The Themes of Sport

• Technique is the most important tool in the game.
• Technique wins games.
• Intense elite competition is the engine of innovation that drives the game.
• An elite player’s development is driven through elite competition – Steel
  sharpens Steel and players learn as much from playing those at their level or above as they do training alone. A player can develop through solo training, but they’ll have a measure of success and someone to drive them to compete at a much higher level than they came to the training ground with if they train with an elite group.
• All things being equal – a team’s tactics are what separates them from their rivals. If everything is equal. – Team strength, technique, fitness, fatigue, and mental strength – Then tactics are what separates teams. The team with the most efficient tactics wins.
• Willpower will take a team and player to heights above what they can fathom.

Valuable Advice from the Master

Search for athletes. Buy Nothing but Talent. Never compromise. If you can't deal with the way something is run, divorce yourself from it.

When working with less than perfect circumstances, it's usually best to play the best players in their best positions in the default formation. That means play the person who's best at each position on the field, so you don't have to spend time strategizing for putting players into a different formation. 

Coach complete athletes in every sport, Make all complete athletes till age 14, then check speed, and play the talent.

Goalkeeper coach must be able to speak the same language as the goalkeeper fluently.

Spend a couple years perfecting the business, absorbing knowledge, networking, making contacts, learning, and creating instruments. All while saving/making as much money as possible.

Then takeover a good, well-stocked encampment, as easily and making as much money as possible. Bring reinforcements- get things to go your way- Bring your best everyday, work with geniuses and great advisors, as quickly and best as possible build up the defenses and recruit as much genuine talent as possible.

ALWAYS WORK WITH GENIUSES AND GREAT ADVISORS.

Rage absolute, unconditional warfare which includes everything from sport to legal.

You need genuine talent in as many areas of the business as possible.

INJURIES:

When a player is returning back from an injury or injuries always make sure that they are fully healed before they come back to train, work them into the team slowly, and listen to the advice of your physical trainers so that they don't re injure themselves playing on the field.

Benefit of having all of the players in your 20-50 person squad get valuable playing time during the season is that then one can have faith in their ability to perform in a variety of roles in the pressure of a cup tournament.

Sport is a business. Chairmen and Owners are looking for managers that can handle budgets, they’re interested in the managers that can handle the commercial aspects of sport business, and the managers who know the sport and know the coaching aspects as well.

From The League Football Magazine --

Salomon Kalou on Jose Mourinho --

"He will never forget as well his time with former Chelsea boss Jose
Mourinho. As Salomon recalls: Mourinho came incognito to a Feyenoord game. He was hidden under a hat. That day, I scored twice and gave two assists. The first time I talked to him, he told me incredible things. I couldn't believe what I heard. He knew everything about my moves about my goals. Even goals I didn't remember Scoring! Paris St. Germain, Valencia, and others wanted me but after that meeting, I couldn't go anywhere else. I thought: at least, he knows why he wants me!”

Be prepared when speaking to a player. Players are impressed when you can tell them about their own game and how you can improve it at your football club. 

Sulley Muntari on Inter Milan -- What are the differences between a club like Inter and a club like Portsmouth? Have you had to adapt to life at Inter?
"At Inter it's totally different from my former Italian club Udinese, and Portsmouth. With those clubs your aim is to stay in the top division and maybe aim for a UEFA Cup place. There's a different mentality at Inter. The mentality is to win the league and the Champions League. That's the mentality here and that's what makes it different. Yes, of course. -- That was the first thing I had to do when I came here. Since I was a child I have always wanted to join a big club and move forward. I want to show how competitive I am and I want to win and enter the history books. I want to win for Inter and for myself If you do everything right you will definitely win here because there are many great players with the same mentality. All the other players are the same - those who play on the pitch and those who are on the bench, we all want to win. At Udinese and Portsmouth it was different, but here it's twenty or so top-class players playing top football. I'm lucky to play with great midfield players like Zanetti, Cambiasso, Stankovic and Viera. And then there's Ibrahimovic. They're all here. If I start mentioning names we'll be here until tomorrow. They're all great players and they're great people too, and this is important. Here it's all about unity. This is why they have won the league in the last few years. I'm very proud to be part of Inter. I feel lucky and proud because playing and training with these players makes you feel special too. When I was at other clubs I saw the Inter players on TV and now I'm here and I see the likes of Figo and Vieira in front of me on the training pitch. This makes things easier and good, and makes you learn a lot. I've had many coaches and I appreciate what they've done to help me, but I think Mourinho is number one. I've been here for three months and from what I've seen in training, he's a very good coach and a very good man. He talks to you politely, but when he gets angry he's different, so you always have to do the right thing. He is the special one. He wants me to play like
necessary and defend when necessary. To be under a coach like him is amazing because you wake up in the morning and you don't think twice. You're just happy to go downstairs, get in your car and drive to the training ground just to see him coach. It’s amazing the way he talks to everyone, not only me. If you make a player feel good about himself and comfortable, you will see the results, and that's what he does. He's amazing, and he's an intelligent man. I want to improve a lot under him and I know that if I put my head down and work hard I can do well.”

Guus Hiddink says that one obvious advantage is to have a large squad with a lot of players. So deep into the season when injuries, suspensions, and tournaments hit there is a deep squad with experienced players to draw from. A sign of all experienced managers is having a deep squad.

Timing is to business, what location is to real estate. It's not always the business or industry that one is in, but the people you are in business with.

The technique is most important. Then vision and finishing.

You can achieve perfection through straight fundamentals.