I WON'T QUIT YET

"I think the important thing about working is whether you enjoy it and whether your health is OK. Once you get to your 60s you're never guaranteed your health. For instance, two years ago I got a pacemaker. That's an indication that you're getting older, so you have to prioritise yourself the right way. I eat the right things and get a proper rest. I work hard but I go to the gymnasium as much as I can.

"For me it's two things. Am I enjoying the job? Yes. Is my health OK? I think it's OK as I'm getting the right checkups and if it wasn't that way I would change my thinking. I quite like people talking about this being my last year and wondering if I'm going to go because it means they don't know when I'm going to retire.

"I don't give them any information about that and let them carry on and when they ask I take pleasure in them not knowing.

"We were offered both Tevez and Mascherano but we have different ways of working and the offer did not interest us.

"With Hargreaves we tried to get him at the end of last season actually but there was never any inclination from Bayern Munich to sell. We kept pursuing it because we thought he would have been perfect.

"We would have preferred to add to the squad but we've got a good squad and I'm happy with it. We're doing well and we've got a good team.

"I feel we have a big, big chance of winning the Premiership. We have a good young team who are starting to mature and they have the desire."

On Keane:

"I've spoken to him several times and I said the same thing to him that I said to my other former players like Steve Bruce. I said you've got to deal with and navigate the problems of to day like player power, agents and the media.

"I wished him well and told him he will have to learn to tolerate things in football that he just doesn't agree with.

"Roy must have rung me up half a dozen times already in the first week at Sunderland. The first thing he said was 'I never thought it would be like this. I've never been off the phone'. I said: 'I told you it's a difficult job'."

On a winter break:

"It makes me laugh when managers come out and talk about winter breaks - I championed it when I was manager of Aberdeen in 1980 and I did again when I first came down here in 1986! And there's still nothing done, it's ridiculous.

"We had international friendlies at the beginning of June so why can't we play the season until the end of May? The players need to keep going anyway for these internationals.

"The Christmas programme is great in this country, we get great crowds then but why not start a three-week ban on January 1 and use the whole of May when the weather is better?"