Talk:Association football

Irrelevance

Many of these quotes have absolutely nothing to do with Football/Soccer. Can this be fixed? -- 67.185.21.47 03:13, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

1999 European Cup

There was no European Cup in 1999!

Irrelevance 2

"Football, bloody hell!" is a well-known quote and is somebody talking about football. The rest of the "unsourced" section is nearly all just daft things reputed to have been said by footballers or managers. I propose they all be cut out. 86.41.41.16 22:58, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

Unsourced

• If you're in the penalty area and don't know what to do with the ball, put it in the net and we'll discuss the options later.
  • Bob Paisley

• "If we have the ball they can't score"
  • Johan Cryuff
• "You play football with your heart not your feet"
  • Paul Flood

• Of the nine red cards this season we probably deserved half of them.
  • Arsène Wenger

• As long as no-one scored, it was always going to be close.
  • Arsène Wenger

• Football, bloody hell!
  • Alex Ferguson after winning the 1999 European Cup

• Too many players were trying to score or create a goal.
  • Gerard Houllier

• You can't say my team aren't winners. They've proved that by finishing fourth, third and second in the last three years.
  • Gerard Houllier

• That's great, tell him he's Pele and get him back on.
  • John Lambie, Partick Thistle manager, when told a concussed striker did not know who he was.

• Tell the Kraut to get his ass up front. We don't pay a million for a guy to hang around in defence.
  • NY Cosmos executive, on Beckenbauer's positioning.

• If they hadn't scored, we would've won.
  • Howard Wilkinson

• I'm a firm believer that if the other side scores first you have to score twice to win.
  • Howard Wilkinson

• Playing with wingers is more effective against European sides like Brazil than English sides like Wales.
  • Ron Greenwood

• We're going to start the game at nil-nil and go out and try to get some goals.
  • Bryan Robson

• If your going to shoot make sure you score!
  • Unknown

• Today's top players only want to play in London or for Manchester United. That's what happened when I tried to sign Alan Shearer and he went to Blackburn.
  • Graeme Souness

• I was a young lad when I was growing up.
  • David O'Leary

• Our goalkeeper didn't have a save to make in 90 minutes, and yet he still ended up conceding four goals.
  • Joe Royle

• A lot of hard work went into this defeat.
  • Malcolm Allison

• Hartson's got more previous than Jack the Ripper.
  • Harry Redknapp

• I've told the players we need to win so that I can have the cash to buy some new ones.
  • Chris Turner, Peterborough manager, before LC QF, 1992.

• In a year's time, he's a year older.
  • Bobby Robson

• Eighteen months ago they (Sweden) were arguably one of the best three teams in Europe, and that would include Germany, Holland, Russia and anybody else if you like.
  • Bobby Robson

• If in winning we only draw we would be fine.
  • Jack Charlton

• We probably got on better with the likes of Holland, Belgium, Norway and Sweden, some of whom are not even European.
  • Jack Charlton

• It's a game we've got to win. It's also a game we've not got to lose.
  • Graham Taylor

• We are really quite lucky this year because Christmas falls on Christmas Day.
  • Bobby Gould

• The one thing I didn't expect is the way we didn't play.
  • George Graham

• Winning all the time is not necessarily good for the team.
  • John Toshack

• The mere fact that he's injured stops him getting injured again, if you know what I mean
  • Terry Venables

• When a player gets to 30, so does his body.
  • Glenn Hoddle

• I dreamt of playing for a club like Manchester United, and now here I am at Liverpool.
  • Sander Westerveld

• I was alone up front, with Danny Murphy playing between me, myself and the midfield.
  • Michael Owen

• I couldn't settle in Italy - it was like living in a foreign country.
  • Ian Rush

• Steven Gerrard was awesome today. We were just laughing in the dressing room that at one stage we thought he was heading his own crosses in.
  • Gareth Southgate on Gerrard.

Managers/coaches

ARSENE WENGER 'Of the nine red cards this season we probably deserved half of them.'

'As long as no-one scored, it was always going to be close'

BOBBY GOULD 'We are really quite lucky this year because Christmas falls on Christmas Day'

BOBBY ROBSON 'In a year's time, he's a year older.'

'Eighteen months ago they (Sweden) were arguably one of the best three teams in Europe, and that would include Germany, Holland, Russia and anybody else if you like.'

"Look at those olive trees. They're two hundred years old - from before the time of Christ!"

"Andy O'Brien has an horrendous nose, the poor lad. It is massive, it is."

BRYAN ROBSON 'We're going to start the game at nil-nil and go out and try to get some goals.'

Chris Turner, Peterborough manager, before LC QF, 1992. "I've told the players we need to win so that I can have the cash to buy some new ones"

DAVID O'LEARY 'I was a young lad when I was growing up.'

GEORGE GRAHAM 'The one thing I didn't expect is the way we didn't play.'

GERARD HOULLIER 'Too many players were trying to score or create a goal.'

'You can't say my team aren't winners. They've proved that by finishing fourth, third and second in the last three years.'

GLEN HODDLE 'When a player gets to 30, so does his body.'

