Thursday 30 October 2014 15:02, UK
Sunderland boss Gus Poyet says he is only focused on his own responsibilities, and that anything else is not his concern.
The former Brighton boss was speaking ahead of Saturday's visit of Arsenal to Wearside, with the pressure mounting after last weekend's embarrassing 8-0 defeat at Southampton.
The Black Cats have won just one Premier League match this campaign, and a repeat of last season's struggles seems likely after a faltering start.
Nevertheless, Poyet was keen to stress once again the demarcation of duties at the club, and will do what he can to get his team out of the mire, whilst being adamant he cannot oversee every aspect of functionality of the club.
I accept mine (responsibilities); the rest, I am not going to take.
"I pick the team, I make the decisions, I make the changes and I assume responsibility. The rest is not my department," said Poyet.
"If we make money at the club or we don't make money at the club, it's not my department. If we travel by bus or travel by plane, it's not my decision, it's the club which spends the money.
"I accept mine (responsibilities); the rest, I am not going to take."
The 46-year-old Uruguayan appeared to question the depth of the squad with which he was left after sporting director Lee Congerton completed the Black Cats' summer recruitment drive in the wake of last Saturday's humiliation at St Mary's.
However, Poyet is adamant he is happy to accept responsibility for the things he does control at the club and leave others to deal with theirs.
"It depends what you want, really, and then you need to adapt," Poyet added.
"Me, I adapted to life in France, to life in Spain, life in England - I try to adapt to a different way of seeing it
"Who knows? Maybe in another country, an 8-0 means that you lose your job. In England, no - at the moment.
"You need to adapt and me, I have got no issues. Now, when you adapt, then you have got your responsibilities and the rest of the people have got theirs.
"I am not going to adapt to what is good for someone and then be responsible for the other ones. It's natural, I take it naturally. I have got no issues.
"It's not like I want to be happier, I just want to know what is my role and I do it to the best of my ability, so then I accept responsibility for my role. It's simple."
Poyet was also asked about the Sunderland players' decision to refund supporters who made the long trek to the south coast.
"It's a decision that they made and I totally respect it," he said. "My concern is Saturday 3 o'clock.
"Everything that happened during the week, the decisions that we made, is fine with me.
"I trust the players. I'd like to think it was a really bad day at work that won't happen again. If I was a player, I'd make sure it doesn't happen again."
Poyet's main concern has been his lack of defenders - he had only four fit last weekend, with Sebastian Coates and Billy Jones set to be missing for several more weeks yet.
The club moved to address that when they handed 34-year-old former Napoli full-back Anthony Reveillere a contract until the end of the season on Thursday, although they were still awaiting his international clearance.
In the meantime, the head coach had swiftly turned his attention to the Gunners after holding a grisly post-mortem on Tuesday, but resisted the temptation to drag his players in on Sunday.
"People said to me, 'Are you training on Sunday?' and I said, 'No, I don't want to see them', and that's the truth, so we didn't train on Sunday," Poyet added.
"Now there are probably a few fans who think they deserved to train on Sunday and not have a day off, but I am sorry, it was my decision and I didn't want to see them on Sunday."
