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Every single player needs that eye-to-eye connection, I'm sure. They want to know what is expected of them, but it's not just me telling them what to do. It's about asking, 'What are your strengths? What do you feel? What can you give to the team?'
I don't think I was a control freak. I just couldn't get my head around things. When I joined Sheffield United I was told I had £5m to spend, then when I went to see the chief executive he told me if I didn't raise £350,000 no one was getting paid.
That's management. It's a social job as much as anything else, finding out what people are like, seeing through them. There have been good players and not-so-good players who I have moved along because I thought there would be a clash of character.
It's normal that if you are working with a lot of people, then you have a lot of different mentalities and characters. You have the serious guy, and you have the one who is always complaining and the one who is always talking. Everyone is different.
As a freshman at Miami I started of as a reliever for the first few games and quickly moved into the rotation as the Saturday started for conference play. That year was very successful, I was name a Freshman All-American as well as 2nd Team All-MAC.
People dislike Ronaldo because he's a great player, good-looking and has sex with all the ladies. They get jealous. The only bad thing about Ronaldo's life is Messi. But for him, he would've been the best player in the world for five years in a row.
Why would you want to bring a foreign coach? Why? If you bring a foreign coach, you might as well bring foreign players, white players to play for Nigeria. If you bring a European coach, he should also bring oyinbo (white) players. That's how it is.
I shared a dressing room with Alan Shearer. I used to watch the opposition looking at him, and they'd be thinking they need to score more than one because Shearer is going to score, and he scores every game. That psychological advantage is fantastic.
To be a Ranger is to sense the sacred trust of upholding all that such a name means in this shrine of football. They must be true in their conception of what the Ibrox tradition seeks from them. No true Ranger has ever failed in the tradition set him.
Whoever you are playing and whatever you are playing against you have to weigh up tactically how you approach that game. That has always been a part of my make-up, having made my way through every division and finding out what management is all about.
When you have a son in football like Anton, it will always be deemed as if he got the prop up and given the contract, no matter how hard he works. So much so that when he was offered a deal at Chelsea, I advised him not to take a professional contract.
On the plus side, leaving Leeds meant I have been able to spend a lot of time with the family, enjoying a very rare summer off and my first Christmas without work worries since I was a teenager. I was also able to accept an offer to work with BT Sport.
Having the family around is always very important because they are supportive. If you have a good day, you can enjoy it together. And if you have a bad day, you always find something as a distraction with your children, because they are normally happy.
Busquets has been a great player for Spain and Barcelona, don't get me wrong. He's a very effective player and is the first pick for every manager because he plays such a simple game. But we laud him as a genius, whereas our own we don't, we criticise.
If you are a club manager and things are going well, it's a great feeling because you've got the whole city behind you. If you're manager of your country and it's going well - and you've got a whole nation proud of you - I can't describe how that feels.
Your boyhood club, the one you've supported, the one result that you look for more than anybody else because of my upbringing, has always been Newcastle so to go and manage it is arguably the pinnacle but it's a really difficult job, I have to tell you.
It was too short: I've said many times that I would have done things differently had I known I'd only have 10 months because United are one of the few clubs in football who could have given a manager more time, like Bill Kenwright did with me at Everton.
In football you need to have everything in your cake mix to make the cake taste right. One little bit of ingredient that Tony uses in his cake that gets talked about all the time is Rory's throw. Call that cinnamon and he's got a cinnamon flavoured cake.
When I made the transition from player to coach, I evaluated myself and saw that I needed to improve my personality. I would fight with players - literally. I was 35, and you can't be like that; you have young players to guide. You have to transmit calm.
Dennis is something special. We are talking a lot about exciting football, and Dennis Bergkamp, I think, started with attractive football a long time ago. He was one of these players. A lot of the things he did as a football player you can compare to art.
That image is now associated with the Portuguese coaches: the ability to adapt, to arrive and win, to assemble good teams and good structures is undoubtedly one of our brands and I think that's the main fact for which we are most respected around the world.
I have a senior staff meeting every day, with key personnel who interface with the players - coaches, the medical staff, our analyst department. This is a useful exercise as it means we are all across what is happening and they are aware of my expectations.
Going back to my playing days, I was at Cambridge United for a couple of seasons, and, of course, Newmarket is just down the road. On my days off, I would go to Newmarket quite often, park up by the gallops, and watch the horses work. It was something else.
I am finding I have to watch what I am doing otherwise I may as well be in full-time football again and, while I'm available if something interesting comes up to take me to the end of the season, I don't want a long-term commitment at this stage in my life.
I had 235 games for Gillingham in the old Third Division. Everybody associates me with Man United and winning things but I had seven years at Gillingham and 3 at Norwich. One of those years we got relegated. Until I was 30, 31, I hadn't really won anything.
The likability of any player is always up for debate, and people will always use their own moral compass to judge Luis Suarez, but that's not something I tend to focus on. I concentrate on what he is like with me on a day-to-day basis, and he is a great man.
