National Team Performance Quotes

I have only been here since 1996 but between 1966 and 1996 England had thirty years without foreign players and didn't win any more competitions in that time.

It's normal that people expect more from the French team.

I think what African football needs is better organization, better structure, and I think, after that, we'll help the players to be more professional when they're coming to play for their national team.

The horizon is a little bit blocked with Didier Deschamps as manager. I respect his choices, but the French national team doesn't make me happy any more.

It's not that difficult to play well and win titles in a team like Barcelona, but it's in the national side where you see a player's true class. That was the case with figures like Pele, Diego Maradona and Zinedine Zidane. With Spain, Iniesta has shown that he is among the best players of all time and that's why I rate him higher than Messi or Ronaldo. Even though the latter two have incredible scoring records for their clubs, they still haven't won anything with Argentina or Portugal respectively.

Any coach in football doesn't like national team games because it's out of your hands; you can't really control what's going to happen.

We've got the greatest Premier League, greatest domestic competition in the world but the downside of that is we've got fewer and fewer English players playing in that league.

A lot of people have lost interest in watching England play. To get motivated to watch international football, you need your country to be having some form of success and England haven't had any for a long time now.