I always speak with all the players during the week before every game we play, because it's important for them to know what I think and for me to see how they are before the game.
Manuel Pellegrini
From a personal perspective, I try never to go back to a club where I have already coached.
A lot of young players relax a bit when they reach the first-team, thinking they have reached the finish line, but really, it's just the beginning.
I learned English, French, Italian.
When I live in a country, I always try to learn about the country - not just England, the U.K. as a whole - so I will stay here some days to do something different.
It is never a problem to have good players on the bench.
Life is like a building: it is impossible for anyone to achieve anything without a strong foundation, and the family is the most important foundation you can have.
As a young player, the more games you play and the more you work every day with good players, of course you will improve.
I can't get anything out of an orchestra if I have the 10 best guitarists, but I don't have a pianist or a drummer.
When you manage a big team like River Plate or Madrid, they are used to winning titles. The people are happy, but they are used to it. When you have an achievement like I had in Villarreal, reaching the semi-final of the Champions League, finishing second in the league, it's more than winning a title. It's more.
Technical players make the game easy. They have a view of the pitch different from other players. They put the last pass for the strikers. They are the players that lose two or three balls in a year.
It is vital to maintain possession and to win it back as soon as possible, because if we win it high up, then the opposition has to run 70 metres.
As for Kaka, he is a superstar... someone who can change the tempo of the game as well as the team.
To be the coach of Real Madrid is an honour, and every coach has pride in that. However, one is also subjected to a wide range of critiques - some just, but others not. But when the criticism deteriorates into insults, which has happened many times, I don't appreciate that.
If you do not know each player individually, one on one, it is impossible to form a team from 22 distinct personalities, different languages, different home countries, but with one common aim.
You create a big-club mentality with the trust of the players, the trust that the team will get results, and then, when results are not good, the trust to continue with your idea.
I would be happy to go back to Spain at the right moment.
I have enough problems trying to manage a team, without managing the FA.
Lionel Messi is very difficult to contain.
You need the desire to demonstrate the way you can play, which team you are.
Playing every day with important players is good for a young player: you are always learning from experienced players.
When you are 21 years old, and you work as a good professional, you must improve.
I don't believe in projects of more than three years.
I didn't have a voice or a vote at Madrid.
For some players, it is a dream to play at Madrid.
I've always liked technical, creative central midfielders with the capacity to score goals, such as David Silva, Samir Nasri, and Santi Cazorla.
It's very difficult to have the same motivation in the season after you've won two trophies.
The Premier league is better with Mourinho.
This hunger of triumph is fundamental in order to get results.
Football is so difficult to predict.
I never knew a manager that didn't have pressure.
To lead a group of players is to lead a group of people with different ways of thinking. You have to be prepared for that and know more than just about football. You have to speak a lot to the players, have to make them feel what you expect of them. Have to convince them. Therefore, it's very important for a coach to have a life outside football.
I like English football; it's a very important league. I like the crowds in England, too - they are noisy and create a special ambience.
When I started to be a coach, I expected a lot - maybe too much - in terms of physical approach, tactics, and technique. There was too little emphasis on human relationships.
I'm not obsessed by football.
When you are in the biggest clubs, and you are fighting for the best players with a lot of money, maybe the work of a sporting director is not so difficult.
For me, the youth academy has a fundamental role in every club.
Samir Nasri is a very technical player who always made the difference playing as a midfielder when he is fit.
I cannot tell everyone what they must say or what they must not say. Everyone is the owner of their own words.
I think that every player in every team must have an ambitious mind.
I am very lucky to have a wife who supports me, but the absence from my children was difficult from the moment I took a very difficult decision to have a career which requires so much dedication and focus, just like raising children.
We can all get better. We all have to think about how to improve ourselves, no matter how good we are.
As a manager, I won eight trophies in Chile, Ecuador, and Argentina.
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.
Any coach who's managed a big club in Argentina can manage anywhere.
In Spain, I'd taken Villarreal to league runners-up and the quarter-final and then semi-final of the Champions League.
What I don't want to be is the most important person of the club. If we win a game, it was the players who played very well.
You will never run more than the ball. The players that don't lose the ball are the most important in the team, and good players decide the game.
There are lots of different ways to play football; I choose one in my career. I believe in that one.
First, as an owner of the club, you must choose a style of football. After that, you must find the managers that will work with the young players in your team in that style. After that, you must put a manager in the squad with the same mentality.
