Alex Ferguson Quotes

Distinguish between power and control, delegate, be decisive - and always remember people's first names.

It's a horrible part of the game when you have to tell a player, probably somebody who has helped you win so much that his time is up. You treat them like family, and because they are your family it becomes even more hurting in the sense that you have got to say well son, I'm sorry, you won't be a regular here, but you will still have a career elsewhere.' It's happened more than a few times but it is not an easy thing to handle.

You can't do anything about them ...

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

My greatest challenge is not what's happening at the moment, my greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their f*****g perch. And you can print that.

A leader who arrives in a new setting, or inherits a big role, needs to curb the impulse to display his manhood.

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.

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.

You would have thought that I had left 11 corpses on the steps of a funeral home.

I never worried about teams who spend what they want to spend. It never bothered me. At the moment we have a lot of Middle Eastern owners, we have American owners of course, Russian owners. It never bothered me one bit. All I was concerned about was that we at United maintained our level of expectation, be competitive, be at the top part of the Premier League.

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.

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.

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

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.

Sometimes in football you have to hold your hand up and say, yeah, they're better than us.

The most important aspect of our system was training. Whatever happens on a Saturday afternoon has already occurred on the training ground.

I am such a bloody talented guy. I might go into painting or something like that.

I always say prepare to be a coach to anybody who wants to be a coach. At 24 years of age when I left engineering to become full time in football, I made sure that I was never going back to engineering.

Sometimes defeats are the best outcomes. To react to adversity is a quality.

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

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. (On Benitez)

One mark of a leader is his willingness to share information.

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.

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

Never give in or give up easily on a cause.

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.

For me drive means a combination of a willingness to work hard, emotional fortitude, enormous powers of concentration and a refusal to admit defeat. At

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.

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

That lad must have been born offside.

You cannot lead by following.

If I have my health I can carry on. There will be a point when I do quit but I have absolutely no idea when that is.

As long as there are games to play it is not over.

He has an awareness of what's happening around him on the edge of the box which is better than most players. As a kid he always had a knack of arriving in the penalty area just at the right time, but he's proving just as effective from outside the box because he's using his experience in the right way. It doesn't matter who I am thinking about bringing into my midfield, Paul Scholes will be included, as he would in any side in the world.

Don't lie, don't steal and always be early.

David Beckham is Britain's finest striker of a football not because of God-given talent but because he practices with a relentless application that the vast majority of less gifted players wouldn't contemplate.

As long as you don't criticise individual players in public, admonishing the team is fine, not a problem. We can all share in the blame: the manager, his staff, the players. Expressed properly, criticism can be an acceptance of collective responsibility. Under

It was the most emphatic display of selflessness I have seen on a football field. Pounding over every blade of grass, competing if he would rather die of exhaustion than lose, he inspired all around him. I felt such an honor to be associated with such a player.

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.

Well, football is a hard game; there's no denying it. It's a game that can bring out the worst in you, at times.

I don't like losing but I've mellowed. I maybe have a short fuse but it goes away quicker now.

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.

The time I have already spent at Harvard has been a stimulating experience, and I look forward to developing my relationship and activities with the students, faculty and friends of the Harvard Business School community.

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

Myths grow all the time. If I was to listen to the number of times I've thrown teacups then we've gone through some crockery in this place. It's completely exaggerated, but I don't like people arguing back with me.

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.

Ronaldo could play for Millwall, QPR, Doncaster Rovers or anyone and he'd score a hat-trick. I'm not sure Messi could do it. Ronaldo's got two feet, he's quick, he's good in the air and he's brave, though Messi's brave too of course. I just think Messi is a Barcelona player.

I bet him he wouldn't get 15 league goals and I'm going to have to change my bet with him. If he gets to 15 I can change it and I am allowed to do that because I'm the manager. I'm going to make it 150 now!

He's a novice - he should keep his opinions to Japanese football

Gianfranco Zola once sent Gary Pallister the wrong way to such an extent that he needed a ticket to get back in.

