“Everybody outside Newcastle wanted us to be the big club that went down and I had to find a way of keeping a clear head. I only said I was the best coach in the Premier League to find a way for the players and myself to believe we could get over the line. If I’m asking the players to believe in themselves, then I had to show I believed in myself. If we hadn’t been in the situation we were in, I would have never said it. It helped me achieve what I wanted to do, which was to get the team over the line.”