The Wisdom of Gaffers

I only show emotion at home, and in my bed.

Mauricio Pochettino, Tottenham Hotspur, October 2014.

http://www.as.com/recorte/20090120dasdaiftb_5/C280/Ies/Mane_cae_Pochettino_recambio_elegido.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/01/19/article-0-1AC3589500000578-659_634x369.jpg

This was just the first of thousands of steps that this club has to take.

Steven Pressley, Coventry City, October 2014.

As the manager, I take full responsibility, but the players now owe me big time.

Darren Ferguson, Peterborough United, October 2014.

looooool

They have played badly because we let in eight goals.

Malcolm Crosby, Birmingham City (caretaker), October 2014.

We're pleased in some aspects but obviously disappointed we lost the game and ultimately that's the key thing.

David Weir, Brentford (assistant), October 2014.

When you have important players missing, you have to find the right solution. We didn't.

Jose Riga, Blackpool, October 2014.

Not surprised that resolute Posh defence will run through brick walls for him ! Such magnanimity in the face of defeat.

It's an easy game when things are going well and everybody is a hero.

Chris Wilder, Northampton Town, October 2014.

Conceding five goals like this is not something that I represent, that is in my nature, to allow it to be so easy.

David Flitcroft, Bury, October 2014.

When we went 2-1 down, it wasn't just Bristol City that were 2-1 down away from home, it was Bristol City the last club in the Football League to remain unbeaten that were 2-1 down away from home, and that pressure then intensifies on the players.

Steve Cotterill, Bristol City The Last Club In The Football League To Remain Unbeaten, October 2014.

We should have got something, but 'should' doesn't cut it.

Neil Lennon, Bolton Wanderers, October 2014.

We have pace and discipline - we've got a juvenile spirit about us.

Alan Pardew, Newcastle United, November 2014

There's a reality to this division, and that's not our market - that's a market beyond us

Sean Dyche, Burnley, November 2014.

It's important as a new manager coming through the building to get off the mark

Russ Wilcox, York City, November 2014.

Unfortunately, football is a capricious sport that only rewards the team who scores goals.

Luis Enrique, Barcelona, November 2014

Sometimes you've got be in the bottom of the valley to see the top of the mountain. By no means are we at the bottom of the valley because it's a great journey for us.

Sean Dyche, Burnley, November 2014

Unfortunately we're undone by our own doing, really

Chris Ramsey, QPR, March 2015

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/82104000/jpg/_82104030_460715248.jpg

You need a mind tool, with no trepidation, to be able to express yourself.

John Hughes, Inverness CT, April 2015.

Football today is numbers. You have to get defensive numbers back.

Ian Holloway, Unemployed, May 2015

All about numbers

Tony (Pulis) is mathematic. What the club wants, he gives.

Jose Mourinho, Chelsea, May 2015

So much wisdom from one gaffer. I bet Ian Holloway never talks about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in the dressing room.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXCgwKAH1Uw

lol

Washington, though, endured a difficult start to the campaign, failing to score in any of his first nine league appearances, with his only goal before October coming in Posh's League Cup win against Crawley Town.

And the 23-year-old credits the advice he received from Graham Westley, who took over at London Road towards the end of his barren spell, for turning his season around.

“He used the analogy that your mum is locked up with a gun to her head in a room and the only way you can get her out is to win,” he said. “How would that affect your performance? It struck a massive chord with me and a few other players. He said it was not the nicest thing in the world to think of but use it if that gives you that edge and aggression. I was a different animal. He brought me out of my shell.”

quality bump

this is a good thread

You need a mind tool, with no trepidation, to be able to express yourself.

had me ending myself

bene gesserit ekotto

Peterborough boss Graham Westley said his players need to take inspiration from the film The Revenant following their 1-0 home defeat by Burton.

"You can see in that film what a human being can do if his motivation and desire is sufficient," he said.

human triumphs against all odds in the middle of a godless frozen wilderness hundreds of miles from civilization vs The Revenant

It’s a balance between the two. When we have opened out and picked several forward players we’ve ended up conceding at the back, so we do want to be solid at the back.

