Monaco technical director Claude Makelele has promised not to interfere with coach Leonardo Jardim's work and says he turned down job offers from African nations and the United States before accepting his new position.
Makelele was officially appointed by the Ligue 1 club last week to work as a link between vice-president Vadim Vasilyev and the management team.
The former France international will have an office at Monaco's training centre and will also attend first-team training sessions.
Several French media outlets have reported that Jardim was not informed in advance of Makelele's arrival and that the Portuguese could see the ex-Chelsea and Real Madrid midfielder as a threat.
Makelele previously worked as assistant coach to both Carlo Ancelotti and Laurent Blanc at Paris Saint-Germain. He was sacked as coach of Bastia in 2014, only four months into his first head-coaching job, and he insists he is not positioning himself to eventually take over from Jardim.
"I will leave him the time to learn to know me," Makelele told L'Equipe. "That doesn't give me any problems.
"He will understand that I'm here to help him with the project. I'm not crooked -- Ancelotti and Laurent Blanc can bear witness to that.
"I can understand that my arrival might be a shock for everyone. The vice-president reassured him. I have my job, he has his. It went very well. We're going to work together in the same direction."
Makelele said he had used his time off from the game to watch Pep Guardiola in action at Bayern Munich, while returning to Chelsea and Madrid to see how the clubs worked.
He also said he had rejected several other job offers before Monaco approached him.
"Yes, but it was vague -- national teams in Africa, clubs in the United States and in France too," he said. "These projects didn't suit me."