"The managers speak in a manner that often feels like a threat," said Mou Kezhang, who works in iPad quality assurance at the Foxconn factory in Chengdu.
The manager spoke in May of the need to "start flying" this season and, with eight of the opening nine home games against teams who finished below Liverpool last term, the fixture list provides an opportunity to build momentum.
A year to the day since he left Spurs, the former Chelsea manager spoke in detail about the circumstances surrounding his departure but admitted "it was an experience I needed to have".
The 29-year-old wobbled again at the start of this week when he heard Fabio Capello, the England manager, speak in glowing terms about what he could contribute to the squad.
The modern manager speaks in bland corporate tones, but Dusty Baker will have none of that.
In 1996, a former World Service US affairs analyst Michael Moran wrote after the Birt coup, that what had been "a journalist's dream, one where more than any other organisation on this planet the inherent value of the story is what counted", had became dominated by "new-age management consultancy", managers who spoke in the jargon of producer's choice and delayering.
Manager Joe Torre spoke in a team meeting before the game and merely told his players to keep plugging away; he has come to trust their instincts in situations like this, although Torre speculated that much would be learned about this team over the next two weeks, in perhaps the most difficult portion of their schedule.
The Yankees manager spoke resolutely, in the same way he might declare Derek Jeter to be his shortstop.
North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, which is the third largest in the nation, Michael Johnson, CISSP and Senior Project Manager, spoke about being in the trenches and overhauling their 16-hospital IT system from the legacy era.
Kevin McHale, the Timberwolves' general manager, spoke to reporters in Minnesota about surrounding his team's best player, Kevin Garnett, with dynamic talent, but Scott Layden, the Knicks' general manager, spent a conference call defending his first trade since draft night in 2002.
