00:00You had some players in your squad who you played with as teammates.
00:03Now you have Max and Marley who were very much young enough to be your kids.
00:09That dynamic clearly is very different.
00:12How, as a manager, do you treat that on a management level?
00:17The first one or the second one? Or both? Both, yeah.
00:21That's a test for you, didn't it?
00:22Yeah, it was a test, certainly.
00:25And especially with some of them because I had a really, really close relationship.
00:32I tried to live in a really natural way.
00:34It's not very natural even if you try to make it natural
00:36because you have strong feelings towards that person.
00:40Try to be as clear as possible.
00:41Try to be very clear on what we have to expect for each other
00:47and the different roles that we have.
00:50But that's here and that's when we talk about the game and decisions
00:53and then the other part which is the personal life
00:55that can remain in various ways, very similar to before.
01:01And then when it comes to somebody that has the age of any of my songs,
01:06that's another kind of responsibility as well.
01:10Because you've been there, because you know what it means,
01:12because you can think and process what you are about to tell him from a father's perspective as well.
01:20And you can never forget that because the influence that you can have for many hours
01:25or the language that you use or the way that you communicate with them is part of their education.
01:31And then have a really good connection with their environment, especially with their parents.
01:37and understand as well what they expect from us, what we expect from them as well.
01:41So we are all aligned in the same boat and making sure that the players get a very clear message,
01:48a lot of support, but as well the right level of demands.
01:51Because if he's here, he has to be here with all conditions
01:54and you cannot treat him differently in many aspects.
01:57Last year with that extended to reminding him to do his homework and all those things.
02:03That is part of his life.
02:05Yeah, or sometimes we do something natural.
02:07You know, tomorrow maybe he cannot train because he has a really important lesson
02:11and he's matched in minus one, yeah.
02:13But we have a very important lesson here because we play against tomorrow as well.
02:16So balancing that up is not easy, that's what it tells you.
02:20I mean, the craziness of the age and the environment that he still lives in
02:24with the demands and the competition that he needs to face during the week.
02:29But I think the way he has handled it, him and the family, I think it's been extraordinary.
02:35Just a separate topic.
02:36You previously mentioned AI, which I keep reading about is going to kill us all at one point.
02:41Yeah.
02:41In the meantime, it might help football managers.
02:44I wondered what kind of AI you're using and how it helps.
02:48Only hopefully things that they can help.
02:51And I think to help, it can never take, I think, the gut feeling
02:56and what you are able to see with your eyes.
02:58I think that's the condition that I work under
03:01and I try to transmit to anybody that is using it towards what we do.
03:05In our methodology, in our decision-making, in our preparation,
03:09it's good to have the information there.
03:11But let's feel it because otherwise, yeah, what we're doing,
03:15what is the purpose of what we do.
03:17And this has to be a really strong line that we have to draw
03:21that I personally draw as well.
03:23What kind of information can you give to football managers?
03:26Well, so many.
03:27You can put data there and you can manipulate it in any way that you possibly want.
03:33But try to be very specific and make sure that then we can simplify everything
03:38to very concrete messages and ways of acting.
03:42Otherwise, it's very difficult.
03:46Simon?
03:47Michael should ask you about Fabian,
03:49who is obviously the youngest manager in the Premier League.
03:52Where do you rank him in terms of coaches in this league
03:54and how impressed you be the way he was in tactically?
03:58Very, very highly.
03:59I know him since he was in Germany.
04:01And Brighton, I know them really well as a club
04:05when they make an appointment and a decision like this
04:08is because they've done the homework so well.
04:10And you can clearly say watching the team play,
04:12what they've done in the last few years,
04:15the way they have evolved their squad as well,
04:19since Graham was here, Roberto was here,
04:21and then Fabian is here.
04:23He's remarkable.
04:24And I think, yeah, he's a top coach
04:27and you can clearly see that.
04:30And, yeah, it's a team that is really nice to watch.
