Quotes from Sam Allardyce

Believe me, I look back on West Ham in a good way.

If you're talking about English football very few teams play 4-4-2 now: it's either 4-4-1-1, 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, they are the three major systems played throughout the Premier League.

I had four great years at West Ham. People will always refer to the difficulties at certain times, but you get those everywhere.

My parents are from Scotland and my sister and brother were both born in Scotland so my heritage is from there.

It is very important to me to communicate with the fans and not hide what's going on behind the scenes.

Most young talented players I worked with over many, many years who I've met later have said, 'Oh, I wish I'd listened to you.' When you meet them later in life they regret not taking the opportunity with the talent they had.

One of my best friendships dwindled in the pub business - we still talk, but it challenged that friendship too much - and that taught me to go into football and find people that I can have good relations with but without being overly friendly.

I want to be able to savour life while I'm still relatively young and when I'm still relatively healthy enough to do all the things I want to do, like travel, spend more time with my family and grandchildren without the huge pressure that comes with being a football manager.

Football is a worldwide business consortium and to satisfy that best you need to find the best players.

Far too much emphasis on what is deemed the 'wrong' style of football. That's what annoys me. Your style depends on who you're playing and what group of players you have at your disposal.

I have to remind Arsene about his team, which used to win the league, that was the dirtiest team in the league. If you cast your mind back to when they were winning the league, they had more seedings-off and bookings than anyone else.

People seem to expect when that happens, for players to be brought in that are so much better than the ones that have left. In the end they might be better but in the beginning they might be worse. Because they all have to gel and get to know each other and get to know you.

You have to try to win the ball at all costs and if someone doesn't get it quite right people get injured.

Your cruciate ligament, like many long-term injuries... when they come back they're expected to be what they were before the injury. While fit it sometimes takes a little bit longer for some than others.

We are in a position where we always have to change more players than we really want to and that brings a lot of instability and makes your job so much harder than it should be, because players come and go almost at the drop of the hat.

I think accepting an instruction is part of a player's responsibility.

Have transfer prices in England surprised me? No. Are the prices over-inflated? Yes. But there is no surprise now.

I think that the problem for any player you want to select for England, not just in isolation, is that it'll be a concern if that player doesn't play for his team.

I am not a great sleeper, so 30 minutes of meditation, they say in research, is as good as two or three hours sleep, which is why you feel better.

Too many times I have had to sacrifice a trophy or the chance of winning one because the owners have said you have to stay in the Premier League at all costs.

There's only a certain amount of times you can tell somebody what they should or shouldn't be doing. If they don't want to take it on board there's little you can do.

You have to keep control mentally when you go a goal down.

Just because a player drops down a division, it doesn't mean he's turned into a bad player overnight and isn't good enough for England.

Any football club that is any good is down to the manager more than anything else.