Kevin Costner Quotes

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

When Coach Belichick comes up to you during a game and says something to you, that's great.

Every coach talks to their players. Imagine not talking to Lionel Messi - that would be ridiculous.

The art of coaching is to give a player freedom to bring out his talent. It is the player's responsibility for what happens once they are on the pitch.

You get different philosophies in coaching, usually depending on what position the coach himself played.

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.

That is what it is like with Pep. At first, you don't understand. But then you grow up, you work, and now we understand the things he wants much better. It's not like the first season when it took him more time to make us understand his ideas. Some players didn't understand immediately what he wanted.

My best games for England were under Eddie Jones. Eddie got the best out of me. He understood that I needed an arm around me, needed my tyres pumped up.

As a player, I've always been interested in understanding the coaches' minds, in seeing how they made a group function.

I worked in the summertime with the Bulls, I don't know, two-three years in a row, Vinny Del Negro, he told me I didn't play defense.

Portugal have a mix of players and talent, which is what Portuguese players and coaches are often about. It's like play-ground football.

With one coach, you have a lot of confidence, and you play well. Then you go with another coach, and your confidence is zero. Football is this.

I motivate players through communication, being honest with them, having them respect and appreciate your ability and your help.

Even the greatest players accept coaching and value the need for discipline and the order that it brings to the team

Selfishness is the greatest challenge for a coach. Most players are more concerned with making themselves better than the team.

After a play in the field Casey would turn (to the players on the bench) and say 'What did he do wrong?' or 'You're better than that guy.' Either way, he'd keep them from getting stale.

I know myself that when there is a manager who knows how to get the best out of you then it's different - and that's why I chose Villa. I wanted to work with Steve Bruce again.

I had Lana and she was the number one player on my team

Even my players aren't players.

It's not what you tell your players that counts. It's what they hear.

The outstanding coach is a teacher that gets all his squad to accept the role that he considers to be the most important for the welfare of all.

I'm a control freak except that I'm a good team player. So I obsess about the details of things but I also trust the team.

We hated to see Coach Riley go. Coach Riley is a very smart individual and he knows his coaching style. He also knows how long to stay with it and move on. He is a very demanding individual. When you coach at that level like that it tends to whirl the players.

The focus should be on the players. I'm here a long time. You can call me in the summer. Our seniors will be gone.

You see the assets of your actors and you see their strengths and you try to play into them. It's like I feel part of my job is as a coach. I'm putting a team on the field and you want to formulate how to make the best game out of these players.