This team will achieve

"I'm quite aware we're in a phase of maybe a slight plateau," he said. "When you progress every year from fourth, third to second and play twice in the Champions League, you know that, with the team you have, there's going to be at some stage maybe a slight curve.

"It's a very exciting period for the club and for the manager. I knew at some stage it would come. I didn't want it to happen, but I knew that."

"It's the same in business life, the same in professional life, the same sometimes in your personal life, that you're never on a high, and this is a very interesting period.

"All I know is, I know that at some stage, this team will achieve."