04:32That game last season was probably a time
04:35where you had to adapt to get the results you wanted to play a different way.
04:39Did it hurt you, though,
04:40when you had people criticising the style of the team around that period?
04:44No, because I understand where that's coming from
04:47and especially with the context of that match.
04:51But, yeah, my job is to get a team that, whatever the context is,
04:56is able to win.
04:58And where not particularly at your best in a game, what do you do?
05:02And you need to find a way to go and win it.
05:05And that's what we try to do.
05:07Go ahead.
05:09With that in mind, then also with last week as well,
05:11the penalty decision that was given against you,
05:14do you think the teams are trying different tactics to get on your skin,
05:19try not to get a result against you because of the success you had?
05:23We all try the same.
05:24I mean, we all try to say,
05:25OK, what we can do against this opponent to make it harder,
05:28you know, to hide their strength and to expose their vulnerabilities.
05:32I think that's the core of what every coach,
05:35every team tries to do to another one.
05:37But I suppose you take that as a compliment now that you've been so successful
05:40and obviously having had that experience of overcoming that,
05:44do you think that your players are better equipped?
05:46Well, that's what we prepare for.
05:48We prepare for different kind of scenarios throughout a match
05:51and to have a broad spectrum of ways to be able to win them
05:57and be better than the opponent.
05:58And if that's the case, then the probability of winning will be higher.
06:02Is there something, I know you won't tell us exactly what,
06:06but against Brighton,
06:07if you play a particular style,
06:09is there something you identified?
06:11But sometimes it's how you want to play
06:13and then what the opponent asks you to do as well.
06:17And sometimes the opponent is better in a phase
06:19or you haven't been that successful in a particular moment of the game
06:22and you lose that momentum
06:23or because the players that you have in that period as well
06:27to play in a certain way is affecting you to do that
06:30and you need to accommodate that.
06:33But yeah, everything is defendable.
06:36Obviously, I have my preferences to understand
06:38and how I want my team to play
06:41and how I want the players to act and behave
06:44and dominate football matches.
06:46That's the reality of football as well.
06:48At this level, sometimes the player can take an edge from you
06:52and can suffocate you to play in a different way.
06:55Okay, finally to John.
06:58Hi.
06:59To talk about Max,
07:00it seemed that Jack Wiltshire tried to borrow him
07:03and the answer was no.
07:04Are you getting hundreds of people saying?
07:07Hundreds of...
07:10I don't know.
07:11We haven't really listened to any of the possibilities
07:14because we were clear that we wanted to have it in the squad,
07:17that we wanted him to be part of the pre-season
07:21and then start to see where we are from there.
07:23And we will evaluate every six months where we are,
07:27what is the best thing for him to do
07:28and from there make the right decisions.
07:30You said about Ethan last season
07:33he needed to go out and swim with the Sharks.
07:34Is there going to be a point where he needs to do that?
07:38Max?
07:39Well, we will see with Ethan as well,
07:41it took us a while to make that decision.
07:43It will depend on a lot of factors,
07:45what he needs,
07:45where the team is as well,
07:47the availability that we have in the squad,
07:49the amount of minutes that he's playing,
07:50the quality he's delivering when he's got those minutes.
07:53And, yeah, we have to be open.
07:55But now the focus is to be here and impact the team.
07:59Is he just too young at the moment to go on loan?
08:01To go on loan?
08:02Yeah.
08:04I don't know.
08:05There have been many cases of that age
08:08that they've gone and they've been successful,
08:11some others not.
08:11I particularly think I was 17 when I went to Paris.
08:15Depending on the atmosphere that you find there,
08:19how much the course believes in you,
08:20you go there just to be part of a squad
08:22or to play minutes.
08:23Which country?
08:25Depends.
08:25But now he's in a great place.
08:27He's in a good place right now
08:29and let's keep him here.
08:32Thanks a lot.
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