Gerard Houllier's thoughts on the matter international football echo mine. He thinks that what the national coaches are doing is like taking the car from his garage without even asking permission. They will then use the car for ten days and abandon it in a field without any petrol left in the tank. We then have to recover it, but it is broken down. Then a month later they will come to take your car again, and for good measure you're expected to be nice about it.

Sometimes I see it [a foul by an Arsenal player], but I say that I didn’t see it to protect the players and because I could not find any rational explanation for what they did.

When you're dealing with someone who only has a pair of underpants on, if you take his underpants off, he has nothing left - he's naked. You're better off trying to find him a pair of trousers to complement him rather than change him.

I don't kick dressing room doors, or the cat - or even journalists

If you buy a man who is half dead, everybody may be happy off the field, but on the field you'll have major problems

Young players need freedom of expression to develop as creative players... they should be encouraged to try skills without fear of failure.

I am supposed to take the bullets and absorb them. Like a bear, a polar bear.