Patrick Vieira Quotes

I've enjoyed my time in the game, whether it be managing Luton in the top flight, taking Spurs to Wembley or, as director of football, pinpointing players such as Jermain Defoe, Paul Robinson and Robbie Keane with real sell-on value.

For you to even enquire about one player, he is expensive. You go to buy a right-back, a left-back, or a central defender, and he is expensive.

It is down to the manager what he wants to do in the transfer window. Us as players, we just have to focus on each game that comes along and try and do our best.

When a club has €200m left on its transfer budget in the final days of the transfer period, why shouldn't they make a higher bid when their initial €70m bid has been rejected?

PSG - I think they had a money problem and they couldn't buy players. This is the main reason I didn't go there.

At West Ham, I was never able to buy the top-flight players. It was a case of looking around, trying to do deals. I was always taking a gamble.

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.

Transfer fees don't show which player is better. It's only a number necessary for a club to get a player.

All I can do is assess the value from Manchester United perspective. Whatever Chelsea do, they may have a different criteria, and different financial assets.

We don't have major limits in the transfer market.

I wouldn't want to go out six nights a week and watch somebody's reserves playing to check out a footballer to see if we're going to buy him.

You don't sign a player for the sake of it.

With a coach like Mourinho, it's probably easier for a club to get top stars.

This is Manchester United; we have the capacity to buy new players, we have the best players in the world. But I think it's good for me.

Sometimes you have to manage, and you have to sell two or three players who aren't playing many games.

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

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.

The buying power of clubs is very different. You can't sign players if you don't have money, and if there is no money, that's it. As a player, there's nothing you can do.

When I was at Liverpool, I asked about Van Dijk when he was at Groningen and then at Celtic. But I was told he wouldn't be for us at the time. Van Dijk could have jumped from Celtic to a Liverpool.

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

Most of our players come from the Championship; Chelsea can get more or less anyone from around the world. Some clubs in this division have owners who say it doesn't matter what they spend. I don't know what happened to Financial Fair Play but it didn't exactly level the playing field.

Arsene Wenger is an ambitious manager, and he knows deep in his heart that he needs five world-class players to compete among the best in Europe.

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

The main problem with English players has always been the price.

Football today means players stay less now than ever before and you have to accept that. As a manager, a big part of your business is doing far too much business that you don't want to do really.