More Soccer Quotes

...a tale of too many cooks in the defence (Ian Brown)

...the Derby fans walking home absolutely silent in their cars (Alan Brazil)

75% of what happens to Paul Gascoigne in his life is fiction (Glenn Hoddle)

A contract on a piece of paper, saying you want to leave, is like a piece of paper saying you want to leave (John Hollins)

A lot of hard work went into this defeat (Malcolm Allison)

A million wouldn't buy him, and I'd be one of them (Bill Shankley)

All the Leeds team are 100% behind the manager, but I can't speak for the rest of the squad (Brian Greenhoff)

And I honestly believe we can go all the way to Wembley unless somebody knocks us out (Dave Bassett)

And the news from Guadalajara where the temperature is 96 degrees, is that Falcao is warming up (Brian Moore)

Anelka was travelling so fast that he couldn't keep his own feet (Clive Tyldsley)

As a striker, you are either in a purple patch or struggling. At the moment, I'm somewhere in between (Bob Taylor)

As I've said before and I've said in the past (Kenny Dalglish)

At least the referee was consistent. He was bad all night (George Graham)

At the Argentina game, how would you have guessed that Darren Anderton would have gone off with cramp? (Kevin Keegan)

At times they don't like you to kick them and they feel you're not allowed to kick them (Alan Shearer)

Barcelona... a club with a stadium that seats 120,000 people. And they're all here in Newcastle tonight (Brian Moore)

Because of the booking, I will miss the Holland game - if selected (Paul Gascoigne)

Beckham has two feet, which a lot of players don't have nowadays (Jimmy Hill)

Bristol Rovers were 4-0 up at half time, with four goals in the first half (Tony Adamson)

But Arsenal are quick to credit Bergkamp with laying on 75% of their nine goals (Tony Gubba)

But he was a player that hasn't had to use his legs, even when he was 19, because his first two yards were in his head (Glenn Hoddle)

Cantona's expression speaking the whole French dictionary without saying a word (Barry Davies)

Chester made it hard for us by having two players sent off (John Docherty)

Cole should be scoring from those distances, but I'm not going to single him out (Alex Ferguson)

Daei's all alone here, with four Chelsea defenders for company (Peter Drury)

Davor has a left leg and a nose in the box (Arsene Wenger)

Despite his white boots, he has pace and aggression (Kevin Keegan)

Don't tell those coming in the final result of that fantastic match, but let's just have another look at Italy's winning goal (David Coleman)

England can end the millennium as it started - as the greatest football nation in the world (Kevin Keegan)

Even if you tap it in from one yard it counts in the record books as a goal, unlike the chances you miss (Jimmy Hill)

Even when you're dead you shouldn't lie down and let yourself be buried (Gordon Lee)

Everybody thought the Saudis were coming here as chopping block (Brian Moore)

Football's not like an electric light. You can't just flick the switch and change from quick to slow (John Greig)

For some it's the ultimate job. For the others it's the last job (Kevin Keegan)

For those who know Selhurst Park, West Ham are playing from right to left (Ron Jones)

Forest have now lost six matches without winning (David Coleman)

George Graham will be happy with a draw. I know how ambitious and positive he is (Terry Neill)

Give him his head and he'll take it with both hands or feet (Bobby Gould)

Hagi is a brilliant player, but we're not going to get psychedelic about it (Andy Roxburgh)

Hartson's got more previous than Jack the Ripper (Harry Redknapp)

He [Graham Taylor] left the same way he arrived - fired with enthusiasm (Joe Lovejoy)

He came on a free transfer and has been giving good value for money (Clive Allen)

He can't speak Turks, but you can tell he's delighted (Kevin Keegan)

He had no chance of beating Schmeichel from there, but it was always worth a try (Alan Parry)

He was lightning slow (Ron Atkinson)

He's a schizophrenic of a keeper (Brian Moore)

He's captain of Rangers, and that's one of the reasons he's captain (Walter Smith)

He's put on weight and I've lost it, and vice-versa (Ronnie Whelan)

He's such an honest person, it's untrue (Brian Little)

