DEPENDING UPON one's perspective Steve Nicol is either the unluckiest manager in football, destined to a career of disappointment or he is a genius whose time will come.

The former Liverpool and Scotland player has taken the New England Revolution to the Major League Soccer Cup final four times in the last six years but has come away with the runners-up medal on each occasion. Tantalisingly close but no cigar, as they like to say in the US. Such a record would reduce many men to tears.

"The grief comes internally. The grief comes from ourselves," he said quietly. "You talk about a squad of players that deserves something and the one thing football teaches you is you don't win games on paper.

"You have to do certain things sometimes in order to get over the final hurdle. For different reasons we haven't been able to do that yet."

Optimistic, following a two-week training camp in Bermuda where his squad beat the island nation's team 2-0, he believes this season will be the one in which the Revolution are finally crowned champions. Nine of the 11 men who took the field at the 2007 MLS Cup final remain in the squad and he has added a few more players in the close season.

"That's a great nucleus to have," the 46-year-old Troon native said. "We signed a Costa Rican player Argenis Fernandez, a Honduran player Mauricio Castro and we will sign some more. We lost four players at the end of the year and we have to replace them.

"The Bermuda training camp is something we have done for the past two or three years. I think anytime you get a chance for everybody to go away and be together that's obviously a chance to bond. That's just a natural thing to happen. We weren't hiking up mountains and carrying each other on our shoulders or any of that, though."

The team's top scorer, Taylor Twellman, is among those returning despite a very public dispute over his request to leave for Europe. It has only been a year since the US international striker signed a four-year contract to play for Nicol.

When Championship club Preston North End came calling with an offer of £1.5 million, which would be a club record transfer fee, they were promptly turned down. Offers from Norway also fell on deaf ears.

Nicol understands Twellman's wish to test himself in one of the game's traditional hotbeds and admits none of the MLS teams could survive in England's Premier League, although he does believe they would be competitive in the top half of the English League Championship.

However, the club's position was simply a football decision. "I think the only problem with that is if the individual himself is bitter, unprofessional or other things and Taylor is none of those," said Nicol. "He understands the reason why we didn't let him go. But he's a professional with a decent head on his shoulders, and he understands the situation. I don't foresee it being a problem at all."

Nicol's journey in the opposite direction began after he was recruited by the Boston Bulldogs of the American "A" League in 1999. He had been playing non-league football with Doncaster Rovers following years of outstanding service to Liverpool but the Bulldogs hired him as a player-coach and he thought he would give it a shot.

"A guy called John Kerr, who used to play for Millwall and Portsmouth, offered me a chance to come over and play and coach," he said. "So I decided to try it for a year. We came over for a year and we are still here."

The Revolution hired Nicol as head coach in November 2002 following a season as interim head coach. He was named 2002 MLS coach of the year for turning the team's fortunes around. In August 2005 he was further honoured when the MLS selected him to coach the MLS Select XI as they played against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.

Since 2004 he has been assisted by former England international Paul Mariner. The two work well together. Nicol says they share the decision making on everything from filling in the team sheet to on-field tactics and what to accomplish in practice.

Nicol, his wife Eleanor, and two children, David, 23, and Katy, 21, have settled in the scenic town of Hopkinton just west of Boston which is most famous for being the place where the Boston marathon starts. They are accustomed to the American lifestyle and although they return to Scotland for a holiday each year they have no wish to return permanently. Even if a management job was offered?

"No, it's not something I think about," he said. "I mean, it's a very difficult business to try and plot a course because so many things can go wrong. So many things can change quickly. It's very difficult to look too far ahead of the next game.

"I have a good job. I enjoy my job here and it's a great place to be working. We have a great team. I like where I live. Long may that continue. I am doing well here. If something comes along we will look at it, but if it doesn't I will do what I can here to try and win the MLS Cup."

New England's opening game on Saturday is against Houston Dynamo, the team who sent Nicol's boys crashing 2-1 in last November's MLS Cup final, despite Twellman having put New England ahead after 31 minutes.

Asked if the team are up to the task, Nicol plants his tongue firmly in cheek.

"I think we'll have a tough year, I think we could struggle. Yeah right!" he laughs. "It's the same as every year. We all want to win games in pre-season to help the confidence and all that but at the end of the day it's all about being ready for the start of the season. We just want to get going. We are as optimistic as we are at the start of every season."