Background Image

...

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?'

-Alex Ferguson

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

If Ever There Was

Alex Ferguson

...

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?'

Views: 4

Topic

More From Alex Ferguson

Keeping Players Happy Is Not Easy And I Think Anyone With A Big Squad Will Tell You That.

Evolution Happens. There's No Football Team In The World That Has Stayed Together For Time Ever More.

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.

He's A Novice - He Should Keep His Opinions To Japanese Football

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.

I Think His Team Are Mirroring Stuart Pearce As The Player He Was. (on Manchester City)

I Think Sepp Blatter Is In Danger...or Has Reached A Point Now, Where He Is Being Mocked Within The Game. Whether He's Getting Too Old, I Don't Know. But Things Can Happen To People In Power. Look At Some Of The Despots In Africa... From A Position Of Great Power, He Has Uttered So Many Ridiculous Statements That He Is In Danger Of Seriously Damaging His Credibility.

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.

I Always Said To The Directors That The Minute A Player Becomes More Powerful Than The Manager Of Manchester United, It's Not Manchester United. You Have Lost Control Of The Whole Club. So I Always Made Sure That I Was In Control. They Always Knew Who The Manager Was.

I'm No F****** Talking To You. He's A F****** Great Player. Yous Are F******* Idiots.

It's A Conflict Of Parallels.

We Once Went 13 Games Without Winning. There's Always Pressure Here. Winning Is Always Important Here. How Do You Handle Yourself And Compose Yourself Is Important. (on Manchester United)

I'm A Pele Fan From Way Back When I Was A Kid, And Then There Was Always This Thing Later About Pele And Maradona. I Was Young And Impressionable As A Kid But It Was Always Pele For Me.

Pardew Has Come Out And Criticized Me. He Is The Worst At Haranguing Referees. He Shoves Them And Makes A Joke Of It. How He Can Criticize Me Is Unbelievable. He Forgets The Help I Gave Him, By The Way. The Press Have Had A Field Day. The Only Person They Have Not Spoken To Is Barack Obama Because He Is Busy. It Is Unfortunate But I Am The Manager Of The Most Famous Club In The World. Not Newcastle, A Wee Club In The North-east. I Was Demonstrative. I Am Always Demonstrative. Everyone Knows That. I Am An Emotional Guy But I Was Not Abusive.

Pippo Inzaghi Was Born In An Offside Position.

The Most Important Thing In A Game Like That Is To Win It.

All They Can Talk About Is Manchester United.

Manchester United

Cole Should Be Scoring From Those Distances, But I'm Not Going To Single Him Out.

You Can't Applaud A Referee.

When He's At The Top Of His Game, There's Not A Team In The World That Can Handle Giggs' Speed And Penetration

I Can't Believe It. I Can't Believe It. Football. Bloody Hell.

He Was Taking 30 Seconds To Book A Player. He Was Needing A Rest. It Was Ridiculous.

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.

Look At Me – It's Taken 10 Years Off Me Today. It's These Tablets, They're Great!

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.

David Beckham Is Britain's Finest Striker Of A Football Not Because Of God-given Talent But Because He Practises With A Relentless Application That The Vast Majority Of Less Gifted Players Wouldn't Contemplate.

Never Give In Or Give Up Easily On A Cause.

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.

When An Italian Tells Me It's Pasta On The Plate, I Check Under The Sauce To Make Sure.

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.

We Are Very Focused This Time And Our Preparation Has Been Better. We Maybe Made One Or Two Mistakes Last Time, But Not This Time.

Scholes Was Probably The Best English Midfielder Since Bobby Charlton. He Was Such A Brilliant Long Passer That He Could Choose A Hair On The Head Of Any Team-mate Answering The Call Of Nature At Our Training Ground. Gary Neville Once Thought He Had Found Refuge In A Bush, But Scholesy Found Him From 40 Yeards. He Inflicted A Similar Long-range Missile Strike, Once, On Peter Schmeichel, And Was Chased Round The Training Ground For His Impertinence. Scholesy Would Have Made A First Class-sniper.

There Are Members Of The London Press Who Seek To Antagonise Me, Deliberately.

I Think That Fear Does Come Into It In Some Respect In The Sense Of When I Lost My Temper I Didn't Hide Behind A Bush On It In Respect To The Times That I Did Lose My Temper. But You Know The Quality That I Had When I Lost My Temper, I Never, Ever Brought It Back Again.

As Long As There Are Games To Play Its Not Over

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.

It Was Time For Me To Spend More Time With My Wife. I'm Not Saying I Do Spend More Time With My Wife, Because She Would Throw Me Out Of The House, But We Have Breakfast Together. I Never Did.

I Am Such A Bloody Talented Guy. I Might Go Into Painting Or Something Like That.

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.

Hard Work Will Always Overcome Natural Talent When Natural Talent Does Not Work Hard Enough.

