“In my life, I’m like that. In my career as a footballer, I was like that, and now, obviously, as a head coach, I have to be like that, and I have to try to pick the boys up a little bit because obviously they were a bit down. But that’s normal because, obviously, they care. They know the situation we are [in], they know what we are doing, but listen, we cannot feel sad or sorry for ourselves. We have to keep pushing, and I understand that, but at the same time, I was quite happy with the session today.
“The thing is, I have been saying that for the last couple of weeks, and I am boring myself to say the same things. For me, if we keep training and trying, I will keep believing. As soon as we stop trying and training well and approaching the game the way we have to, I will give up.”
BATTLING AGAINST RELEGATION
“I was conscious about the situation, and I have been saying in the time where people were thinking we were safe already, I said, ‘no we are not, we are going to be there until the end’. We are there, and we are fighting to try and escape from relegation. Football is like that. That’s why you come into bad runs. That can happen. The other day, I was watching Walsall a little bit, and I think they’ve been 12 games without a win or something like that, and they were at the top. Football is like that. When you are in a good run, everything looks easier. When you are in a bad run, it’s like the run doesn’t finish at all, and we are in one of them. But at the same time, I know that you can change that in the next game.
“It’s difficult to try to explain because I know that I am repeating myself too much, but it’s what I see and what I believe. I cannot lie. I cannot tell you that I am not disappointed or frustrated because obviously I am, but at the same time, I know that the only way we have is to keep going.”
