Status does not matter. It is what you are like as a player. It doesn't matter how much money you have come for. That doesn't matter to me. I will play a 17-year-old if he fights and he has quality. It is quite easy.

Of course, as manager, the selection of the team is very much one of the biggest responsibilities I personally take, but I come to that decision thanks to advice and support of the people around me.

I'm never going to walk away because I'll always have belief that I can improve players and make things better.

My biggest mentor is myself because I've had to study, so that's been my biggest influence.

I dictate entirely how the team is prepared, and I am a hands-on coach; I love to be out there with the players taking the sessions.

I believe a young player will run through a barbed wire fence for you. An older player looks for a hole in the fence, he’ll try and get his way through it some way, but the young player will fight for you.

I know how it goes. Six or seven months ago I was the manager of the year and I was going to be this and that, tactically this and tactically that, and now, because we have lost two world-class players, I am useless. But I accept that.