good work he did with Scottish Premier club Motherwell before his Oz adventure.

"It is possible people might think that but I know what I can do and what I can achieve," he said. "I think it's a pretty good achievement with a squad of 17 players. The geographical problems meant that some games, like Perth or New Zealand, took four days' preparation."

Butcher revealed he relied on phone calls and internet chats with his former Motherwell sidekick Maurice Malpas to get him through the hard times. "It must have been like the Samaritans in the early weeks when things weren't going well for either of us," he says.

And he even blames The Ashes for driving a rift between him and the Aussies.

"The Ashes didn't help," he added. "I'm not saying they were anti-English, but you could sense there was not the same humour that exists between the Scots and the English."

Despite his torrid time Down Under, Butcher still thinks he could call Australia home.

"I didn't want to rush back to the Scottish weather so we became tourists for a month," he said. "I even tried body surfing. I would love to retire out there. I stayed by the harbour on Rose Bay. It's not Ramsay Street but it's not far off it.

"I even found the Vintage Cellars, a great little place that kept me stocked up on wine. It's a very vibrant city but charming as well."

And his biggest gripe? Not being able to get a simple cup of watery coffee...

He admitted: "What did I miss? Coffee. Half-caff, flat whites and all that stuff are no problem but when I asked for a normal filter coffee with a side of milk in a decent sized cup, they looked at me like I was an alien.

"I would have killed for an instant. And decent newspapers. I wrote a column for the Sydney Morning Herald...and they still slaughtered me."