Arsene Wenger says managers must always remain open to new ideas - but also have the strength to stick to their footballing principles.
The Arsenal manager will celebrate 20 years at the club in September, and has been widely credited with revolutionising English football.
Wenger has also had to endure criticism during his time in England, but says he always had the courage of his convictions.
“We are in a job where the result dictates the beliefs and judgments of other people,” the manager told the Arsenal Magazine. “So you need to be strong and take a distance from that, to stick to your beliefs. I believe a good manager is not somebody who only has great ideas.
“That's the difference between managers and intellectuals. A good manager is someone who has his own ideas of how football should be played, but after that he also needs the guts and courage to take the decisions, to play the kind of football he wants to play. That's where the hurdles start.
“That's the difference with an intellectual - a guy who has great ideas, which everybody agrees with, but after that, we have to carry out the practical side of it too, and to have the courage to go on the pitch and say, ‘This is what I believe, and this is what I will do'.
“A manager is somebody who looks inside themselves and thinks, 'What do I love to do? What do I want to do?' If what he does is not copied artificially from somebody else, but is what he deeply feels is his right philosophy, then he will have the strength to fight for it and put his head up there, playing the way he wants to.
“So you can be inspired by others, but after taking all the outside influences, you have to make your own analysis of what you really want.”
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