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When I was at Liverpool, I asked about Van Dijk when he was at Groningen and then at Celtic. But I was told he wouldn't be for us at the time. Van Dijk could have jumped from Celtic to a Liverpool.
I have been around football all my life, and it doesn't happen. It never enters my mind. I don't think, 'Oh, what's going to happen to me at the end of the season?' Whatever happens to me, happens.
I could write a book - if I could write, ha ha - about how many times I've been ripped off lending money to people. I'm an absolutely unbelievable soft touch. Unbelievable. I never learn my lesson.
Of course, as manager, the selection of the team is very much one of the biggest responsibilities I personally take, but I come to that decision thanks to advice and support of the people around me.
I left Mainz after 18 years and thought, 'Next time, I will work with a little less of my heart.' I said that because we all cried for a week. The city gave us a goodbye party, and it lasted a week.
Once, I used to have the local reporter on the team bus and I'd tell him everything, so when he wrote about the club he was informed, even if he couldn't print some things. Those days are long gone.
You never stop learning in football management and I certainly believe the invaluable experience from my time as Villa manager will prove hugely beneficial in the next stage of my managerial career.
The arrival of Arsene Wenger in 1996 certainly heralded a change in English football. He was very successful very quickly, and suddenly, all the talk was about his revolutionary new training methods.
I was always a great admirer of Zizou the player, but now I also admire him as a coach. I like how calm he is. This shows me that he's not showcasing for the public or the camera. He's a top trainer.
I look for players who do not just score goals but provide an attacking point, linking with other players and able to see the third man as well. Van Persie is one of the best strikers around at that.
It was very difficult to succeed Bert van Marwijk because, two years before, he was second in the World Cup, and then he left a broken-up team behind - so that was much more difficult than you think.
I would like to thank the United staff for making me feel so welcome and part of the United family from my first day. And of course thank you to those fans who have supported me throughout the season.
When you are a coach, you are watching how the team is positioning itself on the field - if your team is in possession of the ball, you are already anticipating what could happen if you lose the ball.
Players have responsibilities, because, whether they like it or not, they are public figures. They have to be aware that the people who come to the ground spend fortunes in relation to what they earn.
My favorite team growing up was the Cincinnati Reds. Living within 10 minutes of the ball park I went to as many games as possible growing up as long as they didn't conflict with my baseball schedule.
I started playing well and felt comfortable. That season a set a Jamestown record of consecutive innings pitched with out a walk. (40 2\3 innings, i think) and was named Jamestown Pitcher of the Year.
I do get text messages from people with sick jokes on when something terrible has happened. I don't read them; they make me ill. But it does happen, and I'm sure I'm not the only person who gets them.
My first experience out of my country was Ecuador. That was a very good option for me. To know how you can develop your coaching style or your personality being away and being alone, that is not easy.
I enjoy working, and I enjoy working every day - and it is for that reason that I don't so much like the idea of working with an international squad. To have every day on the pitch is important to me.
Ronnie Moran, Joe Fagan, Bob Paisley, Roy Evans - they were hard on us young players. If you got a 'well done' off Ronnie Moran, you must have played well... They never used superlatives at Liverpool.
My template for everything is organisation. With the ball you have to know the movement patterns, the rotation, the fluidity and positioning of the team. When we have the football everybody's a player.
After my heart operation, I was given tablets, but, I'll admit, half the time I forget to take them. I carry them around in the car. Little triangular things - I don't know what they are, to be honest.
I think football management has obviously changed and evolved in terms of practices and methods, but I would say the values we strive to hold are the same as great men like Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley.
At the World Cup and even now at the Confederations Cup, our security provisions will ensure the greatest level of protection possible for all those participating - both inside and outside the stadiums.
I have been privileged during my management career to have won 20 trophies, but winning the FA Cup, which is steeped in so much history, will always be one of the most special achievements of my career.
