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It was important for me, when I left a club like Liverpool, to one, have a breather, but then my next job, I needed pressure. And there's a pressure at Celtic. It's a huge club; there's an expectancy to win every game.
I know how hard it will be to follow the best manager ever, but the opportunity to manage Manchester United isn't something that comes around very often and I'm really looking forward to taking up the post next season.
It's all very well having a great pianist playing but it's no good if you haven't got anyone to get the piano on the stage in the first place, otherwise the pianist would be standing there with no bloody piano to play.
I played for Bologna in Serie A when I was 16, and those experiences made me this person. Just as importantly, I never played for a big club. My teams were normal, ordinary, but through hard work, we became successful.
Tottenham I really enjoyed the first year, and by the time I left we had almost as many points as in the season before when we broke the points record. But these are things that people don't evaluate, only I know about.
When I arrived at Liverpool, the budget was £20m gross. When I left, it was £17m, but still people said I must win the title. Manchester United had around £50m more every year, but they said I must compete against them.
When I was young I was one of the second generation of black people in Holland. My father was the first. My mother was white, and living with a black man at that time and having a how-you-say half-caste boy is not easy.
Mum wasn't scared of dad but I'm sure she got fed up with him taking her for granted... When I look back it was an empty relationship but I doubt there was ever a question of them splitting up. It wasn't the done thing.
The quality of people you have around you as a manager is so vital. There are various factors that influence that process; fitness, form and the tactical approach to your opponent are all areas I review on a daily basis.
The fact that these owners sacked me doesn't mean that our relationship is broken. I still get on well with Florentino, and although I haven't spoken much with Abramovich since I left Chelsea, I have no problem with him.
They have a choice as a club. They don't have to sell. Maybe Southampton's objectives have changed. They were looking to be a Champions League club, I believe. They obviously wanted to change... I don't have sympathy, no.
I think it's actually more difficult to come to a club where everything is going great and everyone is happy. When you take over from a guy who has been sacked because things weren't going well, it's more straightforward.
I tape over most of them with Corrie or Neighbours. Most of them are crap. They can f***ing make anyone look good. I signed Marco Boogers off a video. He was a good player but a nutter. They didn't show that on the video.
If our players start to see coaching as a dead end, where is the next Ferguson, the next Clough or Shankly? It's sad. How will players see a pathway, how are they going to see a future if even the England job goes abroad?
You, as a manager, are judged on results and not on the work you do and the performance of the team. Imagine paying a guy a huge amount of money and then judging him not on the things he can control, but on those he can't.
Manchester United is a world-famous club, and yet if you say, 'Manchester United,' then immediately you think of Sir Alex Ferguson. To have achieved so much and have so much importance at such a big club is extremely rare.
I like English football because you play all the games from the start of the Premier League to the very last game always 100%. Even when squads in the last two or three games have just been relegated, they still play 100%.
A lot of people forget that I played for seven years in the lower divisions; it wasn't always 'this glittering career.' I had to wait a long time and even in the early days at Man U, for three years we didn't win anything.
It's easier to sit at your desk and have a bun, but I've been really disciplined because I feel like I have to give myself a chance. You can't let yourself down on that. You have to be mentally sharp in this Premier League.
I had three years of success with Molde, winning the League twice and the Cup. I thought I was fully prepared, that I was ready for the Premier League. But it's a completely different world there. Everything is much bigger.
In any game, you have to work to stay in it, especially away against a good team like Southampton. It's a fantastic club and one I've said on a few occasions Cardiff City would do well to emulate, both on and off the field.
I played for Sampdoria and stayed there 15 years. Of course, I could have gone to Juventus, to AC Milan, to Inter Milan many times, but I preferred to remain because Sampdoria were my family, from the owners to the players.
I am better when I have control. I am not a power freak. But my point is that I need to feel that I can manage the team and have a direct, clear line through to the owners. Once that becomes hazy, for me, there is a problem.
I get the Swansea-Cardiff thing: I was a Swansea player; I loved playing against Cardiff. But when I played for Wales and played with Jason Perry or Nathan Blake, I never saw them as blue and white and me as black and white.
I remember the terrible winter in 1963, clearing the snow off the forecourt at Upton Park with the rest of the players so we could train. Job done, we'd play on it for two hours in silly little plimsolls, sliding everywhere.
