Top 30 Carlos Carvalhal Quotes

I chose Rio Ave because I had something in my head about wanting to do it differently to how I had done it in my past. Something new.

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

I love football but it doesn’t come in front of my family. One time when I was manager of Braga I cancelled my contract because I had a problem with my family.

The worst enemy of coaches is expectations.

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.

I’m Portuguese. After lunch, I need an espresso.

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

We practise, we know exactly what we must do and we win.

If the owner goes inside a team and picks one player to play, I can no longer be the manager. Decisions must be made by the manager.

When we go to the opera, we put the clothes on we know we must wear for there.

Flamengo usually contact managers who have won a lot of trophies.

I like music more balanced between the voice and the guitar and the percussion. I don’t like heavy metal.

When I arrive people don’t know me very well, but it’s about the work we do and the way the team play.

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.

I knew Portuguese football and I knew that Rio Ave was a medium-sized club but I also knew they are organised off the pitch. We felt that we could achieve something special playing in a different way.

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.

The connections are very important with the fans, with the journalists, with the people. The Portuguese like to do this – it’s a characteristic.

I am from a poor background in Portugal. We were medium-down, not down-and-out. My parents felt problems around food in the past but they made sure I did not miss anything. But there was nothing extra, no luxuries.

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.

I believe in myself, I believe in my players. My target is to try to get them to believe in themselves and believe in their colleagues. These are the things that we must do.

Sometimes we need to take some time to reflect. Sometimes we need to do something different. Sometimes we need to do something not because others are doing it so we want to do the same, but because it is different.

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.

When you go to the play-offs one time, it can be a lot of things – that we have a good group of players, you can be a little lucky, you can have momentum.

I believe society and football are all the time together, and will come to a new harmony.

Just play football. If you are a writer, you must write. It’s the best way to practise. If I’m a pianist, I don’t need to run in the forest for one hour or two hours to be a good pianist. I must play piano. So this is what we are doing all the time. Play football. Simple ideas.

We have to understand the abilities of the players. We will try to build a game model with our ideas and with the players we have.

I remember Simple Minds, Echo and the Bunnymen, Nina Hagen, Elvis Costello and Duran Duran. And the best concert I ever saw was the Rolling Stones, in the stadium of Sporting Lisbon.

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.

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

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.