Allan Purdy Quotes

The negative side of football. The negative side of our society. People sometimes go to football and bring to it the negative aspects of our society.

You have to win and especially, as I have, you have to win a trophy for the first time.

The Porto players were with me for two and a half years, they believed in me, in my methods, in the way we do it. The next day I go and a manager arrives who works completely differently.

I feel I have a lot to learn from English football and I am completely open to good influences in my way of thinking football. But I also have things to give them.

The only thing that we cannot control is our supporters.

Facing the press is not easy, but because you have to go, you have to try to take a lot of positive things for yourself from these face-to-face meetings.

I don`t say we are a defensive team. I say we are a strong team in defensive terms, but at the same time lacking sufficient fluidity in attack because that will take time to come.

And I think because of the passion of every English player and every English supporter, and every English journalist for the game, most of the game is played with passion, love for football and instinct, but in football you also have to think.

Arsenal have won that advantage, nobody gave it to them. By playing fantastic football and by winning matches and by winning trophies, they won that respect that the opponent has for them.

Look at the way teams play against Arsenal. They don`t believe they can win. They don`t believe.

When I face the media, maybe I don`t feel it now, here with you, because it`s a different sort of interview, but when I face the media before or after the game, I feel it as part of the game.

I followed an Italian manager and it cannot be easy when you follow a manager who thinks very differently.

At the very least we should be given a bit of credit and a little bit of space, and maybe the media should think we could help them discover why English teams do not win European competitions.

So I know all about the ups and downs of football, I know that one day I will be sacked.

The way I use to develop an aerobic condition is three against three, man to man, in a square 20 metres by 20.

You see how Spanish, Italians, Portuguese play football. I don`t say they are perfect, I say English football has a few things to learn from them in the same way they have a lot of things to learn from English football.

When you just work tactically, in pure football sessions, you can see the way they can think football.

When I go to the press conference before the game, in my mind the game has already started.

I was nine or 10 years old and my father was sacked on Christmas Day. He was a manager, the results had not been good, he lost a game on December 22 or 23. On Christmas Day, the telephone rang and he was sacked in the middle of our lunch.

The only thing I would like is to have more control of the game in terms of possession.

So if one day the result becomes 3-3, for me it doesn`t change my mind, because it`s football, it`s normal. What is not normal is that we haven`t been scoring enough goals playing such good football as we`ve been playing in the last few weeks.

In the same way that I had to follow an Italian manager here, I can imagine that it was not easy for an Italian manager to follow me at Porto.

In five years I have never had a match where my team has had less possession than the opponents.

The team is completely close. Anything you say outside, there is no chance it will go inside. So the team is really strong and compact. We know what we want and how to achieve it on the pitch.

I enjoy the work, I enjoy every minute of my professional life.

Especially when you play at home, you need a good atmosphere behind you.

I always feel that with a president, an owner - it depends on the structure of the club and the country - the players generally like to see him.

I think the best place to work in football is England.

So when they have Mourinho and Benitez joining the Premiership they should say it`s good for us, maybe these guys have something new to give.

But I think it`s more normal for my team to have no success than it is to win two consecutive European cups.