Lenny Wilkens Quotes

People say you can't go out and eat with your players. I say why not.

I think it's an extremely important factor to have your team together. It goes back to having distractions. When you all stay together for a period of time you're not training people or feeling out different personalities.

It's all right buying all these good players but they've got to gel, and that takes time.

You can have great players, but if they don't want to be coached, what are you going to do?

I understand very well that if you are a national coach, you want to use all the opportunities that you have to meet up with your team.

This was how Johan Cruyff worked. He was demanding a lot, but when you got there, and you were in his team, he was an incredible protector. He would push and push you, and then he would protect you. He was a master at handling players. He knew when you needed to be pushed or protected.

My priority is, do my players feel supported from within their dressing room by their own federation?

Felix Magath works with pressure. At first, we didn't know where we stood with him. That prompted the players to give their best because they wanted to play, but after a while the players knew where they stood and Magath no longer received the same effect.

Whenever I hear people crying about Kobe yelling at people in practice or wondering whether or not LeBron is best friends with his teammates, I just roll my eyes. You know how many off-court conversations I had with the Zen-Master Phil Jackson in my entire time with the Lakers? One.

Us coaches love to have as many players available as possible.

That's something that's so often overlooked in this game - the dynamics of the locker room.

In Italy, some managers want distance from the players, the Fabio Capello style, but that is not my way. I am more like Carlo Ancelotti. There are aspects of the players' behaviour I do not understand, but I want them to respect our situation. If they do that, I have a lot of respect for them, too, and I will do everything to help them.

Mascherano's impact as a leader is more important inside the squad, and Messi's leadership is more important in the pitch.

Finding good players is easy. Getting them to play as a team is another story.

I'd rather play with 10 people and just get penalized all the way until we have to do something else rather than play with 11 when I know that right now that person is not sold out to be a part of this team.

Every player needs a little time to adjust to new teammates and the mentality of the coach when you change clubs.

You can get too close as a team. You need time away from each other. You change in the same dressing room, you play on the same cricket field, you stay in the same hotel, you travel in the same planes and buses. C'mon - this business of everyone holding hands and being pally is nonsense.

The head coach is the chemist.

You might be the leader of the team, but without the rest of the team, you're not doing anything. I think that's the way I look at my job as the lead of a TV show.

From our perspective, the most important thing is what you do with the players, how you handle them, your ability to communicate with them.

I want to build a team who can play home and away the same.

Pellegrini gave me back the joy of playing football. He is like Arsene Wenger: someone who likes to joke, someone who likes to talk and take an interest in your life.

I enjoy working with players who want to work and I get more satisfaction with that than ready made teams or players.

To find a clear identity for the team - that is not about buying certain players for a lot of money. It is about getting players who want to play the right way.

As a coach you're able to have better relationships with the players because you're not picking the team.