Diego Forlan Quotes

To be realistic, the big Dutch clubs cannot afford me. That's not because of my wages; it's the transfer fee.

I think Inter have been very clear: if a good offer comes in, they have to let me go. They don't want to lose me, but there is a chance they will let me go.

And historically the owners have used loyalty to a team or a city to hold players as opposed to always paying their worth.

I really think that people never go wrong by telling the truth.

The single most important ingredient in the recipe for success is transparency because transparency builds trust.

Too often, when you are close to people in power, you're trying to make them happy; you're trying to tell them what they want to hear. But I find that really good leaders don't want that. They want the truth. And you do them a service, and yourself a service, by just being honest and straightforward.

In the Premier League, the money is a problem, but I don't really know how to control it.

The strikers are the ones that normally go for big, big money because they're the ones who decide the games, nine times out of 10.

You cannot talk to a player who has a contract. It's not in my code.

For me, it's always better to tell people the truth, because people can accept the truth.

When I went in to Liverpool, my job in the first season was to cut the budget. You only need to look at the players who left. Maxi Rodriguez, Alberto Aquilani, Pepe Reina.

As I found again and again as a writer, when you're completely honest about something, people respond to that.

I can no longer understand what the parameters are for valuing a player. It's all too random and in the hands of whoever has more money.

One of the biggest misconceptions is that players care about transfer fees. For a player, they do not care at all. They do not care if they move clubs for one million, 10 million, or 100 million Euros. That is just something a player leaves to his agent and the clubs.

In the face of a big offer, no player is not for sale.

For me it was just about staying the course, staying true to who I believe that I am, being open, being honest, being transparent with the players, being firm with the players but at the same time listening to the players.

It's not very wise to keep a player who has just one year left on his contract and really wants to leave.

Now astronomical wages are making it very difficult to take somebody who might not even have a transfer fee attached to them, because of the net value that they want and the net value that they're worth.

The Premier League has the power to spend more money on players than the Bundesliga. This is very, very important for players.

There are maybe four or five teams who will pay whatever they need to pay to get the player. They are huge sums, but that is the world we now live in - when one of those four or five teams want a player, then they usually get them.

The tough part is when someone asks you to take a pay cut. I don't think that makes sense for a lot of players.

People do focus on the transfer fee, but that's football.

The only way we protect ourselves, the only way a player gets what he wants is by holding out.

Contracts are not a holy relic in football. You can like this attitude or not, but it's the truth. Sometimes you have to think about if it is meaningful to try out a new impulse.

Communication, that keeps everything cool. Not holding anything back, you got to tell each other what's on your mind, that's really it. Otherwise when one gets mad at one, it can burst and you just let it out and it can just come out wrong.