Player Selection Quotes

At the end of the day, Coach Belichick does a great job of bringing in people he knows that will fit well.

When a scout recommends a brilliant right back or a coach recommends one from our academy, we want the manager to weigh up what is right for the team.

If I had to chose between Messi and Ronaldo, then most likely I would choose Messi.

It is not always about signing star forwards and midfielders.

A captain shouldn't be chosen on the amount of goals he's going to score.

You talk about demand, and these are big-name NBA players fighting for spots to be in the BIG3. So you gotta bring your game to make a squad, and that's what Ice Cube's envisioned when he started the BIG3.

Steven Gerrard would be the captain of my World XI dream team.

I know as a manager you have to abide by the chairman's decisions. But his decisions were this team, that team, this player, that player. The chairman is a control freak.

If you are not playing a player, any player, for two, three, four games, then you don't have to give a reason for that. But if it gets to eight or nine games, then you have to explain the situation. What's going on?

I changed my position when I was 16 or 17. I started in midfield or further forward as a number 10, and then in one tournament, we lost two defenders to injury in the same game, and we didn't have any on the bench. So I played at the back, and the manager of the first team saw me, and he said, 'I want this guy in the first team,' and that was that!

It's not just the NFL. Every other league has a draft. It has been fundamental to the success of professional sports.

I'm aware that at the big, big clubs stuff can change quickly, as can opinions and people in charge. Not everyone is going to like you, not everyone is going to want to play you and that's the business side of it, which I've grown into and I'm certainly not going to take personally.

What else does a manager do but push buttons? He doesn't hit, he doesn't run, he doesn't throw, and he doesn't catch the ball. A manager has twenty-five players, or twenty-five buttons, and he selects which one he'll use, or push, that day. The manager who presses the right buttons most often is the one who wins the most games.

Obviously when you're a striker you need to score. The manager's not going to just play you if you're not scoring.

A personnel guy always wants to get his pick right. We live that every year. We want to make sure the pick is right.

I think the teams know more than I do in the sense of where I'd best fit. I might be a bit of a unique personality, so hopefully they can pick me apart, and if a team really feels that I'm their guy, hopefully they'll go and get me.

I will never close the door to the national team on anyone, but you also have to remember that in modern football, only players who are in peak physical condition can make the most of their technical abilities.

I would like to think I am well aware of what the Lions are about and what they represent, but out of respect for your body and the players who are putting up their hands to be selected, you keep it at arm's length.

We're trying to win football games, and whoever we feel like gives us the best chance is who's going to play behind center.

I think what's bad is that there aren't centers in the All-Star voting anymore.

The draft is one of my favorite events because it is about football. People are focused on how their teams improve. It's a celebration of football. And most importantly, it represents a very important time in the lives of these men who are entering the NFL, and their families.

You buy the right players for the system that you believe will be successful.

I would love to start if a coach considered me as a starter.

All of us that have teams want to pick the right people. I've thought a lot about that. In the NFL, we've got 13 scouts traveling the country. We're trying to pick 22 year-olds coming out of college who will be successful in the NFL. It's very hard to do. What I've learned is it's always character first.

My saddest decision in football was leaving Paul Gascoigne out of the 1998 World Cup finals. But he wasn't fit enough and once that decision is made, as a manager and a group of players, you forget about who isn't there and focus on the job.