Sam Allardyce

“A group of players go out and win a game in a style that gets the best out of them. That's the key to management.”

“When you hit that safe 40-point mark it's very easy for a player to think about his holidays and actually switch off.”

“As the game changes you have to change with it.”

“Everybody walks around talking about, 'Sam Allardyce's style is not good enough, he doesn't play the right way' and so on and so forth and it is a massive problem for me. People believe it. You believe the false lies, the false implications. Football does that - it believes that lie sometimes.”

“My management skills are more suited to developing teams to be better than what they were before, and not just about avoiding relegation.”

“Jay Jay Okocha. On and off the field he was the captain you looked for.”

“When does every fan like the manager?”

“Arsene has most of the media in his pocket now and is almost - almost - affecting the officials so that you can't tackle an Arsenal player. That's something he's very clever at working on and it's almost working in his favour, you can see that.”

“I think that the problem for any player you want to select for England, not just in isolation, is that it'll be a concern if that player doesn't play for his team.”

“Busquets has been a great player for Spain and Barcelona, don't get me wrong. He's a very effective player and is the first pick for every manager because he plays such a simple game. But we laud him as a genius, whereas our own we don't, we criticise.”

“From an early stage in my career, if you're talking about picking up knowledge, it would have been via Ian Greaves who was involved in my success as a young player at Bolton. And working under managers such as Bobby Gould and George Graham helped me to expand my knowledge at bit more.”

“I want to be able to savour life while I'm still relatively young and when I'm still relatively healthy enough to do all the things I want to do, like travel, spend more time with my family and grandchildren without the huge pressure that comes with being a football manager.”

“My dad was a pretty social animal when he wasn't working.”

“If a player digests his own statistical information in his own time, on his own laptop, tablet or whatever, without a coach standing over him, it makes it easier for him. It helps with the pressure. There's a fear factor but spending time at home analysing things can help control it.”

“If a better player comes along, I will try to persuade the club to get him in. Sometimes, you can do your business and all of a sudden something appears that you never expected to appear.”

“I've worked at St James' and in the first game of the season there the fans will lift the players.”

“Just because a player drops down a division, it doesn't mean he's turned into a bad player overnight and isn't good enough for England.”

“Far too much emphasis on what is deemed the 'wrong' style of football. That's what annoys me. Your style depends on who you're playing and what group of players you have at your disposal.”

“My confidence is in myself and how I run a football club and I've been doing that for many, many years now.”

“Too many times I have had to sacrifice a trophy or the chance of winning one because the owners have said you have to stay in the Premier League at all costs.”