The vast sums of money that are coming in at the top end of the game are stretching the rest of the sides to try to get as much benefit out of what finance they've got and get the best players they can find for that finance.
I am very shocked and disappointed to be leaving Blackburn Rovers. I am extremely proud to have managed this club and I enjoyed a fantastic relationship with the players, my staff and the supporters during my time in charge.
The World Cup tournament overall and, naturally, the new stadiums at its heart, are the ideal platform to portray Germany as a positive and exceptional location, and above all of course, as a highly capable economic location.
I had twelve years as a Tottenham player under Bill Nicholson and could not have wished to have played for a better manager. I can still hear his wise words in my head when I am out on the training ground as a manager myself.
I always like to remember the year 2008, when we had an amazing offer from Chelsea for Franck Ribery. From that day on, the whole world of football knew nobody can buy a Bayern Munich player against the will of Bayern Munich.
Most young talented players I worked with over many, many years who I've met later have said, 'Oh, I wish I'd listened to you.' When you meet them later in life they regret not taking the opportunity with the talent they had.
I think we deserved to get through and I congratulate the players. We said before the game that nothing was decided and that we had to play a good team which is very dangerous. We did well and we didn't give away many chances.
I can't keep protecting people who don't want to run about and train, who are about three stone overweight. What am I supposed to keep saying? 'Keep getting your 60, 70 grand a week but don't train'? What's the game coming to?
You need good staff with their own opinions - Mick Jones has been a great No 2 as he's not a yes-man - but at the end of the day the buck stops with you and the good managers are the ones who make more good decisions than bad.
With Tenerife, we had to fight in the most difficult second division in Spain with Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, and Real Betis, and we were promoted. I know you have to fight until the last day. We were promoted in the last game.
If I was making the decision normally, with my heart, I'd never leave Celtic. My life was great. I loved the city. I loved the people. I loved the club. I had a wonderful life. If you think of all those things, you'd never move.
Any success I have had has not happened overnight; the journey has never felt like me sitting in the back of a limousine sipping champagne. It has always been more like riding up a hill on a pushbike, and the chain has come off.
That churning in your stomach on the morning of a game, I've missed it. That adrenalin rush, I can't help getting involved. I can't watch myself on TV jumping around like a madman. But you know what, I wouldn't change any of it.
I was a big fan of Maradona growing up and of the current crop Ronaldo is good but Messi is the best I’ve ever seen. I don’t dish out praise lightly but Messi deserves it. I look for weaknesses in his game and I can’t find them.
Mfon Udoh is a good player and I've had him before I know the quality he has. And I believe this is a lesson that everything is all about time, that everybody's time will come and if you're doing well your time will surely come.
I don't see a lack of quality in Bundesliga. It's competitive and has good players. I am a huge fan of Thomas Muller in particular. He sums up German players. He's disciplined, versatile and always dangerous in front of the goal.
Never fear, inevitably we shall have our years of failure, and when they arrive, we must reveal tolerance and sanity. No matter the days of anxiety that come our way, we shall emerge stronger because of the trials to be overcome.
The evolution of football has seen a reduction in the space between the teams. It is therefore important for the modern footballer to react and be quicker than in the past, because there is more happening in the restricted space.
The trouble for today's footballers is they have too many distractions. We used to get our old players coming to watch training with football magazines in their hands. Now, more often than not, they are checking the share prices.
The FA Cup final is such a fantastic final to play in. I played in the 1999 one at Wembley, and after having watched so many finals as a kid, to be able to make that long walk up from the dressing room to the pitch was fantastic.
As a coach, we are not magicians; we work with the players and look to improve them and give them every opportunity, but if you are not creating or scoring goals over a consistent period of time, it is difficult for you as a coach.
Finding myself in a final with Atletico makes me happy. Why? Because I know the feelings of all the people at the club - because I know how the players feel. They need to see their team as champions, so we have more fans every day.
He’s a fantastic talent and the complete footballer, probably the most coveted in the Premiership. It’s a privilege for the rest of us to be on the same field. If i could have anything i wanted for Christmas, i’d take Thierry Henry
My job's about the accumulation of points over a 10-month season. And if you're with a team expected to be in the bottom half of the Premier League it's always going to be tough. There's going to be periods when you go up and down.
I have to treat all of the players at the same level with the same rules and same demands. It's difficult to understand, because the outside world is thinking when you pay a lot for the player, then you have to put him in the squad.