We want to be strong and we want to be in a position to maximise the potential of the players in every game because it's a long season with 46 league games.
If your performance levels are right, that brings results and that brings momentum naturally. We believe in the training schedule.
We're oppressed, I think, you know there's only 5 per cent of the world's population who are ginger? So it's a tough time for us gingers.
The mind tells you that you should use the Europa League as your pre-season but you don't really because the players aren't silly, they know it's a real game.
A good player is a good player, it's just that we cannot afford signings that do not work.
I've been linked with lots of clubs but that's what tends to happen if you stay in the same job for five years. It means you have brought a level of success.
Without wanting to sound pompous or clever it is down to me to make decisions on behalf of the side to give it the best chance of being successful.
You need good fitness from the players and the organisational structure has to be there from early on in pre-season because the games come so quickly that you don't have much time on the grass with the players to shuffle the pack tactically.
There's a bit of a myth that you pre-suppose every European player is better than every English player.
Most people think footballers are thick. Some might be, academically, but they can see the game, strategically, tactically, in every way.
I think what helps enormously is the cultural environment that you have set. We constantly try to monitor it. When you have a base to work from that holds it together, that's something that you can go back to and rely on. A lot of is down to the consistency of work, the consistency of message and the consistency of the players' performances.
Things that are uncomfortable and demand time and effort and patience we can switch off to. And I am intrigued by that concept. It's about human tolerance.
Football management is about managing people.
True success for me is allowing players to be better than I was. That is what I went into coaching for and I've not lost sight of that.
I am at A and going all the way to Z is high unlikely in any career, let alone football. You have to weave your way like the river, pick up your skills and keep going.
You need doors to open, you need a chance - and you have got to have something, to take your chance when the door opens at the right time. My first port of call was to be a manager, then it was a successful manager, then it was a Premier League manager.
I love the relentless nature of a side that never gives up.
I grew up in an era where Dad worked, Mum looked after the family, and if I think of the qualities she brought to that - nurture and support are so valuable.
People suppose that you are great if you win and rubbish if you lose. Well, actually, whatever the result I still know what I am doing.
But we have seen amazing things, good and bad, happen in this game, so you can never take anything for granted. I certainly don't. There are no guarantees, whether it is good bad or indifferent you just work hard to push the odds in your favour as regards myself and the team.