The family is something you are always missing, but it has to be like this. It is not easy for any manager to be with your family, in your house, and working at your nearest club. So you have to travel.
Wherever I go, the club is never to stay on the same square on the board: they have to move up. I don't know if it's coincidence, some calling, or destiny - but whatever it is, it's the story of my life.
I found the support inside Old Trafford has been terrific and, if there was ever a show of support for the football club and team, it was in this game. Inside Old Trafford it was terrific, it really was.
At Plymouth I wrote 'Neil Warnock's Wembley Way', a one-year diary, to show people what being a manager was like. I got lucky as the year ended with us winning promotion through the play-offs at Wembley.
It was easily the happiest day of my football life and yet people still want to ask me about the suit. When they talk about the day, it's not 'didn't you do well?', it's 'what was that you were wearing?!
Now astronomical wages are making it very difficult to take somebody who might not even have a transfer fee attached to them, because of the net value that they want and the net value that they're worth.
Your cruciate ligament, like many long-term injuries... when they come back they're expected to be what they were before the injury. While fit it sometimes takes a little bit longer for some than others.
The Premier League is guided by this dynamic: ball lost - ball recovered - ball lost again. That makes matches unpredictable, teams must be objective and behave like that because that's what excites fans.
But I am very confident that David Pleat, the director of football or whatever his title is now days - I am very confident that he, with all his media commitments around the world, knows the market place.
Bryan Gray at Preston gave me a chance, even though Joe Royle and Ian Rush were being linked with the job. He taught me an awful lot about structuring the job and encouraged me to invest in young players.
There is no winter break, and I think that is the most evil thing of this culture. It is not good for English football. It is not good for the clubs or the national team, and I think you should change it.
I believe a young player will run through a barbed wire fence for you. An older player looks for a hole in the fence, he’ll try and get his way through it some way, but the young player will fight for you.
As a player, you are more concerned with the moments when you have possession of the ball or are about to receive the ball. You are watching your team-mates and trying to decide what the possibilities are.
In 2008 and 2009 I was very blessed to be with Manager Brandon Hyde and Pitching coach Reid Corneilus. They both were extremely professional and did a great job helping prepare everyone for the next level.
I think I could have worked as a technical director. But in this role, you can't attend training or say anything for fear it won't suit the coach, directors, or media. I don't think I want a job like that.
I think players tend to get anxious if they've not really done things properly - like eating, resting or training. If you're fully prepared you've got nothing to worry about - it's just a game of football.
I judge people, and myself, when you are up against it. When you've been beaten like that you have to find out who is alongside you, you roll your sleeves and come out fighting and those are my principles.
Without that real spectacle of a big, noisy St James' Park or Old Trafford or the Emirates, the certain beauty of watching a game of football even live on the telly is not the same as far as I'm concerned.
I think everybody has got to understand that you go into certain games, and they've got all the tools and the weapons to win a game of football and you're really trying to contend as much as anything else.
When I see the Bill Shankly statue, I look at the sentiment on the base. It says: 'He made the people happy’. Well now the modern Liverpool is making the fans and the city happy. And that makes me so proud.
In the Fifties, Canvey was a top seaside place for a youngster - the famous Canvey Island Casino was full of slot machines and there were all the fairground rides, such as the dodgems, and a speedway track.
When I have signed for clubs, I have always spoken a long time with the CEO or with the owners, not only at United, but also at Bayern Munich and Barcelona, and I have the faith that they always support me.
When you're younger, you worry about the sack and getting abuse and things, but when you get to my age, you become less bothered about those things. It becomes more like a hobby and less like life or death.
It's not going to determine whether I will remain with Nigeria or not. I don't have a contract and I'm not depending on this match to give me a contract. So please don't think I will die in the Nigeria job.
Age is just a number. For 18 months at Boro I was the first one in at training and one of the last out. I look at people like Manuel Pellegrini and Marcelo Bielsa and think they all have something to offer.