Quotes on Players

A lot of them have families to feed, and I think it's a tragic situation where players aren't comfortable speaking what's on their mind or what's right because they're afraid of consequences that come along with it. That's not an ideal environment for anybody.

I get asked a lot about my legacy. For me, it's being a good teammate, having the respect of my teammates, having the respect of the coaches and players. That's important to me.

People talk about tactics, but when you look at it, tactics are just players. You change things so that the team can get the most out of the skills they have to offer, but you don't go any further than that.

I adapt my idea of football to my players, not adapt my players in my idea of football. It's important because there are others players that must play. The players are the most important things in football. I adapt my idea within my players.

Players today moan about the number of games, but when you're young, you can't play enough.

You should never be defined by what you do, by the things you have; you've got to define yourself by who you are and who you impact and how you impact people. And that's the thing I try to get across to my players.

I say to string players in small chamber orchestras, 'it's always easy to become a passenger on the journey in sound, just adding volume to the whole. But if you play in an individual way, it makes the difference between good and great sound in an orchestra.'

A lot of us players, if you were to ask them, feel like they have to play overseas. Why? 'Why not? Might as well do it while I can.' For a while, I felt that way - I've got to make the most money that I can. Now, do I feel like I could still play overseas? Absolutely. But I don't feel that pressure anymore.

Ajax is a multicultural club, and we have found that many talented immigrant players quit when they reach puberty. So we wanted to tackle this problem with someone from the same background who had come through it. And that was Edgar Davids. During one of our fights, I pointed that out to him. But it had nothing to do with his skin colour.

Teaching players during practices was what coaching was all about to me.

If you can prove that you're in that elite class on a consistent basis, it speaks volumes about a player's longevity. It also says that as a player, you were steady, stable, and great and that you deserve to be recognized.

Maybe Klopp is the best manager in the world at creating teams who attack the back four with so many players, from almost anywhere on the pitch. They have an intensity with the ball and without the ball, and it is not easy to do that.

In golf, no one learns to hit a draw, a fade, or a cut shot until they've been taught how to hit the ball straight. Similarly, novice poker players need to learn how to 'hit it straight' before taking on more difficult concepts.

Trying to build a team over the course of the winter to put on the field is really just half the job. Because if your best players go down, it's not so much him going down as who you replace him with, which ultimately might have the biggest impact on how you end up finishing. So you want to have both a belt and suspenders for support.

Look at the better players of my era - Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Raymond Floyd. They had pros they worked with from time to time, but out on Tour, thousands of miles from home, each of them learned to be his own best coach. I think Tiger can do the same.

Getting the player emotionally involved is the holy grail. We try to make players forget they're playing a game. We want them to live the experience and suspend disbelief.

How you deal with adversity says a lot about the kind of players you've got and the kind of team we've got.

Once, players came to football expecting to be wealthy when they retired. Now, they expect to be wealthy before they've played their first game!

Football is oneness in action. When played well, it is unity on display. Players come from different races and different backgrounds. However, when they get on the field, they harmonize their differences toward a common goal.

For some reason in today's society, people look up to football players and you have a voice. And it's because of that voice you have the opportunity to impact people's lives.

I had great football players. To be quite truthful, my great football players, the ones who wanted the ball at the end of the games, they weren't focused on money. They want to do something great. They want to go to Pro Bowls. They want to win Super Bowls. Those are the people that succeed in sports - or in business.