Player-Manager Relationship Quotes

A manager should stay as far away as possible from his players. I don't know if I said ten words to Frank Robinson while he played for me.

At a football club, there's a holy trinity - the players, the manager and the supporters. Directors don't come into it. They are only there to sign the checks.

There was no better manager at developing young players than Sir Alex. He knew just when to bring them in and take them out, and he believed in Paul Pogba. For once, in Paul's case, it did not work out. The timing was wrong, and the difference between expectation on the player's side and the manager's idea of his development did not match up.

Managers are never 100 percent in control. You're at the mercy of the players. When you're a player, you're driving. I'm the navigator. I hardly ever think about driving anymore, unless there's two out in the bottom of the ninth.

In Italy, some managers want distance from the players, the Fabio Capello style, but that is not my way. I am more like Carlo Ancelotti. There are aspects of the players' behaviour I do not understand, but I want them to respect our situation. If they do that, I have a lot of respect for them, too, and I will do everything to help them.

The big players historically hold a lot of influence at Chelsea and while I would never doubt their attempts to win matches for the club, their levels undoubtedly change depending on how they feel about a manager at the time. They're either having him or they're not, and once they're not it spells borrowed time for the guy in charge.

Pitchers really don't deal with the managers a whole lot. When we come in the clubhouse, we see him, we say, 'Hey.' That's really it.

It sounds strange, maybe, because I have played with a lot of big players but I never thought: 'OK, they're going to go into management.' Maybe there was only one, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, because he was always talking about football but I did not have a feeling with the other players.

Players know that they can trust me which is really important. They know that I had the ability to adapt to change, and they have seen that many times over the years. I think these are important parts of being in control of footballers.

Houllier couldn’t deal with players expressing any anger or questioning any of his decisions

I have respected every manager I have played under, but if you can't learn from someone like Mark Hughes, it is going to be hard for you.