ALEX FERGUSON HAS come out with plenty of snappy remarks during his time as manager of Manchester United, whether as part of his celebrated ‘mind games’ or as an unscripted reaction to many of the memorable incidents that have littered his trophy-laden career. As he bows out of of management, having announced his retirement, we back at some of his most celebrated comments:
“Football, bloody hell.” — after United’s dramatic come-from-behind win over Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League final.
“Sometimes you have a noisy neighbour. You cannot do anything about that. They will always be noisy. You just have to get on with your life, put your television on and turn it up a bit louder.” — on City.
“My greatest challenge is not what’s happening at the moment, my greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their fucking perch. And you can print that.” — looking back to his appointment as United manager in 1986 during an interview with The Guardian in 2002.
“I think he was an angry man. He must have been disturbed for some reason. I think you have got to cut through the venom of it and hopefully he’ll reflect and understand what he said was absolutely ridiculous.” – on Rafa.
“There has been a lot of expectation on Manchester City and with the spending they have done, they have to win something. Sometimes you have a noisy neighbour and have to live with it. You can’t do anything about them.” — after City’s emergence as title contenders
“He was certainly full of it, calling me ‘Boss’ and ‘Big Man’ when we had our post-match drink after the first leg. But it would help if his greetings were accompanied by a decent glass of wine. What he gave me was paint-stripper.” — on then-Chelsea, now Real Madrid, manager Jose Mourinho.
“They say he’s an intelligent man, right? Speaks five languages. I’ve got a 15-year-old boy from the Ivory Coast who speaks five languages!” — on Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.
“It was a freakish incident. If I tried it 100 or a million times it couldn’t happen again. If I could I would have carried on playing!” — on the infamous incident when he accidentally struck David Beckham after kicking a stray boot.
“I remember the first time I saw him. He was 13 and just floated over the ground like a cocker spaniel chasing a piece of silver paper in the wind.” — on seeing Ryan Giggs as a schoolboy.
“The decision to retire is one that I have thought a great deal about and one that I have not taken lightly. It is the right time.” — on retirement.
“When an Italian tells me it’s pasta on the plate I check under the sauce to make sure. They are the inventors of the smokescreen.” — on Italians.
What have we left out?
