If you’ve been keeping up with my blog you’ve probably noticed I’m a fan of quotes, I normally start each post with a relevant quote from a football personality. In modern football an extraordinary amount of media attention is given to what players and managers say and do between games. In the 24 hour news cycle in which the media operates, more and more stories are required to fill page after page of newspapers and hours of television programming dedicated to breaking news. Unfortunately the world is simply not that interesting, important things aren’t happening every minute, so you end up getting a lot of fairly irrelevant stories thrown at you every day, football is not exempt to this trend. As such journalists spend an awful lot of time hanging around training grounds and players in the hope of getting something ‘newsworthy’ to report on. The Twitter and Facebook accounts of professional footballers are also closely observed and heavily scrutinised, as I discussed in a previous post players are picked up on by the media for fairly tame acts such as swearing on Twitter.
In the midst of this barrage of stories and words it’s fairly easy to miss out on the witty and clever things that players and managers occasionally have to say. Many football interviews are the same, consisting of such classics as ‘Ah yeah I thought the lads played well today’, ‘we let the fans down today’ and of course the English footballers’ favourite line, ‘At the end of the day…’. Manchester United and England footballer Ashley Young in particular has a tendency to repeat the same line over and over. That’s why I find it so refreshing when you get people who give original and thoughtful responses to questions rather than just the same old dribble. Characters such as Ian Holloway and Jose Mourinho make post match interviews worth watching. Holloway’s explanation of a hard fought win is as entertaining as post match interviews come while Jose Mourinho is never afraid to shy away from what he truly thinks, particularly when it comes to Barcelona.
Some managers are witty, some are direct and others are downright mad. Whether controversial or insightful the following characters make trawling through the mass of words and white noise produced by footballers worthwhile.
Brian Clough (1935 – 2004), ‘The greatest manager England never had’:
“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.
“He should guide Posh in the direction of a singing coach because she’s nowhere near as good at her job as her husband.” – On David and Victoria Beckham
Ian Holloway, Blackpool manager:
“It was lucky that the linesman wasn’t stood in front of me as I would have poked him with a stick to make sure he was awake.”
“Sir David Beckham? You’re having a laugh. He’s just a good footballer with a famous bird. Can you imagine if Posh was called Lady Beckham? We’d never hear the end of it!” – Another manager who isn’t a big fan of Posh Spice
Miron Bleiberg, former Brisbane Roar and Gold Coast United manager:
“He is a homey referee. You know why the ‘homey’ one? Because all the time they favour the home team.” – On referees favouring the home team
Bill Shankly (1913-1981), legendary manager of Liverpool:
“In my time at Anfield we always said we had the best two teams on Merseyside – Liverpool and Liverpool reserves.” – Winding up local rivals Everton
“Chairman Mao has never seen a greater show of red strength.” – Addressing the Liverpool fans who turned up in their thousands to welcome the team home despite losing to Arsenal in the 1971 FA Cup final
Jose Mourinho, Real Madrid manager and former Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan manager:
“I think he is one of these people who is a voyeur. He likes to watch other people. There are some guys who, when they are at home, have a big telescope to see what happens in other families. He speaks, speaks, speaks about Chelsea.” – On Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger constantly talking about his team Chelsea
“Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one.” – Announcing his arrival at Chelsea in typical Mourinho style
Sources:
http://www.brianclough.com/new_page_2.htm
http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/bill-shankly-in-quotes
http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/86/italy/2009/07/10/1375062/10-classic-jose-mourinho-quotes
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