Finding that balance is a big one, between attack and defence. And attacking and defensive players.

Kenny Jackett, Wolverhampton Wanderers, March 2016.

our season in 4 sentences.

What do people like in other people? They like mirror images. They like to say, 'He's not a bad lad, he takes a drink. He's not a bad lad, he's a Jack The Lad'.

Kenny Shiels, Kilmarnock, March 2012

this melange of the avuncular and the sociopathic is still my favourite quote from this thread.

He's not a bad lad,
he takes a drink.
He's not a bad lad,
he's a Jack The Lad.

No matter how many times you read it, it always feels just beyond understanding.

It can be very unfair on my family. Funnily enough it was my kids’ birthday on Wednesday and it’s my wife’s birthday today so it’s been a busy week for me.

My twin boys Zach and Finn ran into my room yesterday shouting, ‘Daddy, we’re four!’ But I just pulled my covers over my head saying, ‘I don’t care if you’re four, leave me alone!’

It really affects your life and it hurts so much when you get a bad result because you put so much into it and the whole club hurts.

We hurt, the fans hurt, I’m sure the board hurts – everybody hurts.

It’s difficult when your kids come in the next morning happy to be four and you’re telling them to go away and give you peace. That’s the job you choose though. It hurts a lot when you’re not winning and we need to make sure we get back to winning ways against Hearts on Sunday.

Martin Canning, Hamilton Academicals, January 2016.

Needs to start hurting hearts on the pitch.

I sincerely hope that was a touch of hyperbole or poetic license. and he didn't actually, you know, tell his 4 year old children to go away on the morning of their birthday

yeah that's p heartwrenching if true.

The players and the crowd were getting upset with the referee and the frustration was not helping us. When they came in at half time, I told them to chill out.

That frustration leads to a tightening of the muscles and you end up tense and unnatural.

Lee Johnson, Bristol City, April 2016

We've got to respect the way we play

David Flitcroft, Mansfield Town, March 2017

I literally came here to post that I hoped David Flitcroft was still in a job.

visited parents' for mothers' day, ended up watching C5 football highlights with my dad, Flitcroft was onscreen for about 15 seconds and he still managed to say that

Best thread.

an old brendan rodgers quote which i used as my signature on a celtic forum:

"I always say a squad is like a good meal. I'm not a great cook, but a good meal takes a wee bit of time. But also, to offer a good meal you need good ingredients."

Feature on Graham Potter in the Graun

Upstairs at Brighton & Hove Albion’s striking Y-shaped training pavilion, Graham Potter is talking through how he came to lend his copy of the Dalai Lama’s Ancient Wisdom, Modern World to one of his former players at Östersund a couple of years ago. Curtis Edwards was at home watching Netflix when, around 8pm, the manager called asking whether he was busy. Kyle Macaulay, the scout who has followed Potter from Sweden to Swansea and now Brighton, drove Edwards to the Jämtkraft Arena and for the next hour and a half Potter and he spoke openly about almost everything but football.

“We were just chatting and chatting and we got on to reading,” explains Potter. “In the end, I just said: ‘Have a read of that.’ Curtis was one of those guys that whenever he made a mistake, he beat himself up a lot and it was just trying to change how he thought. I showed him games where his head was up in the air when he had made a mistake and actually he should have been reacting to what’s happening rather than worrying and beating himself up about making a mistake. The Dalai Lama is quite a clever guy, isn’t he? He puts things into perspective a little bit, and I just thought: ‘Why not?’”

We've got a live one in Motherwell's Stephen Robinson:

We lacked real men. They had more men in their team. I don't think they out-passed us or outplayed us. We played with no purpose. We passed for the sake of passing without trying to break them down.

When Declan Gallagher is playing with a high temperature and flu and he's the best player on the pitch for us, it tells you he's a proper man, proper footballer.

Players have a habit of making you look stupid, but that's the level of player we're able to recruit, and we have to educate them. That has to happen sooner rather than later or they won't play in the team.