Andy Flower is adamant he can work with Kevin Pietersen during England's tour of the West Indies even though he might not still be in a job if the former captain had had his way.
Pietersen's falling-out with Peter Moores eventually ended this month with him losing the England captaincy and Moores being sacked as England coach.
It subsequently emerged the South Africa-born star batsman was also not overly impressed with the coaching ability of Flower, then Moores's deputy.
But in the shake-up that saw South Africa-born Andrew Strauss appointed captain, Flower kept his post and, with England still to appoint a new head coach, the Zimbabwe great will lead the remaining backroom staff in the Caribbean.
"I've had a chat with Kevin about stuff," said Flower.
"From what I can understand Kevin did want a regime change. But I haven't gone into any specifics with him on that front."
Flower, once ranked as the world's No 1 batsman, insisted he had no problems with Pietersen's plain-speaking approach.
"Kevin and I have always had a good relationship actually," he said.
"I don't know if the Southern African thing has helped with that. It's always been an honest and open relationship so I don't see any problem.
"Kevin and I have had our differences as I do with a lot of the guys when we're debating things. It's healthy to debate things."
Flower, who effectively ended his international career at the 2003 World Cup in southern Africa when he and black team-mate Henry Olonga staged a protest mourning the "death of democracy" in Zimbabwe under President Robert Mugabe, has more experience than most of off-field power struggles.
But even he was caught out by the rapidity of recent events which cost Pietersen and Moores their prize posts.
"The speed and severity of what happened took me by surprise. The whole affair was bad for everyone involved. I'm pretty sure it could have been avoided too."
Strauss made it clear on Tuesday he wanted a greater emphasis on players thinking for themselves rather than leaning on the coaching team.
Flower, who finished his playing career with English county Essex, said he would have no problems operating in such a set-up during a tour which features four Tests, a Twenty20 and five one-day internationals.
"There's always a balance that we need to find as coaches in terms of what a players wants and what he needs," Flower said.
"Certainly Andrew wants coaches to play a more supportive role," added Flower, whose fellow Zimbabwean Duncan Fletcher enjoyed a largely successful spell as England coach before Moores took over after the 2007 World Cup.
"He came through the Duncan Fletcher model of coach-player relationship. I'm quite happy to support Andrew in this role."
Flower, who will help Strauss select the side in the Caribbean, where the Test series starts on February 4 in Jamaica, was less certain about his England future and whether he wanted to succeed Moores on a permanent basis.
"I'm not sure if I want the head coach job. I want to play it by ear a little bit and see how the next month goes."
Flower, unsurprisingly given the way in which Moores's tenure came to an abrupt end, was sanguine about his own job prospects.
"I'm aware a new coach could come in and say 'thanks but bye'. It's going that way on the cricket front.
"But I'd like to stay involved and that's partly the reason we need to play it by ear."
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