His tackle was definitely pre-ordained (Glenn Hoddle)

Home advantage gives you an advantage (Bobby Robson)

Hopefully next season we'll achieve a situation where we're playing with level goalposts (Chris Robertson)

I always used to put my right boot on first and then, obviously, my right sock (Barry Venison)

I am manager of Macclesfield and am giving the job my total commitment. Obviously, as an Irishman, I want the job as their international manager (Sammy McIlroy)

I can count on the fingers of one hand, 10 games where we've caused our own downfall (Joe Kinnear)

I can't promise anything, but I promise 100% (Paul Power)

I do not approve of female officials in professional football. How can they make accurate decisions if they have never been tackled from behind by a 14 stone centre half (Joe Royle)

I don't sit there with boards, painting pictures all over the place. That's not my style (Kevin Keegan)

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

I find the growing intervention by the football authorities in strictly footballing matters a rather worrying trend (Kenny Cunningham)

I have a number of alternatives, and each one gives me something different (Glenn Hoddle)

I just felt that the whole night, the conditions and taking everything into consideration and everything being equal, and everything is equal, we should have got something from the game - but we didn't (John Barnes)

I just wonder what would have happened if the shirt had been on the other foot (Mike Walker)

I know that Gareth Barry has been told by Howard Wilkinson to take a long hard look at these with his left foot (John Motson)

I know where he should have put his flag up, and he'd have got plenty of help (Ron Atkinson)

I may have handed in a transfer request, but there is no way that I want to leave this club (David Eyres)

I predicted in August that Celtic would reach the final. On the eve of that final I stand by that prediction (Archie MacPherson)

I promise results, not promises (John Bond)

I strongly feel that the only difference between the two teams were the goals that England scored (Craig Brown)

I took a whack on my left ankle, but something told me it was my right (Lee Hendrie)

I used to go missing a lot (Miss Canada, Miss United Kingdom, Miss Germany (George Best)

I want more from David Beckham. I want him to improve on perfection (Kevin Keegan)

I was a young lad when I was growing up (David O'Leary)

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

I was born in Newcastle and I've played for Newcastle Schoolboys all my life (Dennis Tueart)

I was inbred into the game by my father (David Pleat)

I was saying the other day, how often the most vulnerable area for goalies is between their legs (Andy Gray)

I wear a ring with a brown stone called an Aghigh which everyone in Iran believes wards off evil spirits and brings luck. But I am also quite good with my head (Ali Daei)

Ian Baird is dashing around like a steam roller up front (Martin Tyler)

Ian Rush is deadly 10 times out of 10, but that wasn't one of them (Peter Jones)

Ian Wright is missing the absence of Dennis Bergkamp (Brian Marwood)

If a week is a long time in politics, then for Ron Atkinson's Manchester United the last 7 days have been an equinox (Stuart Hall)

If ever the Greeks needed a Trojan horse it is now (Gerald Sinstadt)

If it comes to penalties, one of these two great sides could go out on the whim of a ball (Peter Shreeves)

If it's a draw after extra time, my solution would be to have a referee shoot-out – John Gregory)

If only he'd chanced his arm with his left leg (Trevor Brooking)

If there's going to be another goal, it's surely going to be a fourth (Rob Palmer)

If they hadn't scored, we might have got a better result (Howard Wilkinson)

If we get promotion, lets sit down and see where we stand (Roy McFarland)

If you can't outplay the opposition, you must outnumber them (Terry Venables)

If you're 0-0 down, there's no-one better to get you back on terms then Ian Wright (Robbie Earle)

I'm afraid they've left their legs at home (Ron Atkinson)

I'm definitely maybe going to play Sturrock (Jim McLean)

I'm five goals short of the Arsenal goal-scoring record, not that I'm counting (Ian Wright)

I'm not convinced that Scotland will play a typically English game (Gareth Southgate)

I'm not going to make it a target, but it's something to aim for (Steve Coppell)

I'm sure coach Frank Rijkaard will want the Dutch to go on and score a fourth now - although obviously they'll have to score the third one first (Angus Loughran)

I'm the one with his head on the line (Chris Waddle)

