Sir Alex Says...

gooDevil

I was thinking it would be nice to have a thread that consists only of quotes from Sir Alex Ferguson.

If people would be willing to put any quotes they read around the net in here I think it would be nice to have a place to read (hopefully) all the comments from the person whose opinion matters the most on all things United.

Of course if the quote won't make sense without the question asked, feel free to include it. As there's already a thread for the pre-match news conferences we can skip or add those quotes depending on how people feel. I don't want to try to usurp that thread but it would still be nice if this one had all his quotes in one place, as a resource.



So, I'll get it started:

After 0-1 loss @ Norwich:

“(Norwich) defended for their lives and you know from the past few weeks there has been a big improvement in their defensive record.

“Not losing a goal against Arsenal, not losing a goal against Stoke, so there is an indication that Chris has got their act together in terms of not losing goals. If you don’t lose goals then you always have a chance of winning the match.

“We’re disappointed to lose the game but we have to give credit to Norwich for the way they fought and battled for every ball on the pitch. They defended fantastically well and the goalkeeper also had a really good night so it’s disappointing.

“He has made a couple of good saves. One from Anderson at the end and the one he tipped over the bar. We had a couple of half chances from Robin (van Persie) but it didn’t turn out quite correct. The goal was a marvellous cross and a marvellous touch so the goalkeeper could do nothing about that.

“I always feel we can do that (come from behind to win), the history of the club is like that and the players we’ve got are used to making comebacks, particularly in the last minutes of matches, we’re always a threat,” he said.

“Although we had a lot of possession and one or two half-chances without having great chances it just wasn’t our night.

“Any chances we got seemed to be half-chances and the goalkeeper has had a good night. He made some saves at vital moments. Towards the end we had a lot of pressure but we just didn’t get the goal we needed.

“We had plenty of possession in the first half as well but you have to give credit to the way they defended. They deserved the win just because they worked so hard for it.”

Q: Has there been a decision on Scholes returning next season?

There’s not a time to make a judgement on that. I think Paul will know himself,” he said. “But he is still the best passer of the ball in the country. That’s not stopped. He has still got the desire to play. He is 38 and Ryan is 39 on November 29.

“It’s amazing, particularly with Scholesy, because he has had one or two injuries over the years and he quit last summer and then came back again. He made a fantastic contribution in the second half of last season. I just think he’s doing what he’s doing and he’ll sort it out.”

Q: Did the team miss Wayne Rooney?

“We always miss our good players but we had plenty of good players on the pitch,” he said. “He’s had tonsillitis. We hope he’ll be in over the weekend – we’ll see what he’s like then. If he does (come in) hopefully we can get him ready for Tuesday.”

Moriarty

Why couldn't he have had his tonsils out at age 8 like the rest of us?

gooDevil

After 3-2 win @ Villa:

"You have to go into games believing you are going to be two goals ahead rather than two goals behind but it's happened a few times this season.

"We were two goals behind against Tottenham (in a 3-2 league defeat in September) and I thought we were unlucky not to get back.

"It won't happen all the time. You can't take it for granted that you can come back from two goals behind.

"This is the area where we're hopefully going to improve but we've got to defend better."

Pexbo

Every weekend for the last 26 years:

"Thurs nor dow bow tha"

Kid Cunto

"You and your paper can fuck off."

londonredmaniac

They didn't defend for their lives at all

204Red

they didn't actually have that much defending to do

londonredmaniac

Indeed.

Stack

Thats funny, I thought they defended very well and worked extremely hard. Defending isnt just tackles, its also tracking runs, retaining shape, cutting off passing lanes.

Not sure what you watched but they worked very hard.

gooDevil

Before CL game @ Gala

"We dodged the greeting from the fans, we came underground! In 1993 it was incredible, quite frightening, but we have been a few times now and are used to the Turkish atmosphere. It is fanatical, but it is no issue for us.

"Apart from Nick Powell and Alex Buttner a lot of the players have experience of playing in front of big crowds.

"It's completely different for Powell. It will be his first game at this level, but his temperament will be important.

"We don't consider it a gamble, but we do consider our reputation and being fair to the teams in the group.

"When we discussed the team for tomorrow we had to give serious consideration to how the media and the public would react, so we had to think hard about the team we picked."

Sky1981

Just my 2cents, try to form the event , perhaps abit of remarks as to what even he's commenting on, and most important the date

It'll be nice in the long run to have a bit of a time line, instead of just lines from all over.

Date // On what occasion

e.g.

26th May 1999 // After beating Bayern on the last minute of EC
"Football.. bloody hell!"

EDIT : It'll also give us better hindsight, knowing what he commented on years from now

gooDevil

Well, mostly idea is that these would be things he's said recently, on the day if not during the week, and the posts have the date already. But if the quote is a bit old then a date would be great.

I agree it would be good to have some mention of the occasion. Posts edited.

