Consistency of performance is essential. You don't have to be exceptional every week but as a minimum you need to be at a level that even on a bad day you get points on the board.
Sean Dyche
I had good parents. Two older brothers, bit of a handful between us, all got ginger hair, a bit fiery. I remember a very happy childhood.
Established is a dangerous word for me. It could imply a modicum of complacency.
I've put all the hours in and there's a depth to my education. There are a couple of brain cells in there, more than you might expect of a 6ft 1in ginger skinhead.
The early music I heard was Top of the Pops. But in bedrooms, around the house with my brother playing the Sex Pistols, Sham 69 and the Ham and all these groups then going into that sort of mod turnover scene and then going into the New Romantics scene the coming of age myself in the mid-eighties and into the noughties, it was changing.
If there is a flaw in the academy system it's that they try to tell them everything. Kids are taught the same. They look the same. So you're constantly looking for the X factor. It's the hardest thing, that mystical ingredient, instinct, the four-second hit, like/dislike, it can come unbelievably quickly.
I have no problem with anyone's view about what we do, I really don't. Very rarely does it stick in my craw what managers or media outlets say about us.
I think what helps enormously is the cultural environment that you have set. We constantly try to monitor it. When you have a base to work from that holds it together, that's something that you can go back to and rely on. A lot of is down to the consistency of work, the consistency of message and the consistency of the players' performances.
Work hard and do it right. Very simple; but very effective. They are morals I got from my mum and dad. And within that are the details. Be respectful. Try and smile, try and enjoy it. They are things that I still value.
My brother works at Weetabix in Kettering. That was taken over, there were redundancies. My other brother is a builder who has lost jobs, lost work. Football is not immune from that, it just happens to be in more of a spotlight.
I don't think I've ever been a fashion item, I don't think I was as a player.
I've been linked with lots of clubs but that's what tends to happen if you stay in the same job for five years. It means you have brought a level of success.
Imagine going into an office and telling the staff that they have to follow your philosophy. Imagine the reaction you would get if you said that in any other walk of life. Why would I offer that to my players?
We want to be strong and we want to be in a position to maximise the potential of the players in every game because it's a long season with 46 league games.
The harder I work, the luckier I get.
In this game you can waste a lot of energy wondering about other people's opinions when the one that actually counts is yours. Because that's your job, to lead and to manage.
Without wanting to sound pompous or clever it is down to me to make decisions on behalf of the side to give it the best chance of being successful.
Anyone can take the wheel of the ship in calm water but it's not so easy when it's not calm water. You can't just enjoy the good times, you have to be resilient in the tough times.
I don't want just pure roll out of the back four. I want productive mixed play... how many ways can you affect a game?
I am at A and going all the way to Z is high unlikely in any career, let alone football. You have to weave your way like the river, pick up your skills and keep going.
I remember all the magic markers of the first time I heard the Stone Roses and that Madchester vibe, the Verve and all these groups coming up.
I look at the group I've got and then I decide what strengths and weaknesses they have and then I formulate an appropriate way the players can work in order to be collectively successful.
All I can do is work hard, prepare the players properly, give them everything I've got and they give me everything they've got.
A good player is a good player, it's just that we cannot afford signings that do not work.
You need doors to open, you need a chance - and you have got to have something, to take your chance when the door opens at the right time. My first port of call was to be a manager, then it was a successful manager, then it was a Premier League manager.
The mind tells you that you should use the Europa League as your pre-season but you don't really because the players aren't silly, they know it's a real game.
I was a player who got the job done, and I think I'm kind of maybe thought of like that as a manager.
If your performance levels are right, that brings results and that brings momentum naturally. We believe in the training schedule.
No one seems to want to do anything about diving in the game apart from me. I'm still amazed by it. Kids everywhere are watching, all copying it. No one seems to care about it.
True success for me is allowing players to be better than I was. That is what I went into coaching for and I've not lost sight of that.
If I can understand them better as a person then I can understand how to make them a better player too.
I love the relentless nature of a side that never gives up.
As a manager, everyone is clambering for you to do something. It comes from the media, the fans, the board and even your own staff sometimes. The strongest thing can be to do nothing and remind the players of the simplicity of the format. The players have taken ownership of that.
But we have seen amazing things, good and bad, happen in this game, so you can never take anything for granted. I certainly don't. There are no guarantees, whether it is good bad or indifferent you just work hard to push the odds in your favour as regards myself and the team.
You need good fitness from the players and the organisational structure has to be there from early on in pre-season because the games come so quickly that you don't have much time on the grass with the players to shuffle the pack tactically.
I grew up in an era where Dad worked, Mum looked after the family, and if I think of the qualities she brought to that - nurture and support are so valuable.
There's a bit of a myth that you pre-suppose every European player is better than every English player.
I won promotion four times as a player, and I'm not going to deny I would enjoy another one as a manager, but you can ask any of the clubs I went up with and they will tell you the same. My focus was always dead calm, always on the next game.
People suppose that you are great if you win and rubbish if you lose. Well, actually, whatever the result I still know what I am doing.
Things that are uncomfortable and demand time and effort and patience we can switch off to. And I am intrigued by that concept. It's about human tolerance.
Most people think footballers are thick. Some might be, academically, but they can see the game, strategically, tactically, in every way.
Football management is about managing people.
We're oppressed, I think, you know there's only 5 per cent of the world's population who are ginger? So it's a tough time for us gingers.
The game shapes you. I played for 20 years at all levels, apart from the Premier League. I had a disaster at Bristol City, where in two years I learnt more about myself, the industry, fans, how you get treated, than I ever learnt in my career.
I'm not one of those football people who thinks and talks nothing but football.
I was a Liverpool fan as a kid.
You have to have some form of talent. Getting to a skill-set when you can do something is achievable. Getting to a skill-set when you can do it an elite level is a different thing.
Life's not a dress-rehearsal. So if you want to do it; do it.
I had a lot of tough experiences at Bristol City. I came there for a few quid and was getting booed off by fans, got injured. I was out of the team due to injury but also because I was having an awful time playing wise. But they were amazing experiences.
Life coaching, the mental and physical well-being of footballers, is going to be really important. I don't mean necessarily in a deep psychological way. But they're surrounded by a lot of people. Important people, seemingly. Not always. But important in their worlds. They're mini companies.
