Jose Mourinho has said he does not consider himself the most important person at Chelsea, telling the Daily Telegraph he feels he ranks below the supporters, the owner and the players.
Former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson regularly said he considered the manager to be the most important person at a club, telling MUTV in 2013: "That must always be sacrosanct."
Mourinho, though, said that although his position meant he would always be under the spotlight, he was a long way down the pecking order in terms of his role at the club.
"The manager is not the most important person in the club, of course not," he said. "I keep saying: the most important person in the club is first the supporters, secondly the owner, third the players, and then I come.
"It's the manager that everyone looks at. The players are watching you, analysing you -- they want to see your reaction, they want to see your stability. The people that work in the club are also watching you, and they follow in a negative or positive way. Even the supporters are watching you.
"They want to feel that after that big defeat you are ready for the next day, that after the big victory you are not in the moon but have your feet in the earth. And I think I am good in controlling these situations, and good in trying to keep people balanced for the negative and for the positive. At home I am not good, because they know me too well. I can't hide. They get me."
Mourinho also said he has a role to play as a father figure to his young footballers as they try to adapt after being handed fame and fortune at a young age.
"When I got real money in my hands -- real big money -- it was my second contract with Porto in 2003," Mourinho said. "I was thirtysomething. I was married. I was ready for it. These guys, they're 16, 17, 19, 20. They don't know how to react, what to do."
He recalled the story of a player who broke into his team and instantly saw his life transformed.
"They're the final product of something," Mourinho said. "I had one player, for example -- I won't name him -- and I gave him the chance to play in the first team. A couple of weeks after he'd played, his father left his job, his mother left her job. They were living with him, living his life, making decisions for him. It's very difficult.
"That's one example out of 1,000. They need to be lucky with the parents; they need to be lucky with the agents. They need education. I had a player once that came to me with a new car, and I told him, 'Another one? Why? Do you have a house?' No. 'Do you have lots of money in the bank?' No.
"He said, 'This car, I didn't buy it. My father got it for free in leasing and I signed the document.' I said, 'Do you know what leasing is?' He said, 'It's free!' No! Sit here and I explain to you what is leasing. He didn't know, because nobody had explained.
"In Chelsea we have a fantastic department which we call Players' Support and Welfare where they help the players with everything. They have people in the bank to explain money.
"You want to buy a house? Let's make sure you're with the right person making the right deal. Young players coming to the first team -- don't buy a car, we're sponsored by Audi and they provide the cars for the players. The players need this. This is a complicated world."