Top 143 Quotes & Sayings by Alex Ferguson - Page 2

The most important thing in a game like that is to win it.

There has been a lot of expectation on Manchester City and with the spending they have done they have to win something. Sometimes you have a noisy neighbor and have to live with it.

Players know that they can trust me which is really important. They know that I had the ability to adapt to change, and they have seen that many times over the years. I think these are important parts of being in control of footballers.

The philosophy of a lot of European teams, even in home matches, is not to give a goal away.

Everywhere I go the coaches all tell me that Scholsey is the player they admire. But if they think they'll get him they're wasting their time! Paul is a Manc lad pure and simple. He loves the club and there's no chance of him leaving here. If ever he decided to go there would be a stampede, but he won't be going, he's here for life.

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.

Once you shake hands with the devil, you have to accept they are in control.

Football management is such a pressurized thing - horse racing is a release. I'm also learning to play the piano - I'm quite determined - it's another release from the pressure of my job.

Lampard, for me, was a marvellous servant for Chelsea, but I didn't think of him as an elite international footballer. And I am one of the few who felt Gerrard was not a top, top player.

I think Rafael Benítez was an angry man. He must have been disturbed for some reason. I think you have got to cut through the venom of it and hopefully he'll reflect and understand what he said was absolutely ridiculous.

You have to put all the criticism of this club down to jealousy. United have produced more players who have played for their country, more world-class players and more players who have won European Footballer of the Year than any other team in this country, so we must be doing something right.

Pardew has come out and criticized me. He is the worst at haranguing referees. He shoves them and makes a joke of it. How he can criticize me is unbelievable. He forgets the help I gave him, by the way. The press have had a field day. The only person they have not spoken to is Barack Obama because he is busy. It is unfortunate but I am the manager of the most famous club in the world. Not Newcastle, a wee club in the North-East. I was demonstrative. I am always demonstrative. Everyone knows that. I am an emotional guy but I was not abusive.

Keeping players happy is not easy and I think anyone with a big squad will tell you that.

It's great news. The reality of negotiations today is that they take time. But these have always been conducted in a good spirit and we are very pleased with the outcome. We can now look forward to the future.

I was lying in bed on a Saturday morning, reading the paper, when my phone went. The caller was Rangers director, Jack Gillespie, and he offered me the manager's job at Ibrox. I was flattered but declined with thanks. John Greig was a good friend of mine and I had no intention of being involved in ousting him.

Manchester United might not win Premier League every year, but we'd always be up there competing for it every year.

I do like to try and see myself in football players. Everybody is different and express themselves in different ways. There are different kinds of talents of course and there are many who I would never have had the talent that they have when I was a player. But I still had that determination to be successful and try my best.

I think Sepp Blatter is in danger...or has reached a point now, where he is being mocked within the game. Whether he's getting too old, I don't know. But things can happen to people in power. Look at some of the despots in Africa... From a position of great power, he has uttered so many ridiculous statements that he is in danger of seriously damaging his credibility.

I always said to the directors that the minute a player becomes more powerful than the manager of Manchester United, it's not Manchester United. You have lost control of the whole club. So I always made sure that I was in control. They always knew who the manager was.

I understand the intensity of the supporters. I wonder how they could turn up for work on Monday morning after we lost 5-1 to Manchester City.

Scholes was probably the best English midfielder since Bobby Charlton. He was such a brilliant long passer that he could choose a hair on the head of any team-mate answering the call of nature at our training ground. Gary Neville once thought he had found refuge in a bush, but Scholesy found him from 40 yeards. He inflicted a similar long-range missile strike, once, on Peter Schmeichel, and was chased round the training ground for his impertinence. Scholesy would have made a first class-sniper.

I think that fear does come into it in some respect in the sense of when I lost my temper I didn't hide behind a bush on it in respect to the times that I did lose my temper. But you know the quality that I had when I lost my temper, I never, ever brought it back again.

The best have the courage and I say this all the time. The courage to take the ball all the time, the courage to make sure that they are not going to be intimidated by their opponents, and the courage to express themselves at all times and I think that all the great players have got that.

I used to have a saying that when a player is at his peak, he feels as though he can climb.

Never give in or give up easily on a cause.

We have to try to beat Everyone.

They (the press) have a hatred of Manchester United.

Cole should be scoring from those distances, but I'm not going to single him out.

All they can talk about is Manchester United.

I think his team are mirroring Stuart Pearce as the player he was. (on Manchester City)

I'm-A-God-Look-At-Me.

You are not going to be happy if you lose to a goal in the last minute. It is difficult to take and difficult to get out of your mind.

Funnily enough we have never had one enquiry for Paul Scholes. You know why? Because they all know he will never leave. in my time he would be in the top six or seven (best United players ever) without a doubt. His contribution and quality have been great, even without the fantastic goals he has scored. [ . . . ] He has that wonderful velvet touch on the ball. When he gets it, it goes stone dead. It is wonderful to see that amidst all the mayhem that can happen in a football match.

Evolution happens. There's no football team in the world that has stayed together for time ever more.

Sometimes you're not sure about a player. Sometimes you doubt. Sometimes you have to guess. Sometimes you just know.

I'm a Pele fan from way back when I was a kid, and then there was always this thing later about Pele and Maradona. I was young and impressionable as a kid but it was always Pele for me.

Jose [Mourinho] was one of those guys on a surfboard who can stay longer on the wave than anyone else.

I'm no f****** talking to you. He's a f****** great player. Yous are f******* idiots.

He's such a great threat because of his power and pace. (on Cristiano Ronaldo)

The credit to them, the better team won and there's nothing we can do about that now.

As with every young player these days, Ronaldo is 18.

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.

Everest in his slippers. That's what he was like.

It was our worst-ever day, the worst result in my history, ever. Even as a player I don't think I ever lost 6-1.

I've got a temper if I need it. Nothing wrong with losing your temper, if it's for the right reasons.

The pace of the game demanded a referee who was fit. It is an indictment of our game. You see referees abroad who are as fit as butcher's dogs. We have some who are fit. He wasn't fit.

Jose understands winning and losing are twins in a way. When you win you don't gloat and when you lose you don't go bananas.

If you were in a game of football always think you need maybe eight to win the game. Three can on an off day or semi off day but you always hard. And the players recognize that and they'll do that extra to make sure they get winning. The essence of the team is to understand and trust each other and to trust me.

In any normal season, most of the teams below Chelsea would think they are doing quite well.

At the last minute, from what I can gather, either Emmanuel Adebayor or his agent phoned us after they had agreed a deal with City and then did the same with Chelsea. He was desperate to get to either Chelsea or us.

I tried it 100 or a million times it couldn't happen again. If I could, I would have carried on playing.

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.

It was time for me to spend more time with my wife. I'm not saying I do spend more time with my wife, because she would throw me out of the house, but we have breakfast together. I never did.

If we can play like that every week well get some level of consistency.

We are very focused this time and our preparation has been better. We maybe made one or two mistakes last time, but not this time.

The lads really ran their socks into the ground.

He was taking 30 seconds to book a player. He was needing a rest. It was ridiculous.

When he's at the top of his game, there's not a team in the world that can handle Giggs' speed and penetration

Football, bloody hell!

I think Paul Scholes is the best player in England. He's got the best skills, the best brain. No one can match him. There isn't a player of his mould anywhere in the world. Paul is irreplaceable.