Diego Simeone Quotes

A winning model would mean trying to get the best possible players that you can, at whatever age they are; it doesn't matter.

I've always been able to stay focused on trying to recruit good players and trying to develop those players.

We draft mostly high school kids and we have one of the finest, if not the finest, player development programs and coaching staffs and we teach our players the right way to play. We also have a game plan in scouting, and there are certain types of players that we look for.

The manager sits down with me; I sit down with the board. We assess the success of the year. The manager assesses whose coming through the academy system. His job is to look at what is happening in European and world football.

Even all the top players going to Europe to play helps soccer in America, as do all the MLS players like Beckham and all that, they're trying to promote it. At the end of the day it's about getting the younger generation interested at an early age so most of them will move on and play.

English players are as easy to coach. The problem is that the Premier League has the best players in the world, and statistically not all of them can be born in England. But we don't have enough English players: we are working very hard on it.

We're not the only ones out there trying to get good players and trying to help kids.

I think the hardest part, and where we have to stay the most disciplined, as much as you want a player, you can't invent him if he doesn't exist.

The number of French players Arsenal have brought through is very impressive, and many of the players who arrived, especially the young ones, were unknown when they arrived to the general public.

We want to bring our own players through. That is what people like about Ajax.

Carlo Ancelotti wanted me in Madrid and had bet on me.

If I have an idea of football, and I am the manager, it doesn't make sense for the club to find players with a different profile.

Teams want the best players. If the best players come through your academy, you can play.

Ajax always bring through young players from their academy - we can't pay €20m for a player, so we make sure we develop those players and give them the opportunity to play.

We don't have the money of the Manchester clubs or Chelsea. Arsenal builds its team through training, through recruiting players who can become something. Arsenal has less money than some other clubs, so we have to fight with other values.

When you are in the biggest clubs, and you are fighting for the best players with a lot of money, maybe the work of a sporting director is not so difficult.

It's my belief that Barcelona are successful because they have a number of youth teams alongside the first team. They are where it begins.

I think the 20-year-old me from that time, if I could have been managed under Jurgen Klopp, I'd have benefitted.

It's not easy to break into an Arsenal team from youth.

My job is to bring in players I think can help this team, regardless of where they're playing.

Every place you can find an edge, you should - the free agent market, the undrafted market, the D-League, international players, Americans playing overseas, international players playing in America, the second round. You should be looking for all those opportunities, finding whatever edge you can.

Success at United doesn't depend on money but about which players we bring in.

You always attempt to better yourself by getting good football players.

I'll always be proud to say I played at Chelsea, at Valencia, in the youth system at Real Madrid, in the youth system at Real Oviedo, and for United.

I was playing in a tournament in Brazil and an agent scouted me. He took me to his soccer school. The idea was he used it to scout players and anyone he thought was good enough he took over to Italy. That's what he did with me when I was 15.