In a European tie both legs are important, if not more important than each other (Colin Calder)

In a sense it's a one-man show. Except there are two men involved, Hartson and Berkovic, and a third man, the goalkeeper (John Motson)

In football, time and space are the same thing (Graham Taylor)

In football, you don’t really know what is going on but we will worry about that when it happens (Neil Sullivan)

In goal keeping terms, Chris Turner is 5ft 11in (Ron Jones)

International football is one clog further up the football ladder (Glenn Hoddle)

Inzhagi runs faster than his brain works (Ron Atkinson)

It is a cup final and the one that wins it goes through (Jimmy Hill)

It took a lot of bottle for Tony Adams to own up to his alcoholism (Ian Wright)

It was a big relief off my shoulder (Paul Gascoigne)

It was a continuance of what we have seen most of the season - that is, various clubs beating each other (Ron Noades)

It was a game we should have won. We lost it because we thought we were going to win it. But then again, there was no way I thought we were going to get a result there (Jack Charlton)

It was because we didn't get a second goal (Arsene Wenger, explaining why Arsenal had not won by a greater margin)

It was just Paul's luck. That man Boateng must have an incredibly hard chin (Mel Stein, agent, on Paul Gascoigne's broken arm)

It wasn't going to be our day on the night (Bryan Robson)

It will be a difficult couple of days. It's difficult now and it will be difficult tomorrow (Gary Neville)

It would be a nice scalp for Scunthorpe to put Wimbledon on our bottoms (Dave Bassett)

It would be foolish to believe that automatic promotion is automatic in any way whatsoever (Dave Bassett)

It would have killed them off a little bit (Gerry Francis)

It's a case of putting all our eggs into the next ninety minutes (Phil Neal)

It's a shame half-time came as early as it did (Gordon Drury)

It's a tale of two systems, John, and both exactly the same (Mark Lawrenson)

It's been two ends of the same coin (Dave Bassett)

It's certainly a point not gained (Colin Todd)

It's Denmark 3, Denmark 0 (Ian Brown)

It's the only way we can lose, irrespective of the result (Graham Taylor)

I've always said there's a place for the press, but they haven't dug it yet (Tommy Docherty)

I've got a gut feeling in my stomach (Alan Sugar)

I've had 14 bookings this season (8 of which were my fault, but 7 of which were disputable (Paul Gascoigne)

I've lost count of the number of times I've played in that fixture. Each one was memorable (Trevor Steven)

I've never wanted to leave. I'm here for the rest of my life, and hopefully after that as well (Alan Shearer)

I've spoken to five managers in the past eight days and 85% of them have called me to chat about my players (Martin O’Neill)

I've told the players to win so that I can have the cash to buy some new ones (Chris Turner)

Jaap Stam's very muscular. He's got very inward feet, but he's a jet (David Pleat)

Jurgen Klinnsman, who refutes to earn £25,000 a week (Alan Mullery)

Lampard, as usual, arrived in the nick of time, but it wasn't quite soon enough (Alan Parry)

Last night we were the best team on the day (Roy Aitken)

Leeds are enjoying more possession now that they have the ball (Simon Brotherton)

Leeds is a great club and it's been my home for years, even though I live in Middlesbrough (Jonathon Woodgate)

Left alone with our own heads on, we can be pretty mental (Tony Adams)

Like a predator about to devour the target (Alan Hansen)

Lukic saved with his foot, which is all part of the goalkeeper's arm (Barry Davies)

Madrid are like a rabbit dazed in the headlights of a car, except this rabbit has a suit of armour, in the shape of two precious away goals (George Hamilton)

Managing Crystal Palace is like trying to plait spaghetti (Steve Coppell)

Martin O'Neill, did it upset you when your team abandoned your kick and rush tactics and started to play football (George Gavin)

Maybe the mistakes have looked worse because they led to goals (Ian Walker)

McCarthy shakes his head in agreement with the referee (Martin Tyler)

My legs sort of disappeared from nowhere (Chris Waddle)

My motivation and my back no longer exist (Martin Dahlin)