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.

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.

I tell the players that the bus is moving. This club has to progress. And the bus wouldn't wait for them. I tell them to get on board.

If Chelsea drop points, the cat's out in the open. And you know what cats are like - sometimes they don't come home.

David impresses by his example on the field. He never stops running, he plays with supreme confidence, he always tries his hardest and he scores important goals.
(on David Beckham)

Liverpool can play for only five minutes and win the game, that is the way they are. They pump the ball into the box and with good set-piece delivery they keep you under pressure.

I was doing all the coaching schools so that I'd be able to stay in the game, and I gave myself a chance by doing that. I was only an average player, could score a goal or two, that sort of thing, but I wasn't a Bobby Charlton or a Messi, or Ronaldo. There are very, very few really great players who have become great coaches.

you learn more from defeats than you do from victories

One particular game sticks in my mind: in March 2007 we went to Middlesbrough during a three-month period when we had the Swedish striker, Henrik Larsson, on loan from Helsingborgs. I could not have asked more from him when, under real pressure, he abandoned his attacking position and fell back into midfield just to help dig out the result. When Henrik appeared in the dressing room at the end of the game, all the players and staff stood up and spontaneously broke into applause for the immense effort he had made in his unaccustomed role. At the end of the season we requested an extra Premier League winners' medal for Henrik, even though he had not played the ten games that at the time were required to obtain the award.

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

Jamie Carragher trained with United as a youngster. When he was with us he was a midfielder and a mundane, run-of-the-mill player.

Promise is one thing. Fulfilling that promise is quite another.

The way to win battles, wars and games is by attacking and overrunning the opposing side.

If you're going to be a footballer, be a great one.If you're going to have a dream, dream big.

Critics have always questioned whether players like Pele from the 50s could play today. Lionel Messi could play in the 1950s and the present day, as could Di Stefano, Pele, Maradona, Cruyff because they are all great players. Lionel Messi without question fits into that category.

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

You are responsible to each other because when you win a game of football, you only need eight players to perform well.

They had Jan Venegoor of ... whatever you call him.

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

I feel sympathy for the working class lad. I've always championed about ticket prices and try to equate that to people's salaries.

Kindness is a universal language regardless of age, nationality or religion.

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

He could start a row in an empty house.

Once you bid farewell to discipline you say goodbye to success

I always used to say to players at half-time, 'Be patient. The last fifteen minutes throw the kitchen sink at them. It's worth a gamble'. You are going to lose the game anyway. There is nothing better than when you get to that last fifteen minutes and you actually win the game late on. The fans are going out of the gates I gave it a try and it worked.

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.

If ever there was one player, anywhere in the world, that was made for Manchester United, it was Cantona. He swaggered in, stuck his chest out, raised his head and surveyed everything as though he was asking: 'I'm Cantona. How big are you? Are you big enough for me?'

Everyone remembers Stuart Pearce as a determined, aggressive player, who played with great heart and enthusiasm that gave him a great career in the game.

Part of the pursuit of excellence involves eliminating as many surprises as possible because life is full of the unexpected.

It's a conflict of parallels.

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.

Don't play the occasion, play the game.

the best leaders tend to be missionaries rather than mercenaries.

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

The lads really ran their socks into the ground.

Onde you bid farewell to discipline you day goodbye to success

I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Football. Bloody hell.

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

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

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.

They say it was Cesc Fabregas who threw the pizza at me but, to this day, I have no idea who the culprit was.

Only true champions come out and show their worth after defeat- and I expect us to do that.

He's fiery, he's competitive, ... I think it was an unfair booking, and Wayne reacts like this against injustice.

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

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.

There is no evidence that changing your managers repeatedly leads to success, but there is evidence at Manchester United, I was managing there for 26 years I won 38 trophies.

Her Majesty said she hoped I would have time for my horses - I own two and have shares in four.

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

Attack wins you games, defence wins you titles.

As long as there are games to play its not over