Top 972 Manchester Quotes & Sayings - Page 16

I'm proud that I've even had a career, but 'proud' isn't the first word I'd use. I feel lucky that I moved to Manchester when I was 12 because I don't think I could have done this in Ireland. And I feel lucky that the government took care of me from the age of 16 to when I signed my first record deal at 19.

Any footballer's dream would be to play for Manchester United and to play at Old Trafford. The pitch just has this iconic feeling about it. It's elevated like it's almost a stage for the players, and I always enjoyed that you can kind of just slip right off the edges. Seeing the little nuances of it, you know, it's just special to be there.

We didn't know how it was going to go but it was always going to be hard for me to go straight from Melbourne into Manchester City's first team. It was always the plan for me to go on loan.

I will say it loud and clear: at Manchester City, it is all about what you choose to look at. If you look at the money spent on players, you will only ever see that side of City. If you look at the bigger plan, which is investment in the community, facilities, and youth teams, you realise there is heart and soul in this club.

I would have been about seven years old when the formative years of my competitive football education began. I was playing in the local leagues around Manchester, playing against lads from tough areas who had been taught they had to fight for everything.

I had a place to go to university; I was going to study history. I was in New York doing 'Arcadia,' and I suddenly thought, 'It feels a bit weird to go from a New York stage to Manchester University.' It didn't quite feel right.

If you want a measure of how private a place the dressing room was when I was growing up at Manchester United, consider this: even Sir Alex Ferguson would knock before coming into the dressing room at the Cliff, the old training ground. The dressing room is for the players - and the players only.

Gilberto was a top midfielder who played for Arsenal. But he has a lot of respect for Manchester United, who are obviously a big club here in England. He praised the club a lot and, after he was granted the opportunity to speak to Jose Mourinho and other senior figures at United, we made the decision together for me to come here.

When I took the decision to join City, Pep Guardiola's call was very important. He called me, spoke to me about the project, and explained that I was going to be an important part of it. I felt very happy. The prestige of Manchester City's shirt is also very important.

Real Madrid is like Manchester United or Liverpool or Bayern Munich. There is so much history, and you need to play and win against that history. It's difficult to play against them because you fight against everything - the history, the players - but because of that, the motivation is always so high.

People have to understand one thing: at the age of 18 I arrived at a dream club like Manchester United. It was a dream come true. But, even at that moment, I was thinking about playing in England for some years and then going to play in Spain. Even at that time I was thinking that way, and I always gave 100% everything.

First New York was a sort of provincial capital, bigger and richer than Manchester or Marseilles, but not much different in its essential spirit. Then, after the war, it became one among half a dozen world cities. Today it has the appearance of standing alone, as the center of culture in the part of the world that still tries to be civilized.

I go back five generations in Jamaica. My dad grew up in Port Royal, and my mom grew up in Kingston. My family is from the country like West Moreland and also in Manchester. I've been there countless times. As far as cuisine, there's not really much that comes out of Jamaica that's on a plate that I don't like.

As a player I won things, had a special 10 years under Martin O'Neill [at Leicester and Celtic] and played in some great teams, beating Manchester United and getting to the last 16 of the Champions League. As a manager, I don't know if I will top this; I hope I do, because I am still young and am still learning. But this is up there with anything I have achieved, not just in my football career but in my life.

Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player in the Premier League and in the whole of Europe. The things I have seen him do since I have been in Manchester have been incredible, amazing. It is just like a total show in training and even in the matches. This kid will one day arrive at the very top in the world of football - if he isn't there already - because he makes the most difficult plays look easy.

I get nostalgic for things that didn't really exist. I might have a cassette from the first time a Melle Mel track, say, got played on radio in Manchester. And it might be a copy of a copy of a copy of a tape and there's all these weird nuances and distortions that have affected what I know as the truth, if you like, of that track.

The chairmen of the largest companies in the world can cancel an appointment or move a board meeting; a manager cannot change the date of a game. In the combined 42 years that Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have managed in English football, I can only remember one occasion when Sir Alex did not attend a Manchester United game.

I moved to London when I was 21 and I needed a job. I'd just done a year working in Waterstones in Manchester and I was looking for any old job. This advertisement came up for an editorial assistant on Dora the Explorer Magazine. Because I'd been working in the Children's Department in a bookshop for a year I just nailed the interview.

Whenever I score for Manchester City, my mother calls me. As soon as the ball hits the back of the net, the phone rings. It doesn't matter if she's back home in Brazil or if she's in the stadium watching me. She calls me every time. So I run to the corner flag, and I put my hand to my ear, and I say, 'Alo Mae!'

I used to be so into soccer. I would wear soccer team hoodies, another soccer team's pants, and Manchester United earrings. And I had, like, five of everything, so I would just wear the same outfit all the time!

