Fabricio Coloccini: "He is a fantastic coach and a major influence and driving force behind the success.
"From the first day of last season's campaign he installed trust and confidence in the players.
"He felt we were more than capable of challenging the top teams and, when people were expecting us to fall away, we just kept getting stronger and stronger.
"There was no coincidence or luck that we finished so high up in the table - the players thought we would.
"The only disappointment was that we didn't finish higher."