John Motson Quotes

Football's about the young players, bringing youth team players through to the first team and hopefully getting the best out of them so they can go on to play for their country.

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.

Let's build women's football from the bottom before we get to the top; it's not about building from the top to get to the bottom. We can talk about the Etihad and Man United's ground, the Theatre of Dreams, in a few years' time. Let's fill the Academy Stadiums, the Kingsmeadows, first of all.

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

Ajax have a tradition of good football and play 4-3-3, which suits me. They also spend lots of money on youth players with the aim of putting them in the first team.

The more players who come through the academy and make it into the first team, that's what we want. Not just for the club but for the country. If they're young English players coming through, that's fantastic. I'm happy to be part of that.

It is not always about signing star forwards and midfielders.

I am much more a pitch manager than a general manager. I am one of the few managers who is bored by the transfer market. Our task is growing the players that we have.

Every team has to understand what their ambitions are. If their ambitions are to fight for the title or win the Champions League, you must buy expensive players. Otherwise, you continue to stay in your level. It's simple.

Juventus can afford to spend a great deal of money for new players. But Napoli can always respond by playing magnificently.

At Brondby, we had Daniel Agger, who came up from the youth. He had two years in the team, and then we sold him to Liverpool for nearly £7 million, which is a lot of money in Denmark. As a manager, that gives you even greater satisfaction that winning something as a player.

Manchester City seems to have unlimited spending restraint and are attempting to have all-star quality at each position - two deep. That will be hard to beat.

When I joined Lille, they had a new stadium at Marseille. It was the same, so I know how important it is to clubs when they move home.

City showed me their ambition to be one of the biggest clubs in the world, and I was happy to join.

In Holland you go into amateur teams, come up through the ranks and are generally spotted for senior or professional football. At 16, I had made it into a men's amateur team, and was picked up professionally from there.

Liverpool will always buy good players, even if they already have good players. That's normal. I think it has to be normal for a club like Liverpool because that means you're a big club.

I want to help Leeds United return to the level our history and fans deserve. When I came to the club, I gave myself three years to deliver that and my vision remains the same: return the club to its rightful place in the Premier League and make our fans, players and staff proud of their football team.

Novi Sad is a really beautiful city, and the club is really nice. It is one of the best youth academies in Serbia.

A lot of the guys who played in the 1995 final for Ajax had been there since the age of 12 or 13. Patrick Kluivert and Edgar Davids had been there from age seven or eight, so I had a lot of catching up to do.

How do you make a young quarterback better? You build a running game around him.

I will say it loud and clear: at Manchester City, it is all about what you choose to look at. If you look at the money spent on players, you will only ever see that side of City. If you look at the bigger plan, which is investment in the community, facilities, and youth teams, you realise there is heart and soul in this club.

Arsenal will always come first. You name them - Henry, Vieira, Pires, Bergkamp. People saw these stars shine, and they thought: 'Is there life after Vieira, Pires or Bergkamp?'. But look at what happens here. At Arsenal, you always see young, fresh talent grow into the same role as those stars who have left. Other players have replaced them.

I played for Barcelona, for Ajax, where it's important to develop and integrate young talent.

If Celtic were to build a team strong enough to regularly compete in the Champions League, I might decide to manage them one day.

An investment in our kids is an investment in our future. It strengthens our economy through workforce development, attracts new jobs, and builds new industries in our state.