There was one or two offers that did come along during my time at United, but I always came back to this point; why would you leave United? Where is the bigger challenge? And the thing about challenges is, once you have won something, you can't live on that. Not at Manchester United - you have got to win the next one. And that's the challenge. Maintaining that consistency of winning which is a mentality that I have had.

Scholes was playing tiki-taka football when nobody in England knew what it was. He was another of those players, like Denis Law or Bobby Moore, who at 15 probably looked as if he wouldn't make it. Too small, you would think - can't run, dumpy little ginger nut - but then the ball would come to him and he would dazzle you. He was the best footballer in that Manchester United midfield, better than Ryan Giggs and Roy Keane.

If we should have any regrets as Manchester United, that is that we only gave David Moyes seven months. I think we should have given him more time, accepted that results weren't going to be the way we hoped they would be and that playing would be a little bit different. I believe he would have grown into that role.

When I arrived in Manchester for the first time, it took me five seconds to realize that it was a very different place than where I come from. It is cold, yes, but people also do things very differently than we do in Nigeria. The culture was different, and everything looked different.

I was at a book convention, in a cab. On one side of me was Arthur Schlesinger; on the other side was William Manchester - real heavyweights. All they were doing was asking me about Charles Manson. The only thing that enables me not to be bored is the people talking about it - they're so interested.

I like The Smiths as well. They took a cue from The Buzzcocks. They have jangly guitars instead of distorted guitars. All the Manchester bands have a character about them. The Stone Roses and The Smiths and all that. Even if you don't like them, they have a certain original sound.

To be fair, when you are really young, you don't think about the future too much. You just want to play with your friends. When you get older, you start to dream about being there, about being at a top team, so of course it's a dream to be at a team like Manchester United.

When I see ultra-Orthodox Jews stamping all over Jaffa, or when I see them deciding who is a Jew, I think: 'What's happened to the grand dream of Zionism?' I don't like to see ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel. What's wrong with Manchester?

We had to support our player and genuinely felt, like Rio has said, that it was an honest mistake. It is important to know that Manchester United never said, and Rio Ferdinand never said, that a mistake hadn't been made.

Mind you, I have had in my sojourn on earth as good a time of it as any man, so I can speak with some knowledge. A writer in the Manchester Guardian who is unknown to me lately described me as "the richest man in the world." That sounds a pretty big order, but when I come to think it out I believe he is not far wrong. A rich man is not necessarily a man with a whole pot of money but a man who is really happy. And I am that.

I did a lot of theatre when I started out. It was the Lyceum, the Citz, the Tron and the Traverse. I came to London and did the Royal Court, the National, 'King Lear' at the Manchester Royal Exchange. I did little bits of comedy, like 'Rab C Nesbitt,' but I wasn't predominantly about comedy.

I thought I would be at United for a couple of years, maybe three or four, and then go abroad somewhere. But I just fell in love with Manchester United. I fell in love with winning, fell in love with the history of the club and being part of it was something I could never have imagined.

How can you create a team and bring all these egos together? The main goal for Manchester United is for them to play well - and not have a player saying, 'I play well; I scored two goals'. Because if I score two goals, but three goals go into our net, then we lose.

I grew up looking at... going to the movies a lot, as much as they'd let you. I grew up in Manchester in the north of England in the '40s and '50s. I saw a lot of movies. They were all Hollywood and British movies. I didn't see a film that wasn't in English until I was 17 when I went to London to be a student.

Sir Alex Ferguson was a genuinely nice man. We met many times and even had dinner together on a few occasions. But woe to the person who threatened or bothered Manchester United in any way. Then Ferguson would not spare his venom. I know, because he often aimed that venom at me.

If you've had the No. 1 job, why would you go back and be reserve manager? Is Alex Ferguson going to be reserve manager for Manchester United? It's like a boxer going into the ring with one arm behind his back. Why would you do it? You're going to get knocked out.

For a while I got into the South Pacific theater of World War II. I read "American Caesar" by William Manchester, the biography of General MacArthur. Because of that I ended up reading "Tales of the South Pacific" by James Michener and then because of that reading his "Hawaii." That is what happens.

People have to understand one thing: at the age of 18, I arrived at a dream club like Manchester United. It was a dream come true. But, even at that moment, I was thinking about playing in England for some years and then going to play in Spain. Even at that time I was thinking that way, and I always gave 100% everything.

You can be 19 or 20 and playing reserve team football, be able to say 'I played at,' say, 'Manchester United,' even though you have no actual first team appearances. But there are 19- and 20-year-olds at League Two level with 100 appearances under their belts. I know which one I'd rather be.

My mind was always set on joining Manchester United. How can you not go to United? I don’t play for money. I play for glory and winning championships. I’m happy here. I hear people complain about the weather, there’s nothing to do and the food. But, for me, it’s not like that. I play for a club I love, the biggest club, and everything else doesn’t matter.

