"A coach is like a lion tamer. He dominates the animals, in whose cage he performs his show, as long as he shows them self-confidence and no fear. But the moment he becomes unsure of his hypnotic energy, & the first hint of fear appears in his eyes, he is lost." — Béla Guttmann.

An excerpt from Football Against The Enemy on the inimitable Garrincha.

Pep Guardiola: "The Ballon d'Or is worth nothing, because Michael Laudrup never won it." youtu.be/r7TBtHjDmQw?si…

"There's the pitch, it's yours: play!" Behind every footballer there is a great manager/coach who plays an instrumental role in their development – just ask Andrés Iniesta.

Arrigo Sacchi: "Maradona destroyed all my theories about football." Flashback to November 1988 when Napoli's number 10 cracked the code of Milan's legendary offside trap under Il profeta di Fusignano and then produced an extraordinary 25-yard header past Giovanni Galli.

Petr Čech on the influential Edwin van der Sar.

"The most important characters in mythology were (the Greek gods) Apollo and Dionysus. Apollo represented reason and Dionysus represented emotion. Those who knew Maradona understand that he was the worst of Apollo, but the best of Dionysus." — Luciano de Crescenzo.

Arrigo Sacchi: "Marco van Basten was the cherry on top. His class was like crystal. An inimitable style, a swan who danced with the ball between his feet. A phenomenon who left behind cinematic types of goals."

17 years ago, World Soccer ranked the 50 "most exciting teenage footballers". I think it's fair to say that some fared better than others.

"It was a goal from a comic book," said Guus Hiddink, while goalkeeper Hans van Breukelen said: "Romário was a genius but that was something that even geniuses couldn't manage."

Marcello Lippi describing the subterfuge he restored to whilst managing Juventus in order to show his team he treated everyone the same way, while recognising that some players deserved preferential treatment.

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." 21 years ago today, José Cardozo of Toluca against Club América (then managed by Leo Beenhakker).

Marcelo Bielsa: "In football, after having seen 50,000 games, 28 different modules exist and not one more." An illustration of his 3-3-3-1 system at Newell's Old Boys featuring, among others: present-day managers of Inter Miami, Club León and United States.

El País following Dynamo Kyiv's second Cup Winners' Cup triumph in 1986 wrote that Valeriy Lobanovskyi's side played like "a team visiting from the future". I'll never get tired of watching this lovely sweeping counter finished off by Oleg Blokhin who turns a year older today.

Football and hockey have shared ideas for decades. Johan Cruyff regularly attended games, taking whatever he saw and applying it to his teams. Suffice it to say, the 1978 World Cup was won on those playing fields.

Albert Camus: "Everything I know about morality and the obligations of men, I owe it to football."

Guus Hiddink, who understood a coach must be more psychoanalyst than sergeant-major, looking back on his time at PSV Eindhoven managing Romário – "most interesting player I've worked with" – and how the legendary Brazilian forward silenced his chief detractors.

Il Mago" Helenio Herrera: Class + Preparation + Athleticism + Intelligence = Scudetto.

Juan Román Riquelme, who made his professional debut for Boca Juniors on this day in 1996, summed up perfectly by Jorge Valdano.

Zinedine Zidane: "When I saw Francescoli play, he was the player I wanted to be. He was the player that I saw and admired at Olympique de Marseille, my idol when I played against him when I was at Juventus... Enzo is like a god."