**You said that from the very start, that the young players, you were really looking forward to having a look at. Clearly from what you say, they’ve done well. You have the decision to make now as to whether they stay part of your first team or they go somewhere else, U21s or maybe on loan…**
Yes, different scenarios. Some of them are going to return to the U21s, some of them will go on loan, and some of them will stay with us because I think we will need them during the season. They’ve shown me that they have the level, they can give us quality minutes, a good level in training and I’m sure some of them will stay with us, yes.
**It has also been an opportunity for you to spend more time with your coaches. Can you tell us a bit more about them? Shaun Cooper and Tommy Elphick were coaches at Bournemouth when you arrived but clearly you felt something straight away, that you were going to be together for a long time?**
Yes, for me, Tommy and Shaun are very valuable because they have been English players, they’ve played in the Premier League, the Championship, League One; they understand the culture, they understand what the players are thinking. And they’ve gone through the process of understanding how to build a team, because we didn’t know each other when I arrived at Bournemouth and they have seen all the process during these three years where we’ve been evolving, we’ve been adding different things.
So now, I think they are the best ones to transmit the same thing to the players and to the new coaches, that we already had in the club. They are helping me a lot. I think they are sometimes in more touch with the players than me because always with the manager there is a little bit of more distance, I think the players are more comfortable sometimes with the assistants. They know also when to filter the information – when I need to know things. Sometimes they don’t tell me the things that for sure stay between them and the players. They are brilliant in this.
**And Tommy is a Liverpool fan as well, which makes this extra-special for him…**
Tommy, I tell him, he is living his dream. I think he had this summer a chance to coach in the Championship. Good clubs called him, but I think he couldn’t miss this because he’s been a big Liverpool fan. We were talking the other day, meeting with the legends we have here, with Robbie Fowler, Ian Rush – he was like, ‘Oof, this is big.’ I like how he is feeling it and I think it’s very nice for him, yes.