Seán Manchester is, unsurprisingly, very well read in both classical and more recent sources on vampires and vampirism, and cites them with great authority while taking the reader through a brief tour of vampire lore and mythology. This is a book I'd recommend to anybody with an interest in the author or vampires. The parts which deal with vampires are obviously based on years of substantial research and personal experience.

I was in King Lear with Sir Tom Courtenay at The Royal Exchange in Manchester. In fact, that's where I met my husband. I was playing Regan and he was playing Cornwall and together we fell in love plucking out Gloucester's eyes. It was great fun. Everyone assumes that I was Cordelia because I've got blonde hair but I was Regan and they gave me a long auburn wig. It was great, good fun.

There is one school of thought that says Mayors should cut ribbons, be funny and be a buffoon. The other school of thought is that we can do more. Scotland is getting more powers. Wales is getting more powers. Greater Manchester. London needs more powers.

I think there's a lot of benefit in letting people vent. When I was on the Manchester Evening News, we got 500 letters a day, and part of my job as editor was to edit them. And I thought that was one of the best things in the newspaper, and it was instituted by an editor known as Big Tom, who said 'this is the voice of the people.' And he was quite right.

Not many people know this but my team in England is Manchester United. Bobby Charlton, Denis Law, George Best, all great players. We created a bond when we played each other and I still speak to Bob from time to time, though I can't get used to calling him 'Sir Bobby.'

I remember when Manchester United came into the league and I remember saying, 'Wow, this is huge. This is huge for a club like this to have a women's team.' It's so important for clubs with all this tradition, history, power, influence to have a women's team and to see the progress that they've made and what they've put into it.

First of all my golfing experience spans all corners of the World - Brazil, New Zealand, L.A. And I think the best place is when you play with friends. I particularly enjoy playing golf with my best friend, former Manchester United player Dwight Yorke. It is the best experience when we can get together on a golf course.

I was very fortunate that a teacher saw that I read a lot and got bored very easily and had a lot of energy, so she said, 'You've got to go to this youth theater.' I joined Manchester Youth Theatre when I was really young, and I just loved putting on and being involved in plays and telling stories.

I'm not going back to Amsterdam, though it would be very comfortable there with Frank de Boer, Danny Blind, and Dennis Bergkamp. When I left 12 years ago, I said I would return, but I did not know then what great years I would have with Manchester United. I might occasionally visit training with them, but I will not be going regularly.

If I changed the mindset of some players or my mindset helped some players to be better - maybe. But I don't think it was me changing anything for the club because playing for Manchester United means playing with the pressure, playing with the responsibility.

I am not a man of many words, but I can honestly say that playing football is all I have ever wanted to do and to have had such a long and successful career at Manchester United has been a real honour. This was not a decision that I have taken lightly but I feel now is the right time for me to stop playing. To have been part of the team that helped the Club reach that 19th title is a great privilege.

I'm not suited to Bolton or Blackburn, I would be more suited to Inter or Real Madrid. It wouldn't be a problem to me to go and manage those clubs because I would win the double or the league every time. Give me Manchester United or Chelsea and I would do the same, it wouldn't be a problem.

We don't have the money of the Manchester clubs or Chelsea. Arsenal builds its team through training, through recruiting players who can become something. Arsenal has less money than some other clubs, so we have to fight with other values.

We were brought up to think we were amazing. Maybe I was too confident, too full of myself. I found school difficult. I'd get followed home by 20 kids throwing stuff at me. The teachers didn't like me, either. We left Ireland for Manchester when I was 12, and I was happy to go.

It's important that Oasis are rude about everybody and that they get drunk...Fair enough. It's nice, isn't it? But it's nothing to do with me. They came to see us in Manchester and they were very pleasant boys. Very nice. I'd like to see that as a quote. Oasis are very nice boys.

The atmosphere generated by the fans in Celtic's stadium for our visit was the most impressive I've ever witnessed. The grounds of Liverpool and Manchester United are good and the hostile feeling of playing against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu is also excellent, but the atmosphere against Celtic was the best.

You want to win things, you want the best players to come to Manchester United and if we're playing better and we're winning things and we're challenging for things then we're going to attract the best players.

My whole family is from Santos. Since I was little, I grew up watching this. I was becoming a player and I always dreamed of playing for Santos, but I went to Manchester. I got older, then everyone said, 'Why won't you play for our Santos?' I want to go, but I can't now. I want to play football in Europe, and then I'll go.

We got anxious at the end of the weekend in our urgency to try to score the winning goal. Ended up playing far too many long balls forward. That style of play doesn't suit Manchester United. We must continue to play football and enjoy the game. If we do that, eventually things will come right for us.

On the first training session Pogba had with Juventus, the players were laughing. We were not laughing for any other reason than we were just in total disbelief that this player with so much obvious ability was able to leave the club the size of Manchester United for free - and I think Juventus are still laughing.