Quotes from Tony Pulis

I think sometimes people don't understand the difference between being competitive and being dirty.

When you lose a game you still get as disappointed, 24 years on. Losing a game of football, even when you have played well, kills you.

It's annoying and disappointing that people think I just keep clubs up.

What people don't talk about is I've been promoted out of every division and been to the final of an FA Cup.

People talk about me being a firefighter, but I have also been very successful. It annoys me that in this country you get pigeon-holed for certain things.

Age is just a number. For 18 months at Boro I was the first one in at training and one of the last out. I look at people like Manuel Pellegrini and Marcelo Bielsa and think they all have something to offer.

Referees will make good decisions and bad ones. But when they make decisions actually affecting a game of football, it's disappointing.

When you lose a game of football, you can still be a winner by taking it on the chin and getting on with it.

When we were at Stoke and we first got in to the Premier League we had been second in the Championship and were regular winners in that division. The following year we weren't regular winners, so you have to manage yourself and you have to be positive yourself you have to lift the players.

I accept that in life and football you have good times and bad, and it's how you deal with it.

It must be a nightmare for football managers' wives, putting up with us.

There are players like that - you know they have been rascals, and that you can bring them in, give them a new environment and get a length of time out of them, but they will always return to type. You can get something out of them, then you have to get rid of them.

The great thing about this country is that everyone has the chance to voice their own opinion.

The great thing for me is I wasn't a great player - I managed at the lower level and managed to be successful and that gives great hope to everyone else.

I have my grumpy days. The players will tell you that. But you have to be positive because you have to lift them.

Stoke-on-Trent - forget about the football club, or the people at the football club, and the supporters - Stoke-on-Trent is a wonderful place.

Discipline and respect and hard work are not bad words. I expect that from everybody - especially the players who are in fortunate and very lucky positions.

My teams have always been very hard-working and competitive.

I find rowing very boring, I've got to be honest.

Ever since I started professional football at 15 there was always that togetherness and solidarity in the dressing room - it is a sanctuary. When I started football everyone believed it.

I think football is a reflection on life and society and you have to move with the times. I've moved with the times, I've had to.

Every job I've had I feel lucky to have had. Of all the family, I was the lucky one. I've been very fortunate. I don't regret anything, I don't crave anything.

When you're young you say things you maybe regret, I have been there and I am sure every player has, you say something you wish you hadn't and you learn from these things.

If you're hiring a manager for two to three years, you need to get it right.