Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and I are the only three players who can make a difference, says Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Former Chelsea, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain coach Carlo Ancelotti reveals in his new book on management what it is like to work with Manchester United target Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

The enigmatic Swede has also contributed to the book about the managers he has played for during his career including incoming United boss Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic will leave Paris Saint-Germain this summer and has been linked with Manchester United.

   CARLO ANCELOTTI ON ZLATAN 

Subtlety is not Zlatan's strongest suit. One day on the training ground, Ibra thought that one of the young players had not given his best to the session.

At the end of training Ibra called this guy over and said, 'Now, you have to go home and write in your diary that you trained with Zlatan today, because I think it could be the last time that you do.'

Maybe he's not so diplomatic, but he's a winner. The biggest problem I had with him was on the training ground.

Even at the training sessions he didn't want to lose anything — ever. He's always fighting, always 100 per cent. He can only be one way, direct.

If he doesn't like something, he's going to tell you. With the young players he could be too strong, so I told him that he had to take care of them because he was an example for them. I explained that a bit of subtlety was required, as it is not always effective to speak too strongly with the young.

He was never afraid to speak the truth to anyone, even me. On one occasion we were speaking about Hernan Crespo who was, in my opinion, an outstanding striker. When I asked Ibra what he thought, he said, 'Yes, he's a striker, but he cannot make the difference. There are only three players who make the difference: Ibrahimovic, Messi and Ronaldo.'
Such is his confidence, and he is correct to think it. Ibra is one of the few strikers, maybe the only one, who is just as happy when he makes an assist as he is when he scores.

He is one of the most unselfish players I have met, which is of massive value to the team.

At Paris Saint-Germain I began to bring in players with the right mentality. In the first summer we signed Zlatan, a top player and highly professional.

Sometimes it's the players who have to be the leaders, not the manager, and Ibrahimovic immediately became the leader in the dressing room. It was why I wanted him.

I spoke with him and explained the situation at the club and how important he could be in the dressing room.
'You can be a good example for all the others,' I said. 'You have experience, talent, personality; you have character and in this sense you can be fantastic.'

Sometimes too much is made of the captaincy in football but it can be important. Some players want to be captain and they grow even more if you give it to them.

Other don't want, or need, to be captain — they are the natural leaders.

When I offered Ibrahimovic the captaincy at PSG, he refused it, saying he was not sure how long he would stay at the club, so to be captain would be wrong. But that didn't stop him being a natural leader through his personality.

I FELT LIKE A SCHOOL KID PLAYING FOR PEP

ZLATAN ON PEP GUARDIOLA 

After Jose Mourinho I went to Pep Guardiola, the big brain in football. He had all these solutions for every team we played, knowing exactly what we needed to do to win, exactly how he wanted it achieved.

We could be 2-0 up at half-time, but he would say, 'We're not finished here — we continue. I want three, four, five, six, seven.' He was like a machine. As a person, however, he was something else.

As a coach, he's fantastic but as a person, we didn't see eye to eye on many things. It was like a school and we, the players, were the schoolboys. This type of environment does not suit me.
Even after Guardiola, when Barcelona lost so badly to Bayern Munich, 7–0 in the Champions League, nothing changed.

Because they'd had such success for the 10 years before that game, they treated it as a one-off. They are so strong and confident that they believe in themselves and just follow the system all the time. This works for them but not so well for me.

Barcelona have always had a world-class team, but under Guardiola the system stayed the same. Outside of this system, and outside of his huge footballing brain, I cannot agree that Guardiola is the same quality as Carlo Anceotti. So, later, after I had this experience with Guardiola, I met Carlo. I got a complete person and a coach.

JOSE LIKES TO MANIPULATE - HIS GAMES WORK FOR ME

ZLATAN ON MOURINHO 

Jose Mourinho is the disciplinarian. Everything with him is a mind game — he likes to manipulate. Such tricks were new for me, all the time doing one thing to get another thing, all the time triggering me.

I like these games and they worked for me — I was top scorer under him and we won the league.

The way Mourinho prepared for games was also new to me. I would get pumped up, believing the story he would feed us. I went through a lot of adrenaline when I played for him. It was like nothing was ever good enough.

He gave and he took. Jose Mourinho knows how to treat a footballer, but Carlo Ancelotti knows how to treat a person.

He is always well-informed about opponents, going through their every weakness and every quality, and then the way he wanted the game to be. If he wanted to kill the game, he'd kill the game; if he wanted the game to be open, it would be open.

For Mourinho, it was all about winning. He knows that winning is the only thing, though it seems his third season at clubs often presents a problem for him.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (right) arrives for Sweden training in Stockholm ahead of Euro 2016 in France
ZLATAN IN HIS OWN WORDS...

The Jose Mourinho earthquake will hit Manchester imminently and a tsunami of even greater force is expected to follow. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is in his sights and it could be a spectacular combination: the self-proclaimed Special One — and a striker who tweeted on his departure from PSG 'I came like a king, I left a legend.' Taken from his autobiography I am Zlatan Ibrahimovic, previously serialised in Sportsmail, here is Zlatan on all the egos heading for Manchester this summer.

On his passion for Mourinho

He once gave the flip chart a kick and sent it flying across the room, and the adrenaline pumped inside us, and we went out like rabid animals. I felt increasingly that this guy gives everything for the team, so I want to give everything for him. People were willing to kill for him.

Jose's obsession

He works twice as hard as the rest. Lives and breathes football 24/7. I've never met a manager with that kind of knowledge of the opposition; it was everything, right down to the third-choice goalkeeper's shoe size.

Pre-match theatre

He built us up before matches. It was like theatre, a psychological game. He might show videos where we'd played badly and say: 'So miserable! Hopeless! Those guys can't be you. They must be your brothers'. And we nodded, we were ashamed. He would say: 'Go out there like hungry lions. In the first battle you'll be like this (he'd pound his fist into the palm of his hand) and then in the second battle you will be like this…'

Jose the misery

There was one thing that really bothered me — no matter what I did there was never any hint of a smile. I was doing totally amazing things but Mourinho had a face like a wet weekend. I scored an insane goal, later voted goal of the year, but Mourinho stood there stony-faced. What the hell is it with that man? What gets him going? One way or another I was going to make that man cheer. It happened, but only after we had won three titles and I was top scorer.

A smile at last!

After our success, the man of stone, the man who never batted an eyelid, had woken up. He was like a madman. Cheering like a schoolboy and I smiled. So, I got you going, after all. But it took some doing.

On Clashing with Guardiola

He looked at me as if it was my fault. He glared as if there had been a disturbance, like I was an alien. He was a brick wall and I never saw any signs of life from him and every hour I wished I could be out of there.

Why he didn't fancy a move to City

When I was forced to leave Barcelona by Guardiola in 2010, sure I knew all the incredible things that had happened at Manchester City and all the money seemed to be there since the crew from the UAE (Abu Dhabi) had taken over. City could surely become big within a few years but I didn't have the time for long-term plans and money was never a big thing. I wanted to go to a club that could be good now and there was no club with a history like AC Milan.

Not following his orders

Guardiola had told me: 'Here in Barcelona we don't turn up to training sessions in Porsches or Ferraris.' Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, the whole gang — they were like schoolboys. The best footballers in the world stood there with their heads bowed — it was ridiculous. One day, I jumped in my Ferrari Enzo and parked up right in front of the door to the training facility.