Player Maturity Quotes

The most important quality I look for in a player is accountability. You've got to be accountable for who you are. It's too easy to blame things on someone else.

I think that for a lot of young quarterbacks, sometimes it's difficult to get thrown into the fire quickly because from my experience, either you learn how to be a professional from the veteran players.

When you're younger, it's about, 'How can I get better? How can I become the player that I want to be?' As you get older, it's, 'How can this football team improve?' While all along getting better along the way.

Even without tactical discipline, what is important for a team is having players with maturity and a sense of responsibility.

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.

Lindor is a good player. When I was 20, I wasn't conditioned like he is.

I know English football people say you have to look out for young players, that maybe they can play 15 or 20 games but not more. They are afraid. I am not afraid to put young players in. I am not afraid but maybe they are.

When you are a young player in the NBA, sometimes you don't pay much attention to some of the cities you visit, especially in cold places like Toronto. But when you spend more time in the league you learn more about the cities you play in, and learn how to appreciate them more.

You cannot achieve your goal just with young players. We have to see them growing in a stable, mature squad.

There are a lot of young players here right now, and these guys are going to eventually learn as they go. Next year we can't use that as an excuse that we had so many young players on the team.

In my time abroad, I learned to become a more complete player.

I don't think I was ready for the Premier League until I was 24 at Southampton.

A championship team wins because it already has established players, while a talented team is just beginning to establish players.

I like to get the ball in transition and go and everything, but I'm also not as dependent on having the ball all the time as I was maybe in college and when I first got to the NBA.

But any squad needs players who are hungry to do well, with their careers ahead of them. That's important for the dynamic of the group, but it also needs a balance of guys who have seen it, done it and have that quality of leadership. It is all about the quality of the player.

With experience, you improve. I'm a better player now, more complete than I was when I was player of the year.

I think for every young player of my age, they have to go out on loan. I know there's an U21 league and the Europa League for the youth teams, but it's not the same as playing men's football, when there's a lot more riding on it.

Alekhine developed as a player much more slowly than most. In his twenties, he was an atrocious chessplayer, and didn't mature until he was well into his thirties.

I realised I'd been spoiled at Liverpool. We were used to winning. In Italy I grew up as a person. I didn't enjoy the football, mind. It was very defensive, but I became a better player because of the work I had to do around the box. Off the pitch, I learned about what to eat and what to drink to be successful, and I learned about life.

If I were involved with the NBA, I wouldn't want a 19-year-old or a 20-year-old kid to bring into all the travel and all the problems that exist in the NBA. I would want a much more mature kid. I would want a kid that maybe I've been watching on another team, and now he's 21, 22 years old instead of 18 or 19, and I might trade for that kid.

It is going to be difficult for the West Indies to get back to the top, but we got to start somewhere, and if playing young players is the way we have decided to go, these young players must be given the chance to mature and develop and not be discarded at an early age.

I not only developed as a player in Germany but also as a person.

Coaches can sometimes mollycoddle players too much - if they are good enough, then they are old enough.

I learned a lot in Munich. I played with world-class players, matured, and learned from any setbacks.

In juniors, sometimes you have an easy match. Sometimes the girls can play stupidly. In seniors, every match is complicated. Even if the girl plays stupidly, she'll fight back and try to win.