Neil Sullivan has stopped absolutely everything have thrown at him...Wimbledon 1, Manchester United 1 (Mike Ingham)

Nothing that UEFA or FIFA do surprises me any more and I'm very surprised this has not been sorted out long in advance (Graham Taylor)

Of the ten sendings off, nine have been different players, so it proves we're unlucky (Keith Stevens)

One accusation you can't throw at me is that I've always done my best (Alan Shearer)

One point from an away game is no longer considered a victory (Petter Rudi)

People always remember the second half (Graham Taylor)

Peru score their third, and it's 3-1 to Scotland (David Coleman)

Phil Neville was treading on dangerous waters there (Ron Atkinson)

Physically, they've out-physicalled them (Terry Venables)

Portugal play football as I like to see it played and as a neutral it was fantastic to watch. Unfortunately I'm not a neutral (Kevin Keegan)

Queen's Park against Forfar. You can't get more romantic than that (Archie MacPherson)

Rangers are definitely on the back heel now (Archie MacPherson)

Referee Norlinger is outstanding in the sense that he stands out (George Hamilton)

Robson, well he does what he does, and his future's in the future (Ron Greenwood)

Romania are more Portuguese than German (Barry Venison)

Shearer could be at 100% fitness, but not peak fitness (Graham Taylor)

Sheffield United bring a few strange faces and a few familiar ones, and my old team-mate Graham Stuart, who has both (Matt Jackson)

So Sampdoria are keeping it real, but they can't play in the Spanish league with the other Real's (Graham Joffe)

Some of our players have got no brains, so I've given them the day off tomorrow to rest them (David Kemp)

Sporting Lisbon in their green and white hoops, looking like a team of zebras (Peter Jones)

Steve Walsh is the type of player who will follow you to every end of the box (Kerry Dixon)

That youngster is playing well beyond his 19 years - that's because he's 21 (David Begg)

The ball must be as slippery as a wet baby (Tony Gubba)

The ball went over mine and Colin Calderwood's heads and who should be there at the far post but yours truly, Alan Shearer (Colin Hendry)

The Brazilians were South American, and the Ukranians will be more European (Phil Neville)

The Bulgarian players are tried and trusted. Well, I'm not sure they can be trusted (Ron Atkinson)

The Danes are probing for position - every one of them somewhere on the pitch (Ron Jones)

The familiar sight of Liverpool lifting the League Cup for the first time (Brian Moore)

The game has gone rather scrappy as both sides realise they could win this match or lose it (Ron Atkinson)

The game is balanced in Arsenal's favour (John Motson)

The groin's been a little sore but after the semi-final I put it to the back of my head (Michael Hughes)

The main thing in a cup tie is to get through (Walter Smith)

The only frightening moment was when Eric Cantona raced towards me to celebrate the goal (Ole Gunnar Solskjaer)

The opening ceremony was good, although I missed it (Graeme Le Saux)

The pace of the game between first team and reserves is like night and day (Maurice Malpas)

The pace of the match is really accelerating, by which I mean it is getting faster all the time (David Coleman)

The philosophy of a lot of European teams, even in home matches, is not to give a goal away (Alex Ferguson)

The players go on to the training pitch clutching cups of coffee. Afterwards they are given bacon sandwiches with all kinds of colourful sauces. That would be unthinkable in France (Mickael Silvestre)

The players have their own ideas about how the game should be won, but it won't be tolerated. I'll get less skilful players in who play the game the way I think it should be played (Gordon Strachan)

The rest of the team are very large. They dwarf above you (Fred Dinenage)

The substitute is about to come on (he's a player who was left out of the starting line-up today. There were others as well (Kevin Keegan)

The substitutes are all on the bench, and that's where they'll start the match (Barry Davies)

The thing you can't see about Germany is the little things that are hidden (Ron Atkinson)

Their keeper played very well and it was not the best pitch, but I am not making excuses (Graham Rix)

There are 0-0's and 0-0's, and that was 0-0 (John Sillett)

There are no easy games in this division and this one won't be easy (Joe Royle)

There are no opportune times for a penalty, and this is not one of those times (Jack Youngblood)

