Carlos Carvalhal

“I don't like confrontation. I don't care about it. If someone tries it with me, they will be talking to themselves because I don't listen.”

“The worst enemy of coaches is expectations.”

“So we draw a picture of what we want as a team and will follow that - understanding that sometimes you might have to do a new wall or the kitchen is not like that and you have to change it. But the idea is to follow the plan.”

“But we must be so creative, trying to simulate the game. How can I make the players, when one is there, another is over there, and another is 20 metres further away, think they are playing a football match? And how can they do tactical work and organisation? It's an interesting test.”

“My mother drilled into me the importance of hard work. She had good talent at school but did not have the money to attend. She left at nine years old and started working.”

“My grandparents, one Christmas, they did not have anything. They did not have money to buy presents. So my grandmother went to the orange tree outside her home, and so her boys did not go without for Christmas, she took oranges to her sons as presents.”

“When you are working, I must tell you, if someone wants to talk to me, to 99.9% I say no.”

“I had a plan. I played football professionally but I also studied at university.”

“I was surrounded by classical music, art and ballet all these things. But they also had a football field and it was at the conservatoire I decided to be a footballer.”

“My mother worked at home, making clothes, trying to make some money.”

“I am not a person who says I must talk the same way to every player, I don't agree with this. Some are more introspective, we must act in a different way, the fuel of every player is different.”

“We must go to the pitch without any fear. We have to try to compete for three points against every opponent. To do that, we must have courage and be strong.”

“The connections are very important with the fans, with the journalists, with the people. The Portuguese like to do this - it's a characteristic.”

“When you have a lot of stress around your team the best thing is to try and put a smile on their faces.”

“At every club I have been at I have had a test in the first few weeks from the big players at the club. At that moment you define your success at that club, you either win the group or you lose the group.”