As you climb of the organizational ladder, you have to redefine your role in the value chain from player to captain to coach to manager, and for some, to owner. These are different roles and you won't be able to succeed as a manager when you're acting like a player.
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.
As a player, you have a certain relationship with a coach or a number two, and it's a completely different to the one you have with the manager.
No, I didn't expect Mancini to become a manager, because of the type of player he was - he was an intelligent player, of course, but I didn't think he had the desire to become a manager. But I guess if you speak to some of my team-mates they'd probably say they didn't expect me to either. I certainly didn't expect it.
Baseball is a simple game. If you have good players, and you keep them in the right frame of mind, the manager is a success. The players make the manager. It's never the other way. Managing is not running, hitting, or stealing. Managing is getting your players to put out one hundred percent year after year. A player does not have to like a manager and he does not have to respect a manager. All he has to do is obey the rules. Talent is one thing. Being able to go from spring to October is another. You just got caught in a position where you have no position.
If I can be a role model, or if I can maybe make another manager play a young player coming through rather than buy a player, that's incredible.
Wenger is a top manager, he has shown that unbelievably. The thing I like is this manager can make an average player one of the best players in the world.
It's just a natural progression. You're a player, then you're a coach, then you're general manager for the team, and then the next logical step for me and you would be [to become] team owner.
I haven't wanted to portray a manager since Paul E. Dangerously was with the Samoan Swat Team in 1989. I've always wanted to do some different presentation in that role. I don't consider myself a manager - I'm an advocate, and I truly believe that that is the description for the role that I play.
The only thing I believe is this: A player does not have to like a manager and he does not have to respect a manager. All he has to do is obey the rules.
But I still think it's part of the skill of being a coach or manager - to know who responds to what. And some players do respond to a rollicking. If it needs to be done, you have to do it. As a player, that wasn't necessarily me.
A player does not have to like a manager and he does not have to respect a manager. All he has to do is obey the rules.
To be a manager, you've got to gamble. Be brave, be bold, but be humble in everything that you do, and from the kit man to the physio to your best player to your youngest player, make sure you treat everybody the same.
In the end, as a manager or coach, you have to keep your heart pure and do your best as a manager or a coach.
A manager sets objectives - A manager organizes - A manager motivates and communicates - A manager, by establishing yardsticks, measures - A manager develops people.
That is the difference from being a manager and being a player: As a player, if you sign a contract for four years, if you want to be there for four years, you are. But as a manager, it always depends on the sack. You are always under pressure.
Every manager has different opinions and all you can do as a player is try to fight and get your spot back, or at least earn your manager's trust back to try and get your spot back. There's no use sulking about it, you just get on with it and try to raise your game to get back to the level you need to be when you were starting.