SATA

'There's no question about that'

CentreForward

Nope. Not at all. We were toothless if anything. Why can't he just give credit to them. Which he kind of did, sort of. Yet we did not cause them any much troubles

Sky1981

What recent now will be old in a few years, it's nice to have them arranged nicely while we're at it, it could be a good compilation with a detailed timeline

Feeky_Magee

"Hello"

Proud_Lyon

Good morning Feeky!!!

togg

about the Norwich game:

"We were too long in delaying our crosses. We should have got the ball in earlier," Ferguson said on MUTV.

"But we just didn't get into the space behind them, it just didn't happen for us.

"Norwich got plenty of men behind the ball and closed out all of the spaces and we just couldn't get our crosses in."

marjen

Well, Fergie, that's what happens when every player take 7 touches before rolling the ball sideways very slowly. It's not going to create a lot of space.

It had nothing to do with Norwich, who were quite average and laboured on the day. It had everything to do with a United-side that didn't turn up.

And for the record, it is possible to create chances without passing it to Valencia and asking him to cross it.

manusteve

LOL the patterns of our passing and areas of play were astonishingly naive. All Norwich did was defend all the way across the pitch as our passing went from one flank to another.

The oft misguided comments from commentators about needing to have width just had me shaking my head. We need to be more inventive (especially down the middle) when faced with a well-organised defence. I had hopes that Welbeck would bring some much needed inter-play but he was deployed right up front while we continued our right-to-left-and-back strategy....MINDLESS!!!

Jimy_Hills_Chin

'Carrick is absolutely undroppable, there is no question about that, if I can't fit him in midfield then he goes in at centre back. 'Sans Carrick' threads are a waste of time'

Maciek

Andy Mitten ‏@AndyMitten

Turkish journo being smart to SAF. "You were disappointed in '93 and again now. Anything changed in 19 yrs?"

SAF: "Yes, we've won it twice."

EvilChuck

After the 1-0 win over Chelsea at Old Trafford where Fletch scored a header (I think in like 2005?) Geoff Shreeves did the post match interview live with Sir Alex which opened with this exchange;

Shreeves: "Had you known more pressure on you, more questions asked of you in your 19 year tenure here?"
Sir Alex: "Ahhh thats absolute bollocks that, absolute nonsense"

Steven Seagull

"Look how many midfielders I have"

gooDevil

After CL game at Gala:

Q: How were the young players in the team?

"Their temperament was good, the crowd never affected us and I thought they put up a reasonable show. Some of the possession was good, some of the attacking play at times was good without finishing the game off with one or two opportunities in both halves. We handled it quite well throughout the match, but we have lost a goal from a corner. It is not surprising because of the strength they have there, but nonetheless to lose a goal from a corner kick is never easy to take."

"Parts of the game were good, but we we suffered at set pieces. We had some good attacking play in the first half and, at that point, the only trouble they gave us was from outside the box. It was a very competitive, good game.

"I think if there was one part of it we were going to worry about was set-pieces because they are a more experienced, stronger, bigger side and you expect them to cause you some problems at set-pieces."

jakec

On Rafa Benitez:

''Sir Alex Ferguson has called Rafa Benitez "very lucky" and claimed the new Chlsea manager has earned success through the effort of others, such as Jose Mourinho and Roberto Di Matteo.

The Manchester United boss, who will see a statue of himself unveiled at Old Trafford later today, told the press the new Chelsea manager is boasting credentials he hasn't earned and could be set to add to that in the near future. "On his CV in two weeks time he could have two world championships to his name and have nothing to do with the teams. Jose Mourinho won the treble with Inter Milan, he took over and won the world championship."

Ferguson was referring to Benitez's previous World Club Cup win with Inter, a competition he managed the Italian side in in 2010, on the back of Jose Mourinho's triumph in the previous season.

Ferguson went on to say if Benitez wins the competition for a second time, with Chelsea, he won't have earned the honour as he got there "without having to do anything" and he had "nothing to do with the construction of the teams."

Benitez will take his new Chelsea side to Japan next month to compete for the trophy and will be expected to do well as the European representatives. Ferguson said he feels "very disappointed for Roberto Di Matteo" as he thinks the Italian should have been given the chance to compete in the competition and add the World Club Cup to his European Cup and FA Cup honours.

gooDevil

"I thought it might be a record Premier League score at half-time,'' Ferguson told ESPN. "That was the absolute worst it's been this season. We deserved to get battered today. We scored goals thankfully which rescued us.

"If you make mistakes like that defending then you are going to have to do rescue jobs every week,'' he said. "Today was another rescue job. It was a miracle that we won the way we were defending. I'm just glad we did win it.''

Speaking about his decision to substitute Rafael, who looked less than impressed as he walked to the bench, Ferguson added: "I brought Chris Smalling on, which was an improvement in terms of height. The boy was disappointed coming off. He has been one of our best players this season.''

Giggsforever

I was saying that before half time. He probably told the team and the ones actually to blame that -" I had to take off one of our best players because you can't handle your job, it's your fault that he is not playing". God choice by SAF, but he really should give the right players a telling, and I think he did.

Ole's_toe_poke

McGrathsipan

http://www1.skysports.com/football/n...t-Old-Trafford

McGrathsipan

Headline...Fergie says Jose may replace me...

Actual story is Fergie says Jose would be capable of replacing me...

Sky sensationalinsm again...Cnuts