Quotes from Gianfranco Zola

The Premier League is the biggest on the planet and the challenge is you have to be very good to make it in England.

There is a common mistake people make. They say, 'We need to play the young English boys.' Of course, but only if they are good. How can you measure that? If they are playing with good players and if they can fit into the level of the good players. That's why, because of the level of the Premier League, England has so many talented players.

The Premier League is very competitive and you have to be prepared for that.

When I was playing football it was 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So I said to myself when I stopped that I wanted to dedicate myself to things I'd never done before. I even had a list.

It is not true that Sarri did not defend, indeed all of his work starts from there. But it's a different way to defend, in a much more advanced area of the pitch.

He was so influential on every aspect of my game. I promise you - I would have been another Gianfranco Zola if I hadn't trained and played with Maradona every day.

I'm a proud man.

I am the first one to believe that if a player is happy in what he is doing he performs much more.

It is a pleasure for whoever loves football to enjoy watching Hazard.

Do I ever lose my temper? Sure, I do it all the time - just ask my wife, she will tell you.

I don't think John Terry would have been the player he was if he hadn't had Marcel Desailly or Frank Leboeuf in front of him with us at Chelsea.

If I felt like I needed to be aggressive all the time, it would have been impossible to be the player that I was. Or John Terry, if he had tried to be a player of finesse, probably he wouldn't have been the same.

I always loved playing an attacking form of flowing football.

I have always followed Scottish football quite closely.

Sometimes we forget football is, first and foremost, entertainment. Sometimes we consider it a more important matter. It is but, at the same time, it is not.

Sometimes in football, like in life, you have to step into the wilderness. That's the way to get better. You have to try new things and be positive.

In football, even when you do your best on the pitch, you can win or lose. That is the nature of the game.

Italians have a very closed life. Football is all their life is.

I really do like Scottish people. I have met Gordon Strachan quite a few times and always liked him. Craig Burley is another Scot I played with at Chelsea and he's a good guy.

Being a good player doesn't necessarily make a good manager, that's for sure.

It's normal that you have good moments and bad moments - it is how you deal with it.

I have always admired the games between Celtic and Rangers. That's one of the games that you always watch when it's happening.

Sometimes players don't like to be dropped and, when they don't like something, they react.

I went to West Ham without ever having coached and I know what that means.