My favourite artist is Beyonce. I also like Jasmine Sullivan.
If you drop a player when his form dips, sometimes it never quite comes back.
Rita Guarino is one of the best technical coaches I have had in my career – often she demonstrates a specific technique and shows the players up!
Perhaps I am influenced by philosophies like the one at Chelsea which was ‘If it isn’t broken, change it’ which saw us win three league titles in five years playing three different formations and tactical strategies so that the opposition could never keep up with our evolution at the time.
If, say, a striker knows that scoring 30 goals in a season will lead to them winning a prestigious award then they will try that little bit harder because, regardless of what players may say, individual recognition on the world stage is important.
A big player coming in can change the dynamics of the dressing room, upset the rhythm of the team and end up doing more harm than good.
Sometimes keeping a squad together can improve spirit and with it performances.
It is not always about signing star forwards and midfielders.
I’ve experienced it with Chelsea Women: it can be very hard at the top for long periods of time, fighting just to stay in the same position and to preserve an unbeaten run that will always come to an end.
The problem with tactical novelties that might lead to a manager being hailed as a hero is that if they do not come off they are the villain.
You cannot underestimate Zidane’s achievement of winning the Champions League three times in a row – it must have taken superb skills to motivate the likes of Ronaldo, Luka Modric, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema et al to have the desire to become serial Champions League winners.
I take the sporting genes from my dad.
I really enjoyed my degree. But there’s so many people I went to uni with that didn’t.
Success is always the best answer to critics.
If young players are capable of playing 90 minutes every week at European clubs why prevent them from doing that?
I think having a back-up plan is never a bad thing. I would hate to be a male footballer and look back on 15 years of my career and think, ‘Oh well, I’ve got a lot a money but what now?’
When black men become millionaires and can buy expensive homes for their families, it infuriates people who cherish the social construct where white people are at the top and people of other ethnic backgrounds are below.
Coaches can sometimes mollycoddle players too much – if they are good enough, then they are old enough.
I had to deal with casual sexism while working as a pundit for ITV during the World Cup in Russia.
Just because someone doesn’t have a silver spoon in their mouth doesn’t mean they can’t be highly intelligent.
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