The sporting year ... in crazy quotes
“I am one of the few who thought Gerrard was not a top, top, player. When Scholes and Keane were in our team Gerrard seldom had a kick against us.”
“It’s pure constipated hurling.”
“I want nothing to do with that. It’s an absolute disgrace. He’s a brilliant footballer but in so far as he’s a man, you can forget about it.”
“Rafa Benitez – We’re just not that inter im”
“They’ve killed us. The team is a mess. It’s a shambles, Bill. He makes Trapattoni seem like Pep Guardiola… If you were running one of the competitions for a member of the public to pick a football team, that’s the kind of team they might pick.”
“What I see now is that the talent that we all thought would be there is not there.”
“He couldn’t put on a coaching session to save his life. I’ve spoken to people about him and he can barely lay out cones.”
“We should be allowed to take 10,000 volt tasers onto the course and taser every muppet who shouts out something stupid. I would laugh then.”
“We got to a Connacht final last year but we’re papering over the cracks. There are players there that deserve better quality of training and management and I think going forward Kevin should make the right decision for the sake of Sligo football and not anybody else.”
“I went as hard as I could for as long as I could.”
“We had our battles in various games but I wouldn’t have a bad word said against Paul. Hopefully down the road we could meet up and have a few drinks and a chat.”
“This man has real pedigree. That’s the mystery. I’m still astonished that he made such a bags of it.”
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“From a Tipperary hurling point of view, I’m around a long time and I think it’s time somebody else got a shot at it.”
“He made us realise, we are our brother’s keeper and that our brothers come in all colours. He taught us forgiveness on a grand scale. His was a spirit born free, destined to soar above the rainbows. Today his spirit is soaring through the heavens. He is now forever free.”
“My life’s been 22 yards for 24 years. It’s hard to believe that wonderful journey is coming to an end.”
“I want to say thank you to Manchester United. Not just the directors, coaching staff, medical staff, the players, the fans, but to all of you – you have been the most fantastic experience of my life.”
“Yes.”
“Yes, I was a bully. I was a bully in the sense that I tried to control the narrative and if I didn’t like what someone said I turned on them.”
“When you see the punishment... I got a death penalty meaning I can’t compete. I’m not saying that is unfair but it is different.”
“The thing that makes me most angry is the fact that they’re trashing our history. It’s like driving a bulldozer through a war cemetery.”
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“I’m looking forward to some change in my body. It’s really hard to feel the difference if you’re only doing it for a couple of months.”
“I don’t know. I really don’t. I’d like to think there is some good in all this but from my perspective, sitting here today, there has been nothing but damage done to the sport.”
‘This is not a black day in Australian sport, this is the blackest day.’
“For it to all just work out for me, on such an emotional day, I couldn’t help but look up to the heavens and think that my old dad Ken had something to do with it.”
“Crossing the line with [the] guys brought tears to my eyes. I expected it to be big but this is something else.”
“That’s the way it goes, isn’t it? We’re only the small, little fish out there and we’re trying hard to make it through but how do you get the breaks when you’re a small fish?”
“If there is anybody walking the planet now who hasn’t put all the pieces together, I’d be very surprised. I said at the time, there were some fairly dark forces operating against whatever I tried to do.”
s.
“This video shows the respect and consideration that Fifa has for me, my club and my country. Much is explained now.”
“He’s a peculiar fish at the best of times. He just needs a bit of love every now and again. He’s not a big talker but he does what he does.”
“A fella stood up behind me and roared with venom: ‘Fitzgerald you haven’t a clue. You’re ruining Clare hurling’.”
“For him he wants to talk to you, to know a little more about you to give you the confidence. It was like a second love for me.”
“They don’t let a male stud mate before a big race because it takes away the horse’s drive and energy.”
“He’s a good guy to me. As a person to person, he’s my friend. I don’t condone what he does.”
“I said to him the roles that we would have and he told me he would reverse those in about 10 minutes.”
“You don’t know Martin as well as you think you do, he makes me look like Mother Teresa.”
“We’ve had a lovely few days. The hotel’s been lovely. The food’s been excellent. The training ground is lovely. No potholes. We’ve had footballs… it’s been great… bibs, everything. It’s been major progress.”
