Great Quotes in football

[benni...]

The great Johannes....

I am Always harder with the best ones; the absurd thing would be to tighten who cannot give you more othan that he has already given you." (In reference to the critics towards Laudrup)

If age does not pardon me, it does not pardon anybody." (talking about Laudrup´s departure)

players have problems to identify their companions because of colors blue and reds are very dark and are confused with the bottom of the launching slip.

Preg: Are you spiteful?
Resp: Yes, enough if it is necessary."

If everybody were honest , I would not show myself as wild as I seem sometimes.

soccer, mainly by aesthetic, concerns men.

My forwards only have to run 15 meters, unless they're stupid or sleeping...

When you are 4-0 ahead with 10 minutes to go, it's better to hit the post a couple of times so the crowd can go 'oooh!' and 'aaaah!' Then you get angry as if you hadn't meant to. I just always loved that sound when the ball hits the post hard...

Gou out and enjoy (Wembley, European Cup 1992)

Football should always be played beautifully, you should play in an attacking way, it must be a spectacle.

soccer is perfect; even lately many things are superfluous: the referees in red, yellow, ... I do not see any advantage in those small things.

If you are all feeling the same way, it must be the referee's fault then. (When asked, in Hong Kong, about a such nice guy like him but get in trouble with the referees so often.)

Every trainer talks about movement, about running a lot. I say don't run so much. Football is a game you play with your brains. You have to be in the right place at the right moment, not too early, not too late.

My tribute match has been a childbirth.

For me, football is emotion. Van Basten is also very sensitive to that.

I think people should be able to play in all different positions on the field...That's why it is so important everyone listens when you have a tactical conversation. The left winger can't go to sleep when Michels talks about the right-back.

the match against Milan was lost from the beginning.

In the kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is king - but he still only has one eye.

I want players who can make decisive moves in tiny spaces. I want them to do as little work as possible to save their energy for that one action.

Before a match I go into the field and smell, sniff, sniff, and between that climate and the one that I have detected reading the press, I decide what to do

I know it's fashionable these days to say countries like Luxembourg and Cyprus aren't small anymore, but that's nonsense. You know what the mistake is? People think these countries can play football. Of course, if you give them space they can do everything with the ball. Anyone can play football if you have five meters of space.

We are in a miserable period in terms of our ideas and the lack of a real genius. Things are so bad when anyone starts to do something which is even a little out of the norm he is immediately called exceptional when that is not the case. During the World Cup we have seen those considered to be the stars of the game. These are guys for whom clubs pay millions and who demand millions when absolutely none of that collective madness is justified. (After World Cup 1998)

I read an opinion in a newspaper which declared that the fifties were Di Stefano's decade, the sixties Pele's, the seventies Cruyff and the eighties Maradona's. Whether one agrees with that or not it is clear the nineties have no such king of the game

I'm a bit strange. An idealistic professional. That's how you have to see it.

There is a God. You can't do things you're not allowed to do to people without being punished.

Simple play is also the most beautiful. How often do you see a pass of 40 meters when 20 meters is enough? Or a one-two in the penalty area when there are seven people around you and a simple wide pass around the seven would be a solution? The solution that seems the simplest is in fact the most difficult one.

[unclesox]

All are from Brian Clough

"I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the business. But I was in the top one" - On his own success.

"If God had wanted us to play football in the clouds, he'd have put grass up there" - On the importance of passing the ball to feet.

"I only ever hit Roy the once. He got up so I couldn't have hit him very hard" - On dealing with Roy Keane.

"We talk about it for 20 minutes and then we decide I was right" - On dealing with players who disagree with him.

"At last England have appointed a manager who speaks English better than the players" - On the appointment of Sven-Goran Eriksson.

"I'm sure the England selectors thought if they took me on and gave me the job, I'd want to run the show. They were shrewd because that's exactly what I would have done" - On not getting the England manager's job.

"Players lose you games, not tactics. There's so much crap talked about tactics by people who barely know how to win at dominoes" - On England's exit from Euro 2000.

"The Derby players have seen more of his balls than the one they're meant to be playing with" - On a streaker who once interrupted a Derby County-Manchester United match.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson
In a champion's league: Cloughie 2-1 Ferguson

"Manchester United in Brazil? I hope they all get bloody diarrhoea" - On Manchester United's decision to opt out of the FA Cup to play in the World Club Championship in 2000.

"For all his horses, knighthoods and championships, he hasn't got two of what I've got. And I don't mean balls" - Referring to Sir Alex Ferguson's failure to win two successive European Cups.

"I can't even spell spaghetti never mind talk Italian. How could I tell an Italian to get the ball? He might grab mine" - On the influx of foreign players.

"I like my women to be feminine, not sliding into tackles and covered in mud" - On women and football.

"Anybody who can do anything in Leicester but make a jumper has got to be a genius" - His tribute to Martin O'Neill, who used to manage Leicester City.