There are two ways of getting the ball. One is from your own team-mates ,and that's the only way (Terry Venables)

There's a little bit of a South American touch, if that's not Irish, about this European side, Portugal (David Pleat)

There's no width on the wings (Andy Gray)

They had a dozen corners, maybe 12. I'm guessing (Craig Brown)

They're well on top of their game (fans and players alike (David Fairclough)

They've flown in from all over the world, have the rest of the world team (Brian Moore)

This is going to be a very long 30 minutes with 26 minutes left (Brian Moore)

To be second with one game to go - you can't ask for more (Stuart McCall)

To be talking about vital games at this stage is ridiculous, but tomorrow's game is vital (Brian Horton)

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)

Tomorrow, the whole of Newcastle vs Manchester United (Ian Payne)

Too many players were trying to score or create a goal (Gerard Houllier)

Unfortunately it was right down the keeper's throat - where it hit him on the knees (Ron Atkinson)

Unfortunately, we keep kicking ourselves in the foot (Ray Wilkins)

Vialli's absolutely certain that he knows one way or the other whether he'll score or not (Jonathan Pearce)

Villa will probably play a lot worse than this and lose (Alan Parry)

We are now entering a new Millennium and football's a completely different cup of tea (Dave Bassett)

We didn't have the run of the mill (Glenn Hoddle)

We didn't look like scoring, although we looked like we were going to get a goal (Alan Buckley)

We had enough chances to win this game. In fact, we did win (Alex Smith)

We have bid £2.6 million, which is far more than he is worth. But that is what it takes to get someone of his calibre (Simon Jordan, Crystal Palace owner)

We have faced African teams, we have faced English teams - so we are ready to face Scotland because we know what their play will be like (Mario Zagallo)

We have more non-English players in our league than any other country in the world (Gordon Taylor)

We have run a a marathon and fallen just short so we need to boost the squad to get us over the final hurdle (John Rudge)

We have spent three matches chasing a football (Kevin Keegan)

We must have had 99% of the game. It was the other three per cent that cost us the match (Ruud Gullit)

We pressed the self-destruct button ourselves (Brian Kidd)

We showed what English football and English footballers are all about. We played the Continentals at their own game (George Graham)

We threw our dice into the ring and turned up trumps (Bruce Rioch)

Well, we got nine and you can't score more than that (Bobby Robson)

We're flying Concorde, that'll shorten the distance (Bobby Robson)

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

We're taking 22 players to Italy, sorry, to Spain. Where are we Jim? (Bobby Robson)

We've watched them twice, and seen a few videos. I didn't see them 38 times though, like McCarthy says he watched us. I don't think that's possible. I did my maths you see. That's 38 times 90 minutes - that's two months and the draw was only three weeks ago (Georges Leekens, Belgium manager)

What he's got is legs, which the other midfielders don't have (Lennie Lawrence)

When a player gets to 30, so does his body (Glenn Hoddle)

When Flitcroft played for the A team, he had 'footballer' written all over his forehead (Colin Bell)

When he comes into training with his sunglasses on top of his head when it's foggy you start to think, hang on a minute, he will not be staying with us (John Gregory)

When you score one goal more than the other team in a cup tie it is always enough (Cesare Maldini)

When you think about it, there are three games per working week. Saturday, mid-week and Saturday again (Jimmy Greaves)

Who can forget this fixture last season. 4-3 I think it was (Derek Johnstone)

With hindsight, it's easy to look at it with hindsight (Glenn Hoddle)

Without being too harsh on David, he cost us the match (Ian Wright)

You're either very good or very bad. There's no in between. We were in between (Gary Lineker)

Zidane is not very happy, because he's suffering from the wind (Ron Atkinson)

Zinedine Zidane has the body of a bear, the mind of a fox and, er, terrific skills (Brian Moore)


Anonymous Quotes

John Harkes is going to Sheffield, Wednesday (New York Post 1993)

But Jim Leighton isn't a soccer player, he's a goalkeeper (Swedish commentator)

Tell the Kraut to get his ass up front. We don't pay a million for a guy to hang around in defence (New York Cosmos executive)