“She begins every interview with ‘I’m so happy. I’m so lucky’ — it’s so boring. She’s still not going to be invited to the cool parties. And, hey, if she wants to be with the guy with a black heart, go for it.”
“If she wants to talk about something personal, maybe she should talk about her relationship and her boyfriend that was married and is getting a divorce and has kids.”
“One thing is for sure, a World Cup without me is nothing to watch.”
“As a boy he would get angry and cry easily if other boys didn’t pass him the ball, or because they did not play as he wanted. They called him ‘cry baby’.”
“I think Ronaldo is now a truly great player.”
“1948 is a long time ago. Sean T O’Kelly was the president, John A Costello was the Taoiseach, he took over from Éamon de Valera, Noel Browne was the Minister for Health and it’s all over! Waterford are All Ireland champions for a third time, the first time since 1948. Waterford hurling is back on the big stage!”
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“Oh Holy Moses what a match! I have never experienced anything like it.”
“This game of Gaelic football has been infiltrated by a load of spoofers and bluffers, people with no experience in some cases of Gaelic football. Fellas with earpieces stuck in their ear, psychologists, statisticians and dieticians and we have forgotten the basic principles of the game.”
“Thank God we went to Knock on Saturday on the way.”
“I don’t wake up and think I’ve won the Masters. But when I walk in the closet and I put the green jacket on every morning, I do.”
“I’m rooting for a tie. Can the NFL do that?”
“Twelve frees? That’s just beyond me. I can’t understand that, I really can’t. That’s one of the very disappointing things. Not only were we playing Mayo but we were playing the referee as well.”
“I find that amazing. I find that absolutely amazing, if that was the comment. I know Jim made another interesting comment; that he’d walk away if his team were cynical. So maybe that’s another comment Jim should look at.”
“To be a minute away from history and have the ball in your hands on their 10-metre line, well it’s devastating. I guess you sum it up as a step forward but a missed opportunity.”
“I’m not in a great place mentally. I can’t really say much, guys. I’m just in a bad place mentally.”
“It’s not the way to play football. By the end, it was a shambles. I didn’t really care at the end. Because I didn’t think we deserved to get to Rio.”
“I fear we are on the road that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are on; not qualifying for anything for a long time.”
“The goals killed us.”
“The only people who should play for England are English people.”
“I’m not gonna lie. He’s not my favourite guy to play with. He’s not the nicest guy on the tour. It’s good for both of us. We don’t enjoy each other’s company. You don’t have to be a rocket engineer to figure that out.”
“We did go out to the middle of the pitch, all the lads, drinking beers, singing a few songs and enjoying each other’s company. I think the call of nature might have come once or twice, but it was nothing untoward.”
“I am not political, I do not affiliate myself to any organisation. I am not a racist and I do not support the ideology of fascism.”
“What do you think they’re smoking over there at Emirates?”
“Some are talking out of their backsides, a load of tosh. I’m not accepting it, as simple as that. I have certainly got more intelligence than them, that’s for sure.”
“Do you think Bartoli’s dad told her when she was little, ‘You’re never going to be a looker, you’ll never be a Sharapova, so you have to be scrappy and fight’?”
“I’m here to analyse. By the way, that’s what you’re paid to do as well, not be a PR man for Trapattoni.”
“It was terrible; when I was Taoiseach I missed the European final. I said I can’t go because they’ll all give out.”
“I was dropping his mother off at the airport this morning at 6am, and unfortunately I fell asleep.”
“I was collecting €188 a week off social welfare and here I am with 60 thousand dollars. I don’t know what the f*ck’s going on to be honest.”
“Newspapers can report anything. Bloody hell, newspaper reporters have been writing lies since the year dot.”
“Man of the Match Dave Bergen claimed the subsequent kick-off and went charging upfield like sex-crazed rhino on bad acid.”
The Sligo Champion felt the call of the wild during a match report on Sligo’s 6-3 win over UCG in the Heineken Connacht Junior Cup.
“The whole world looks different. It’s like when the summer comes and you see all the girls walking about in miniskirts. When the sun’s out, all the girls look fantastic. That’s how you feel when you’ve had a win.”
Harry Redknapp celebrated QPR’s new winning feeling.