"That Seaman is a handsome young man but he spends too much time looking in his mirror rather than at the ball. You can't keep goal with hair like that" - On the pony-tailed former England goalkeeper David Seaman.

"If a chairman sacks the manager he initially appointed, he should go as well" - Saying that too many managers lose their jobs.

"I thought it was my next-door neighbour because I think she felt that if I got something like that I would have to move" - Guessing who nominated him for a knighthood.

"Who the hell wants 14 pairs of shoes when you go on holiday? I haven't had 14 pairs in my life" - On the contents of Victoria Beckham's missing luggage.

"He should guide Posh in the direction of a singing coach because she's nowhere near as good at her job as her husband" - Advice for David Beckham.

"Don't send me flowers when I'm dead. If you like me, send them while I'm alive" - After the liver transplant which saved his life.

"I want no epitaphs of profound history and all that type of thing. I contributed. I would hope they would say that, and I would hope somebody liked me." - On being remembered
More from Clough:-

"He may look like a tramp, but give him a ball and a yard of grass and he's an artist", on John Robinson

"My granny could have scored that in her pinny", on the "million pound goal" that Trevor Francis scored in the European Cup Final.
Another from Cloughie, this one his first speech to the Leeds players having just been appointed manager.

"Gentlemen, the first thing you can do for me is throw your medals and your pots and pans in the dustbin because you've never won anything fairly. You've done it by cheating."

He lasted 44 days in the job.
A few more I found from the great Brian Clough:

on Roy Keane:
"I get sick and tired of hearing how much running Keane does. He has had more than enough rest through suspensions alone. He's had more holidays than Judith Chalmers."

Reply to Peter Withe asking if he could keep the match ball after scoring four goals in a game:
"Learn to play first, then you can have as many match balls as you like."

On Jimmy Hill:
"If he can find a ground where he scored a league goal, I'll meet him there."

About Trevor Brooking:
"Floats like a butterfly and stings like one too."

On agents:
"If a player had said to Bill Shankly 'I've got to speak to my agent', Bill would have hit him. And I would have held him while he hit him."

About his former assistant Peter Taylor
"We pass each other on the A52 going to work on most days of the week. But if his car broke down and I saw him thumbing a lift, I wouldn't pick him up, I'd run him over."
-- Clough would later feel tremendous regret that he never patched up his relationship with Taylor, suggesting that he should've asked his former assistant at Derby and Forest to walk out with him as Forest entered Wembley for the 1991 FA Cup final. Taylor died the following year.

On himself
"They say Rome wasn't built in a day, but I wasn't on that particular job."

About the river Trent:
"The river Trent is lovely. I know because I have walked on it for 18 years."

On hearing of plans for a statue in his honour in Derby:
"The pigeons in Derby will welcome the news. There'll be more room on my head to shit on than anyone else."

[SwandelPark]

i cant remember the exact quote but its something like this:

Bill Shankly to ground steward(who was stepping on a LFC scarf)
"Get of foot off that scarf,thats someones life your standing on"


does anyone have the exact quote?"

[Erkan]

from Brian Clough

"For all his horses, knighthoods and championships, he hasn't got two of what I've got. And I don't mean balls" - Referring to Sir Alex Ferguson's failure to win two successive European Cups.



:D That's my favourite.

[dor02]

Has anybody placed any quote's on Wenger?

"No. I didn't see that."

He would have a more in depth version of that but seriously, Wenger is becoming the Sgt Schultz of the 21st Century.

[jatm516]

"'Football is only a game.' That is the most outrageous nonsense of the lot. Football is a science, it's an art, it is war, ballet, drama, terror, and joy all rolled into one."
--Tom Utley The Daily Telegraph

[jatm516]

"To think of football as merely 22 hirelings kicking a ball is merely to say that a violin is wood and cat-guy, Hamlet so much ink and paper. It is conflict and art."--J.B. Priestley

[jatm516]

"In Latin America the border between soccer and politics is vague. There is a long list of governments that have fallen or been overthrown after the defeat of the national team." ~Luis Suarez

[SheffWedFan]

"Vi er best i verden! Vi er best i verden! Vi har slått England 2-1 i fotball!! Det er aldeles uuutrolig! Vi har slått England! England, kjempers fødeland! Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana. Vi har slått dem alle sammen, vi har slått dem alle sammen. Maggie Thatcher can you hear me? Maggie Thatcher, Jeg har et budskap til deg midt under valgkampen: Vi har slått England ut av Verdensmesterskapet i fotball. Maggie Thatcher. Som de sier på ditt språk i boksebarene rundt Madison Square Garden: Your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating!"

-- excitable Norwegian commentator Bjørge Lillelien after Norway beat England 2-1 in a World Cup Qualifier in 1981, the first time the Norwegians had ever won a game against us.

