| # | Quote |
|---|
| 1 | As a player you could physically go up against people. As a manager it is not really allowed. I've made a conscious effort. When the players cross that line you can't tackle, you can't pass, you can't score. The major part of it was to try and keep a calm head. If you do lose it, do it in the dressing room, otherwise you'll go to an early grave. |
| 2 | You see different people in different lights [as a manager]. As a player I didn't care where I was going, I just wanted to beat them and showed little or no respect for any player. I'm definitely more respectful to other managers. Rafael Benítez couldn't be more helpful. Arsène Wenger has been brilliant. |
| 3 | The discovery that there was a serious drinking sub-culture at United was delightfully reassuring. |
| 4 | [asked if he ever wakes up at four in the morning and wonders who should be playing left-back] Four? I would love to sleep that long. If you want a really long career you have to find a way of switching off. I do it when I'm out walking my dog, Alex Ferguson got into horses, others get into wine. Some players like going shopping, which is not my scene. A lot of them turn to golf. I tried it, didn't like it. I have to walk. If I couldn't I'd be in a padded cell by now. |
| 5 | Ian Holloway was managing Plymouth. I didn't get a real chance to celebrate the victory because Ian pulled me into a meeting to tell me all about the problems he was having getting training facilities. I was thinking, 'I don't give a shit about your training facilities. I just won a game of football.' |
| 6 | Fabien Barthez and Laurent Blanc used to smoke together in the toilets, at half-time. They were French - they smoked. If it had been a couple of Irish lads, I'd have been shouting at them: 'Yeh dirty bastards - get out!' |
| 7 | [about his 'revenge' foul on 'Alf-Inge Håland'] My attitude was, fuck him. What goes around comes around. He got his just rewards. He fucked me over and my attitude is an eye for an eye. |
| 8 | I was asked last week by ITV to do the Celtic game. A couple of weeks before that I was asked to do the United game against Celtic at Old Trafford. I think I've done it once for Sky. Never again. I'd rather go to the dentist. You're sitting there with people like Richard Keys and they're trying to sell something that's not there. Any time I watch a game on television I have to turn the commentators off. |
| 9 | [about his 'revenge' foul on 'Alf-Inge Håland'] I'd waited long enough. I fucking hit him hard. The ball was there... I think. Take that you c**t. And don't ever stand over me sneering about fake injuries. |
| 10 | [to referee Graham Poll during the Highbury tunnel incident] Tell him [Patrick Vieira] to shut his fucking mouth! |
| 11 | [on Triggs, his Labrador Retriever] Unlike humans, dogs don't talk shit. |
| 12 | [on longtime rival Patrick Vieira] I don't think we'll ever be bosom buddies buying each other a drink in the pub but out of everybody I ever faced as a player, he drove me to become better. Obviously Arsenal were the team that really challenged Manchester United and, for a short time, went past us. And as their leader Patrick was immense. Without doubt I'd put him alongside (Zinedine) Zidane, (Paul) Scholes, (Steven) Gerrard and (Frank) Lampard as one of the very best I've ever played with or against, he was that good. On his day, when he was driving Arsenal on with the sheer force of his personality, he was unplayable. |
| 13 | Happiness is not being afraid. |
| 14 | If it had come to a fight, Patrick [Vieira] could probably have killed me. |
| 15 | Hopefully kids will look at me and see that your dreams can come true. |
| 16 | [on the Highbury tunnel bust-up between him and Patrick Vieira] I'd read something in the match programme about the charity work Patrick supported in Senegal, where he'd been born. I said "If you love Senegal so much, why don't you fuckin' play for them?" I think he said something smart to me about Ireland and the World Cup. It was grown men, bitching. |
| 17 | I don't think some of the people who come to Old Trafford can spell football, never mind understand it. |
| 18 | These so-called big stars are people we are supposed to be looking up to. Well they are weak and soft. Priorities have changed in football and they are being dictated to by their wives. |
| 19 | Yorkie [Dwight Yorke] has officially retired about 5 times... The man's a clown... People are going on about the game and agents and directors of football and managers losing their jobs, but we should be worried about people like him... Clowns. That's the last time I'm going to say clown... If he's the vice-president of FIFA, God help us all. |
| 20 | The last time I was charged by the FA they had a murder lawyer in against me, so it's going to be a hard case to win. |
| 21 | Over analyse, paralyse, you mustn't over analyse. |
| 22 | I got Robbie's [Robbie Savage] mobile number and rang him. It went to his voicemail: 'Hi, it's Robbie - whazzup!' Like the Budweiser ad. I never called him back. I thought: 'I can't be fucking signing that'. |
| 23 | I don't believe skill was, or ever will be, the result of coaches. It is a result of a love affair between the child and the ball. |
| 24 | There has been lots of things said about me over the years. I am happy to comment on people's opinion in football I respect, but Tony Cascarino is a man I certainly do not respect, for a lot of reasons, and if I told you, you would be shocked. So the day I worry about Tony Cascarino will be a very sad day of my life. |
| 25 | Aggression is what I do. I go to war. You don't contest football matches in a reasonable state of mind. |
| 26 | I think players tend to get anxious if they've not really done things properly - like eating, resting or training. If you're fully prepared you've got nothing to worry about - it's just a game of football. |
| 27 | Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. |
$60 Million