GRAEME SOUNESS 'Today's top players only want to play in London or for Manchester United. That's what happened when I tried to sign Alan Shearer and he went to Blackburn.'

GRAHAM TAYLOR 'It's a game we've got to win. It's also a game we've not got to lose.'

HOWARD WILKINS 'If they hadn't scored, we would've won'

HOWARD WILKINSON 'I'm a firm believer that if the other side scores first you have to score twice to win.' -

HARRY REDKNAPP 'Hartson's got more previous than Jack the Ripper.'

JACK CHARLTON 'If in winning we only draw we would be fine.'

'We probably got on better with the likes of Holland, Belgium, Norway and Sweden, some of whom are not even European.'

JOE ROYLE 'Our goalkeeper didn?t have a save to make in 90 minutes, and yet he still ended up conceding four goals'

JOHN LAMBIE, Partick Thistle manager, when told a concussed striker did not know who he was. "That's great, tell him he's Pele and get him back on."

JOHN TOSHACK 'Winning all the time is not necessarily good for the team.'

MALCOLM ALLISON 'A lot of hard work went into this defeat.'

RON GREENWOOD 'Playing with wingers is more effective against European sides like Brazil than English sides like Wales.'

TERRY VENABLES "The mere fact that he's injured stops him getting injured again, if you know what I mean' -

NY Cosmos executive, on Beckenbauer's positioning. "Tell the Kraut to get his ass up front. We don't pay a million for a guy to hang around in defence."

Players

DAVID BECKHAM "We want Brooklyn to be christened but we don't know into what religion yet."

"I always used to go for blond and quiet girls, but Victoria is the total opposite - dark and loud."

"Alex Ferguson is the best manager I've ever had at this level. Well, he's the only manager I've actually had at this level. But he's the best manager I've ever had."

"My parents have been there for me, ever since I was about 7."

Beckham's reply after being asked if he thought that he was a volatile player, "Well, I can play in the centre, on the right and occasionally on the left side."

IAN RUSH 'I couldn't settle in Italy - it was like living in a foreign country.'

MICHAEL OWEN 'I was alone up front, with Danny Murphy playing between me, myself and the midfield.'

NORMAN WHITESIDE "The only thing I have in common with George Best is that we come from the same place... play for the same club... and were discovered by the same man."

SANDER WESTERVELD "I dreamt of playing for a club like Manchester United, and now here I am at Liverpool.' -

THIERRY HENRY "Sometimes in football you have to score goals."

ROBERT "DANNY" BLANCHFLOWER "The point of football is to equalize before the other team scores."

Famous sayings

• "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." — Bill Shankly, 1981, on 'Live from Two', a Granada Television talk show hosted by Shelley Rohde.
• "Football without fans is nothing" — Jock Stein.
• "To say that these men paid their shillings to watch twenty-two hirelings kick a ball is merely to say that a violin is wood and catgut, that Hamlet is so much paper and ink." — J. B. Priestley, The Good Companions, 1928.
• "Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win." — Gary Lineker, 4 July 1990 (after playing for England in a World Cup semi-final against Germany that was lost after a penalty shootout)
• "If God had meant us to play football in the sky, he'd have put grass up there." — Brian Clough, 1991, when manager of Nottingham Forest, bemoaning the style of football known as the 'long ball game'.
• "The ball is round and there are two goals." (Piłka jest okrągła, a bramki są dwie.) — Kazimierz Górski.
• "All I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football." — Albert Camus, French philosopher, novelist and goalkeeper
• "Football is a game of four halves." — Gary Lineker, referring to the home and away legs of cup competitions.
• "The ball is round, the game lasts ninety minutes, and everything else is just theory." — Sepp Herberger, German coach.
• "After the game is before the game" (Nach dem Spiel ist vor dem Spiel.) — Sepp Herberger, German coach.
• "The people go to the stadium because they do not know how the game will end" (Die Leute gehen ins Stadion, weil sie nicht wissen, wie es ausgeht.) — Sepp Herberger, German coach.
• "The first 90 minutes are the most important." — Bobby Robson.
• "It's a funny old game." — Jimmy Greaves.
• "Ein, zu zwei, zu drei – drun! (One, two, three – bang!)" — Hristo Stoichkov, Bulgarian footballer before the 1994 World Cup game between Bulgaria and Germany which Bulgaria surprisingly won.
• "Football. Bloody hell." — Alex Ferguson, just after Manchester United won the 1999 UEFA Champions League final by scoring two goals in the 91st and 93rd minute of the game against FC Bayern Munich to win the match 2–1.
• "Every disadvantage has its advantage" — Johan Cruyff
• "There's no such thing as an ugly goal. Ugly is to not score one." — Dadá Maravilha
• "I do not play football, I score goals." — Dadá Maravilha
• "In football, the worst blindness is only seeing the ball" — Nelson Rodrigues
• 'Small money small football, big money big football' — Ferenc Puskás
• "Life is a part of football" ("Elämä on osa jalkapalloa.") - Atik Ismail, Finnish National team football player, football poet