Quotes About Cruyff

You hear all these people saying, 'Oh, Pep, what a good manager he is.' Forget about it. Cruyff was the best, by far.

Cruyff's idea was, quite literally, to play football - nothing more, nothing less. His idea of how football should be played was based not on controlling the opponent, but on the ball and the game.

It was great that Cruyff believed in me so much when I was taken on at Ajax. As a coach, Cruyff also had a clear vision, which enabled him to create a better team.

Cruyff defined a philosophy and a style of how we had to play: positional play, type of players, the profile of the coaches, even.

I told Cruyff I'd have given my little finger to have played for his team, but not just to play at Barcelona but for how they played, because I saw how the players enjoyed themselves.

We all feel that hunger in football. With Cruyff, it was different. He deepened and changed the hunger so you became conscious of why you are getting better.

Cruyff was one of the best, he was my hero and my example. He was a star at the same time as George Best, fantastic to watch. I knew him later on, he became my trainer, my adviser, my team-mate, my opponent. It was easier for me to play with him than to speak to him.

I think the person I learnt the most from as a coach was Cruyff because he was always talking about tactics - how to play, where to play and when to play. I think that helps a lot of young players, which is good. He was the most important trainer for me.

I try not to pay attention to talk of comparisons. I only want to focus on myself. It is good to hear that people are talking like that, but the truth is I am not at Cruyff's level of talent, and I never will be, so it is not something I think about.

Every club has legends, and at Barcelona, Cruyff and Pep are going to be spoken about forever, knowing what they've achieved and in what style.

Under Cruyff, dominating the ball became the first and most important rule. 'If you have the ball, the opposition doesn't have it and can't attack you,' Cruyff would repeat daily. So the job became finding the players who could keep possession and also doing a lot of positional work in training.

I never really understood the game until I saw Cruyff's Barcelona play. The first time that happened it opened up a new world to me. I began to understand that football was a collective thing, and that association between players meant you could keep the ball the whole game.