However successful someone is in their field of business, and however well-meaning and hard-working, it is difficult to come into football and immediately work out how the industry works, who to trust, what to do. That is the sort of role I think I can fill.
People say I'm hard, I'm Mr Angry. I'm this, I'm that. I just want to win matches. There's no point going out there and being Mr Nice Guy. We get 55,000 at Old Trafford and I don't think they want fellas going out there and thinking: Ah, if we lose, so what?
Usually, a Brazilian doesn't like to work hard in training, doesn't like to stay focused. I trained a lot of Brazilian players. I had a problem with Ronaldo at Milan. It was not easy to get him fit! Ronaldo was 100kg but was the quickest in the 10 metre test!
Maybe other managers would see their team score one goal and then prefer to go back and counter-attack, then try to score the second goal. A lot of those managers are the best managers at the moment, but for me, it's very important to continue the way I play.
Concentration and focus - they are very important, just as important as in anything, I suppose, if you're going to succeed. I've seen a lot of good players on the training ground, but when it comes to the game, they can't keep the same levels up on a Saturday.
I'm never afraid during a game, and I have no negative thoughts. I think about what I have to do. Which players can be substituted? And where I can manage to squeeze in a slight advantage? I remain very calm, which is why I never engage in any sideline antics.
A player who conjugates a verb in the first person singular cannot be part of the squad, he has to conjugate the verb in the first person plural. We. We want to conquer. We are going to conquer. Using the word I when you're in a group makes things complicated.
Every player who plays at Bayern Munich knows that Bayern Munich is a particularly special club. Whenever we lose, then it is lashed onto almost immediately by the media, regardless whether it is a friendly or losing the away game in a Champions League tie 1-0.
For a lot of young managers, especially those who have not played at the top end of the game, there is also a financial need to work. Some of them could find employment in another field, but you can't beat making a living out of something you really enjoy doing.
I've been fortunate most of the seven promotions I've won have been with sides I built from zero, so it is doubly rewarding. There is nothing to match being in the dressing room celebrating promotion after a long season with a group of lads you have put together.
At Barcelona, I was exposed to talent. You had Ronaldinho, who was a marvel to watch. Deco is skilful and talented. Then there are players like Xavi, a good and hardworking man who gave his all. Iniesta is another. Then the name of Messi will come up in that list.
Of course training is very important, but resting is just as important. You have to get your recuperation, and I think all players make that mistake where they train hard but they don't rest enough, and even our school boy players, we tell them to get a lot of rest.
His football does not seem to suffer by all of this going on around him. You look at his passing and he makes it look so simple. When he passes the ball, it always seems to go where he wants it to go. That sounds simple, but believe me, it is not. (on David Beckham)
There are players like that - you know they have been rascals, and that you can bring them in, give them a new environment and get a length of time out of them, but they will always return to type. You can get something out of them, then you have to get rid of them.
The Premier League is a wonderful league, the best league in the world, and there are a lot of clubs who overachieve and they overachieve massively. Because of results they get pushed down instead of people scratching the surface and seeing what is really happening.
We are the last remaining country to allow ourselves two breaks in the season. You just have to look at England, Italy and Spain, they play right through the season. We on the other hand take six weeks off in the winter until the end of January, and that is a luxury.
I learned about choices and consequences and responsibility. I learned that we all have choices, even when we don't recognize them, and that those choices have consequences, not just for ourselves, but for others. We must assume responsibility for those consequences.
A few eyebrows have been raised at Adel Taarabt joining Milan. Having worked with Adel for two years, I am not as surprised as most people seem to be. He is a player of immense ability and, if he is handled right, and motivated himself, he can win games at any level.
There's always that time in football where people say that when you have the dip, it's how well do you overcome it. And when you do overcome it, you then end up being a much better player and generally your career lasts a lot longer after getting through that period.
When I was younger, I was a bit awkward to work for, hence why I had about five clubs in two years. I was a bit petulant, shall we say. But you're never too old to keep learning because every day in management, something is thrown at you which throws you a curveball.
I have never seen a talent like Ronaldo. He always scores, scores, scores. The first game he played for Milan, Sienna away, I said to him, 'I can't put you on the pitch. You are 100kg.' 'Mister,' he said, 'don't worry, I will score.' I put him in, and he scored twice.
At the start of my two years at Juventus, I had big plans for the club, but it turned out that the Intertoto Cup was the only medal in my desk drawer when finally they told me to pack my bags. We started the first season really well, and Conte was so important for me.
Back then, a half-a-century ago, the situation was totally different. Economically, we were practically on our knees, and politically, we were still excluded from the community of nations. Today, in this respect, we have a totally different and much more stable basis.
Throughout my entire career as a coach, I've never had a boss. Presidents have been able to hire and fire me. But that didn't make them my bosses, not even at Real Madrid. I have such a strong sense of responsibility that I exercise my profession like an entrepreneur.