[jatm516]

Nearly everything possible had been done to spoil the game: the heavy financial interest; the absurd transfer and player-selling system; the lack of any birth or residential qualifications; the absurd publicity given to every feature of it by the press; the monstrous partisanships of the crowds.
- JB Priestley, writing in 1933

[Gunning4Chelsea]

Franz Beckenbauer on Bayern's players "They are all like prostitutes; they smoke, they're lazy, and they sleep all day."

"You just can't zig zig shoot!" (meaning to say zig-zag) - my old Macedonian soccer coach

[Burkies Ginger Mop]

Gordon Strachan

... on Wayne Rooney
Its an incredible rise to stardom. At 17 you're more likely to get a call from Michael Jackson than Sven Goran Eriksson.

Reporter: Gordon, Do you think James Beattie deserves to be in the England squad?
Strachan: I dont care, I'm Scottish.

Reporter: "Gordon, can we have a quick word please?"
Strachan: "Velocity" [walks off]

Reporter: Welcome to Southampton Football Club. Do you think you are the right man to turn things around?
Strachan: No. I was asked if I thought I was the right man for the job and I said, "No, I think they should have got George Graham because I'm useless."

Reporter: Is that your best start to a season?
Strachan: Well I've still got a job so it's far better than the Coventry one, that's for sure.

Reporter: Are you getting where you want to be with this team?
Strachan: We're not doing bad. What do you expect us to be like? We were eighth in the league last year, in the cup final and we got into Europe. I don't know where you expect me to get to. Do you expect us to win the Champions League?

Reporter: Gordon, you must be delighted with that result?
Strachan: You're spot on! You can read me like a book.

Reporter: Gordon, Austin Delgado?
Strachan: I've got more important things to think about. I've got a yogurt to finish by today, the expiry date is today. That can be my priority rather than Agustin Delgado.

Reporter: This might sound like a daft question, but you'll be happy to get your first win under your belt, won't you?
Strachan: You're right. It is a daft question. I'm not even going to bother answering that one. It is a daft question, you're spot on there.

Reporter: Bang, there goes your unbeaten run. Can you take it?
Strachan: No, I'm just going to crumble like a wreck. I'll go home, become an alcoholic and maybe! jump of a bridge. Umm, I think I can take it, yeah.

Reporter: There's no negative vibes or negative feelings here?
Strachan: Apart from yourself, we're all quite positive round here. I'm going to whack you over the head with a big stick, down negative man, down.

Reporter: Where will Marion Pahars fit into the team line-up?
Strachan: Not telling you! It's a secret.

Reporter: You don't take losing lightly, do you Gordon?
Strachan: I don't take stupid comments lightly either.

Reporter: So, Gordon, in what areas do you think Middlesbrough were better than you today?
Strachan: What areas? Mainly that big green one out there....

... on being in 4th place
I'm going home now to get myself a Coca-Cola and a packet of crisps and I'll sit in front of the television and look at the table on Teletext all night.

I have discovered that when you go to Anfield or Old Trafford, it pays not to wear a coloured shirt because everyone can see the stains as the pressure mounts. I always wear a white shirt so nobody sees you sweat.


Lineker: SO GORDON, IF YOU WERE ENG**SH, WHAT FORMATION WOULD YOU USE?

Strachan: IF I WAS ENG**SH I'D TOP MYSELF!

[k_nico]

"Screw down the expectations"

Richard Møller Nielsen, old Danish NTcoach. We say "screw" as turn

[dor02]

Here's a quote before Portugal's World Cup semi-final against France from Ricardo, the Portuguese goalie:

"The secret here is to score one more goal than them."

[Joep]

Here's a quote before Portugal's World Cup semi-final against France from Ricardo, the Portuguese goalie:

"The secret here is to score one more goal than them."

That's just quoting Cruyff

[dor02]

That's just quoting CruyffSo in that case, Ricardo took a page from Cryuff's book.

[Joep]

So in that case, Ricardo took a page from Cryuff's book.

jup. Cruyffs got a big book to take pages from

[nikolaos1981]

''we were confused,after our opponents had one of their players sent off''

Vassilis Daniel(former national team's coach)explaining the reasons of a 2-4 defeat by the Germans in Athens,in a 2002 world cup qualification match!!!!!!

[dor02]

''we were confused,after our opponents had one of their players sent off''

Vassilis Daniel(former national team's coach)explaining the reasons of a 2-4 defeat by the Germans in Athens,in a 2002 world cup qualification match!!!!!!Did that guy drink too much Ouzo?

[MicFW]

Andreas Möller: „Mailand oder Madrid - Hauptsache Italien!“
Milan or Madrid – anyway, the main thing is it’s Italy.

Berti Vogts: “Hass gehört nicht ins Stadion. Solche Gefühle soll man gemeinsam mit seiner Frau daheim im Wohnzimmer ausleben.“
Hatred doesn’t belong in a football stadium. You should act out these feelings with your wife at home in the living room.

Berti Vogts: “Das Spielfeld war zu lang für Doppelpässe.“
The field was too long for give-and-go.