Ode To Sir Alex Ferguson- 26 Quotes For 26 Years

 

Sir Alex Ferguson is now in his twenty-sixth season of managing Manchester United.  It is an incredible feat, unlikely to be repeated.  Even if it was to be, nobody could do it quite like Fergie.  To mark the occasion and to celebrate all that he has done for United and indeed football; the club has commissioned a bronze statue to be made in his honour.  The unveiling of this will take place the day before the QPR match, (to be played at the end of the month).  An apt selection, as QPR were the opponents in his first match at Old Trafford.   This statue will stand pride of place in front of the Sir Alex Ferguson stand. 

1. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. Football. Bloody hell.”- Upon winning the Champions League in the dying moments against Bayern in 1999.


2. “At the end of this game, the European Cup will be only six feet away from you and you’ll not even able to touch it if we lose. And for many of you that will be the closest, you will ever get. Don’t you dare come back in here without giving your all.”- Rousing words at halftime at the Nou Camp in 1999.

3. “It would have been Sir Matt Busby’s 90th birthday today, but I think he was up there doing a lot of kicking.” Post Match after winning his first European Cup and the club's second.

4. “I thought the first 45 minutes were the best of my time as a manager.”- Commenting on that game against Juventus to get United to the European Cup Final 1999.


5. “I’m privileged to have followed Sir Matt because all you have to do is to try and maintain the standards that he set so many years ago.”- Outlining where he wants to go and the influence Sir Matt Busby.

6. “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!”- Infamous incident in which David Beckham is hit in the head by a boot kicked by Ferguson.


7. “It’s getting tickly now - squeaky-bum time, I call it.”- A phrase that he coined in 2002/03 season and is now very commonly used.

8. “On you go. I’m no fucking talking to you. He’s a fucking great player. You’se are fucking idiots.”- More evidence that he doesn’t pull any punches with the media. In this quote, he is speaking to the press about Juan Sebastian Verón, who was sold mere months later to Chelsea.


9. “It keeps those fuckers from the media out.”- Speaking about the insular Carrington training complex.


10. “David Beckham is Britain’s finest striker of a football not because of God-given talent but because he practises with a relentless application that the vast majority of less gifted players wouldn’t contemplate.”- Commending  Beckham, a Fergie favourite til he went the celebrity way and took his focus away from the game.


11. “If he was an inch taller he’d be the best centre-half in Britain. His father is 6ft 2in - I’d check the milkman.”- On Gary Neville.


12. “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.”- Words in the press conference before United were due to play Inter Milan.


13. "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." - Cutting words about Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger in 1996, the ferocity of the rivalry between the pair has greatly subsided since!

14. “Whether dribbling or sprinting, Ryan can leave the best defenders with twisted blood.”- On Ryan Giggs.


15. “Pippo Inzaghi was born in an offside position.”- On everybody's favourite poacher Filippo Inzaghai.

16. “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.”-  Response to Alan Hansen who questioned Sir Alex Ferguson’s future as Manchester United manager in 2002.

17. “Sometimes you look in a field and you see a cow and you think it's a better cow than the one you've got in your own field. It's a fact. Right? And it never really works out that way.”- Expertly handling Rooneygate.   Two seasons ago, the decision that Rooney was leaving Manchester United sent shockwaves far beyond Old Trafford.

18. “The lads ran their socks into the ground.”- Commending the work rate and effort of his team.

19. “We have people coming here to admire the scenery and enjoy their crisps.”- Alex Ferguson on United fans and the Old Trafford atmosphere.


20. “What the fuck are you lot playing at? That is the biggest load of shite I've ever seen. Not one of you can look me in the eye because not one of you deserves to have a say. I can't believe you've come here and decided to toss it off like that crap you're playing out there.”- Words to an underperforming team versus Sheffield Wednesday 1998.

21. “If Chelsea drop points, the cat’s out in the open.  And you know what cats are like - sometimes they don’t come home.”- Mind games in full swing, Ferguson on Chelsea.


22. “They come out with the ‘English are so strong, we’re terrible in the air, we can’t do this, we can’t do that’. Then they beat you 3 -0.” Ferguson describing the Italians after defeat to AC Milan 2007.


23. “I used to have a saying that when a player is at his peak, he feels as though he can climb Everest in his slippers. That’s what he was like.”- Describing Ince, one of the more difficult players he has had to manage.


24. “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 first sighting of wing wizard Ryan Giggs.


25. “He was towering over me and the other players were almost covering their eyes. I’m looking up and thinking ‘if he does hit me, I’m dead’”- On arguing with Schmeichel.

26. "It can be difficult to pinpoint who would make it as a manager.  For instance, nobody here thought Mark Hughes would become a manager, never in a million years, and we all thought Bryan Robson was a certainty to be a top manager.' - Proving that there is no type when it comes to being successful in management.  Hughes as a personality was said to be very quiet and a bit of an introvert.