Life since Cardiff City
It's a 24-hour-a-day job, football at any level. It's probably never been as difficult a job as it is at the moment. It's been nice to have some time off, when you work like I have, it's just switching off, it's been great. If I had left three weeks earlier they would be top of the league now!
Neil Harris' start
It's a good squad, I've left a good squad there. I think they will get in the top two, never mind the top six. The squad is really... after last year, when you get relegated you worry about what will happen to you.
We lost four or five, (Aron) Gunnarsson, Bruno Manga, Harry Arter, Camarasa, (Victor) who hasn't had a look in at Crystal Palace yet, so to lose all those players and try to replace them.
I just thought 'the fans had been absolutely amazing with me' so I just thought 'I should probably stay and steady the ship'. I probably should have left but I had to stay to steady the ship and I'm glad I have now because I've left them a good squad and it's a great club, fabulous club.
On his management career
What I like to think is when I have been at a club, I've left it in a better place. Most of the clubs I have had, they have been in a precarious situation when I have taken over and I have had to change it, even going back to Scarborough and all that.
I've got great memories, with all those promotions. They all have reunions, they are those sort of players and I think it's great, nowadays, if Manchester City win the league, I'm sure they won't have a reunion in 10 years' time.
QPR was special, that was a fabulous year, to do what we did with the squad and use Adel Taarabt who created everything. Then at Cardiff, that was a miracle really, that has got to be the best achievement.
As daft as it sounds, probably keeping Rotherham up, just before I went to Cardiff, with 14 games to go and all the top teams to play but Cardiff was special, the club was fragmented when I went in, it was all over the show. To put it back together and give the fans some pride, when they sing the national anthem down there it's amazing. The fans down there are amazing.
I don't know it but I hum it! The hairs on the back of your neck stand up, they have their own songs, they really got into me and my family, the fans, and it was great to reward them. They've got a good side now, a great stadium, the club is together and it's a fabulous place to be now. I'm sure Neil (Harris), who has taken over now, probably can't believe how you get a job like that with a squad of players like that. It was the right time (to leave) as well.
Masterminding promotion
I brought some players on free transfers, Vincent (Tan) only used to only talk about my bad signings! We brought in people like Neil Etheridge, (Nathaniel) Mendez-Laing, Sol Bamba, Junior Hoilett, all on free transfers.
We blended that in with some good players, Gunnarson was a good player. He was a manager's dream for me in that respect.
Together, we built something and we shouldn't have really gone up. You look at the Fulhams of this world, who have far better and bigger squads but we had that little bit extra, that desire. We wanted to do it that little bit more and we kept surprising people when they wrote us off.
It was a tremendous achievement, success-wise, that is probably the most difficult promotion that I have had.
Why he chose to leave
I just felt that, not guilty, but because we went down, I didn't think we should have gone down, I think we got a rough deal, if I'm honest. When you get relegated, some teams collapse, Huddersfield haven't done that well this year.
I just felt if I stayed and steadied the ships, I felt we could get back up and I still do. We lost four or five really good players but we replaced them so I think we have a steady squad now.
Probably in the best, it's probably in the top two, maybe top three squads in the division. They have a great chance, especially with the fans, like I said, I loved doing my wind-up after the game when we won. It was great to walk round and chat to the fans and give them something.
That's what you want to do as a manager, finish the game, get in your bath and think about the kids going home, the young kids going home. That's what it's all about. It was just a special time, I'm glad I've given them the pride back in the club. The number of people who come up to me, it's funny because when I go into Tesco I'm just pushing my trolley, and they come round and say 'thank you for giving us our club back'.
His relationship with the board
The chairman, Mehmet Dalman, he was brilliant for me. He helped me left, right and centre, he lives aboard now but he was my shoulder. You need someone to talk to. Between us, it was probably the most successful period we will ever have as chairman and manager really.
They'll remember my time for years to come I hope. Like I say, it was so fragmented the club, to bring it back together, especially fans who have been there 50 years. I like all that, it's lovely when people come and tell you the nice things because there is so many bad things in football. It's lovely to put something back into clubs.
Of the eight promotions and the clubs I have been at, they always remember the good times we've had in those periods. They should, it's a hard job, 40 years I've had now. This is my first Christmas I've had off I think!
Refereeing standard in the Premier League
(Against Burnley) He (referee) gave it, then he disallowed it, then he gave it, you don't know if you're coming or going. I think that's a penalty. I was more concerned with their goal because they scored a goal that was offside, which was blatantly offside. I just think he could have avoided it.
I think if we had VAR last season... had they got the one of the goalie wrong, Barnes was offside. I've got a collection of probably 10 letters from the Referees' Associations apologising, telling me they got it wrong the week after, it doesn't help you the week after.
The linesman should've flagged and Mike Dean should've seen this and that but it doesn't help you. Then there's the Chelsea thing. You haven't got that here have you? That's a shocker.
When you look at, that's not even close, the standard of referring. I went to see him after, Eddie Smart the linesman, I've got his name engraved in my mind, I don't know what they can say. Even their players (Chelsea) were embarrassed. That killed us.
You know like watching Silva on the line against Leicester when they scored last week, the last-minute winner, I knew this had done us because I knew we would have got three points that day.
What can you say? I was fined £20,000 for TV interview where I barely said anything. The FA brought an outside barrister in to do me. A big place like the FA, they don't have their own in-house lawyer? I got done £20,000, that's more than Montenegro got fined for the racist abuse. It's an absolute joke and that cost us.
On Emiliano Sala
2019 or even just before that, ours was the first game against Leicester when the helicopter accident happened and we had to deal with that which was difficult at the time.
When this happened on top of it, it was like everything, you don't get taught how to deal with things like this as a manager. It was the most difficult period I've ever had in my life. You have to try and move on because you're in charge and you've got your players and the club.
It was unreal really, I've never witnessed anything like it and I wouldn't want to do it again. Emiliano, we only met him a couple of times, but he was a lovely lad. It was just such a tragedy.
We worked hard to sign him for weeks, I thought he would be the answer to keeping us up. I still think he might have scored eight, nine or 10 goals between then and the end of the season. When you look at things, it just puts things in perspective in football, his family is more important and you've not got to forget about things like that.
I don't think Emiliano will ever be forgotten, the way our fans got behind him and mourned him really.