Sir Alex Ferguson tunnettiin useista huulenheitoistaan sekä kärkevistä kommenteistaan. Valioliiga.comin toimitus keräsi listan Fergien tunnetuimmista sutkautuksista.
Ferguson Ryan Giggsistä nähdessään hänen pelaavan ensimmäistä kertaa: ”He was 13 and just floated around like a cocker spaniel chasing a piece of silver paper in the wind.”
Old Traffordista: ”The crowd were dead. It was like a funeral out there.”
Juan Veronin saamasta kritiikistä: ”On you go. I’m no fucking talking to you. He’s a fucking great player. Yous are fucking idiots.”
Vuoden 2003 mestaruustaistelusta: ” It’s getting tickly now – Squeaky-bum time, i call it.”
Arsene Wengeristä: ”They say he’s an intelligent man,right? Speaks five languages. I’ve got a 15-year old boy who speaks five languages! ”
Italialaisista: ” ”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.”
Alan Sheareristä miehen siirryttyä vuonna 1992 Blackburniin Unitedin sijaan: “Would Kenny Dalglish have signed for Blackburn when he was a player? I know what he would have done if United and Blackburn had both come in for him.”
Liverpoolista vuodelta 1993: ”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.”
Paul Incestä: ”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.”
Erotuomari Alan Wileysta: ”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. He was taking 30 seconds to book a player. He was needing a rest. It was ridiculous.”
Ajatukset siitä, että Liverpool voittaisi mestaruuden 2007: ”You must be joking. Do I look as if I’m a masochist ready to cut myself? How does relegation sound instead?”
Cristiano Ronaldosta, ennen kuin mies myytiin Real Madridiin: ”Do you think I would enter into a contract with that mob? Absolutely no chance. I would not sell them a virus. That is a ’No’ by the way. There is no agreement whatsoever between the clubs.”
Filippo Inzaghista: ”That lad must have been born offside.”
Wayne Rooneyn siirtopyynnön jälkeen vuonna 2010: ”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.”
Miten Gary Neville olisi Britannian paras puolustaja: 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.”
Fergie oli potkaissut kengän David Beckhamin naamalle: ”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!”
Beckhamin muuttumisesta ihmisenä: “He was blessed with great stamina, the best of all the players I’ve had here. After training, he’d always be practising, practising, practising. But his life changed when he met his wife. She’s in pop and David got another image. He’s developed this ‘fashion thing’ – I saw his transition to a different person.”
Vuoden 1999 Mestarien liigavoiton jälkeen: ”I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. Football. Bloody hell.”
Jose Mourinhosta istuttuaan iltaa portugalilaisen kanssa: ”He was certainly full of it, calling me boss and big man when we had our post-match drink after the first leg. But it would help if his greetings were accompanied by a decent glass of wine. What he gave me was paint-stripper.
Citystä uuden omistuksen myötä: “Sometimes you have a noisy neighbour. You cannot do anything about that. They will always be noisy. You just have to get on with your life, put your television on and turn it up a bit louder.”
Psykologinen analyysi Rafael Benitezin käytöksestä: “I think he 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.”
Rooneyn siirryttyä Unitediin: “I am very excited. I think we have got the best young player this country has seen in the past 30 years.
Eläköitymispuheita vuonna 2001: ”I will be leaving Manchester United at the end of the season and that is it. Then I will have to decide what I want to do. There are some offers and options, so I will make a decisions over the next few months.”
Eläköitymispuheita vuonna 2008: “I won’t be doing a Bobby Robson and be a manager when I am 70. It is just knowing when to quit. Football is like a drug which is difficult to give up.”
Eläköitymispuheita vuonna 2011: “I just don’t think about retirement any more. When you’ve been on the treadmill for so long, 25 years in my case, and my health is good at the moment, it’s just a matter of looking forward to being the manager of Manchester United, rather than worrying about Alex Ferguson.”
Wengeristä, ranskalaisen saavuttua Arsenalin peräsimeen: He’s a novice and should keep his opinions to Japanese football.”
Wengeristä vuonna 2004 Pizzagaten jälkeen: “In the tunnel Wenger was criticising my players, calling them cheats, so I told him to leave them alone and behave himself. To not apologise for the behaviour of the players to another manager is unthinkable. It’s a disgrace, but I don’t expect Wenger to ever apologise, he’s that type of person.”
Fergusonin vertaus joukkuepelistä: ”I’m going to tell you the story about the geese which fly 5,000 miles from Canada to France. They fly in V-formation but the second ones don’t fly. They’re the subs for the first ones. And then the second ones take over – so it’s teamwork.”
Managerin työstä: ”Football management is such a pressurised thing – horseracing 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.”
Brittijalkapallon alkoholiongelmasta: ”In England, it’s a rare thing to see a player smoking but, all in all, I prefer that to an alcoholic. The relationship with alcohol is a real problem in English football and, in the short term, it’s much more harmful to a sportsman. It weakens the body, which becomes more susceptible to injury.”
Unitedin 20 mestaruudesta: ”Look at me – it’s taken 10 years off me today. It’s these tablets, they’re great!”
Fergien kommentit BBC:lle eläköitymispäätöksestään: ”It was important to me to leave an organisation in the strongest possible shape and I believe I have done so,” he said.
”The quality of this league winning squad, and the balance of ages within it, bodes well for continued success at the highest level whilst the structure of the youth set-up will ensure that the long-term future of the club remains a bright one.”
Lähteet: Guardian.co.uk, BBC.co.uk, Mirror.co.uk, redcliff.com/sport, Brainyquotes.com