He Is Improving All The Time. He Is Only 21 And Who Knows What He Is Capable Of. (on Cristiano Ronaldo)

Cristiano Ronaldo

But There Is Always That Unpredictability About A Derby Match And That's What It Was Today.

Unpredictability

Players Know That They Can Trust Me Which Is Really Important. They Know That I Had The Ability To Adapt To Change, And They Have Seen That Many Times Over The Years. I Think These Are Important Parts Of Being In Control Of Footballers.

You Are Responsible To Each Other Because When You Win A Game Of Football, You Only Need Eight Players To Perform Well.

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 Could Start A Row In An Empty House.

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.

If Chelsea Drop Points, The Cat's Out In The Open. And You Know What Cats Are Like - Sometimes They Don't Come Home.

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 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.

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.

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.

If He Was An Inch Taller He'd Be The Best Center Half In Britain. His Father Is 6 Ft 2 In - I'd Check The Milkman.

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.

I Have Nothing But Praise For The Boy. He Is Easily The Best Player In The World. His Contribution As A Goal Threat Is Unbelievable. His Stats Are Incredible. Strikes At Goal, Attempts On Goal, Raids Into The Penalty Box, Headers. It Is All There. Absolutely Astounding.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Manchester United Might Not Win Premier League Every Year, But We'd Always Be Up There Competing For It Every Year.

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.

If My Parents Were Still Alive, They Would Be Very Proud. They Gave Me A Good Start In Life, The Values That Have Driven Me, And The Confidence To Believe In Myself.

I Do Believe In Fate.

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.

You Have To Put All The Criticism Of This Club Down To Jealousy. United Have Produced More Players Who Have Played For Their Country, More World-class Players And More Players Who Have Won European Footballer Of The Year Than Any Other Team In This Country, So We Must Be Doing Something Right.

Funnily Enough We Have Never Had One Enquiry For Paul Scholes. You Know Why? Because They All Know He Will Never Leave. In My Time He Would Be In The Top Six Or Seven (best United Players Ever) Without A Doubt. His Contribution And Quality Have Been Great, Even Without The Fantastic Goals He Has Scored. [ . . . ] He Has That Wonderful Velvet Touch On The Ball. When He Gets It, It Goes Stone Dead. It Is Wonderful To See That Amidst All The Mayhem That Can Happen In A Football Match.

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 Never Played For A Draw In My Life.

He's Fiery, He's Competitive, ... I Think It Was An Unfair Booking, And Wayne Reacts Like This Against Injustice.

Jose [mourinho] Was One Of Those Guys On A Surfboard Who Can Stay Longer On The Wave Than Anyone Else.

Football Management Is Such A Pressurized Thing - Horse Racing 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.

They Say He's An Intelligent Man, Right? Speaks Five Languages! I've Got A 15-year-old Boy From The Ivory Coast Who Speaks Five Languages!

Well He's Only 20. Without Question, He's The Best Youngest Player I've Seen In My Time... If He Keeps Developing And Matures ? Goodness Knows What He Will Become. At The Moment He's A Breathe Of Fresh Air. (on Wayne Rooney)

They Had Jan Venegoor Of...whatever You Call Him.

The Credit To Them, The Better Team Won And There's Nothing We Can Do About That Now.

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.

Manchester United

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.

You Can't Do Anything About Them.

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!

Go Make Your Mistakes In The First Team. You'll Learn More In A Month In The First Team Than You Will In Two Years In The Reserves.

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.

Promise Is One Thing. Fulfilling That Promise Is Quite Another.

I Remember The First Time I Saw Him. He Was 13 And Just Floated Over The Ground Like A Cockier Spaniel Chasing A Piece Of Silver Paper In The Wind.

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)

He's A Normal, Likable, Straightforward Boy. (on David Beckham)

If You're Going To Be A Footballer, Be A Great One.if You're Going To Have A Dream, Dream Big.

I Used To Have A Saying That When A Player Is At His Peak, He Feels As Though He Can Climb.

He's Such A Great Threat Because Of His Power And Pace. (on Cristiano Ronaldo)

Cristiano Ronaldo

As With Every Young Player These Days, Ronaldo Is 18.

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.

I'm Going To Tell You The Story About The Geese Which Fly 5,000 Miles From Canada To France.

You Start With What You Believe In. I Believe In Building A Football Club Rather Than Building A Football Team.

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.

If We Can Play Like That Every Week Well Get Some Level Of Consistency.

If You Were In A Game Of Football Always Think You Need Maybe Eight To Win The Game. Three Can On An Off Day Or Semi Off Day But You Always Hard. And The Players Recognize That And They'll Do That Extra To Make Sure They Get Winning. The Essence Of The Team Is To Understand And Trust Each Other And To Trust Me.

It Was The Most Emphatic Display Of Selflessness I Have Seen On A Football Field. Pounding Over Every Blade Of Grass, Competing As If He Would Rather Die Of Exhaustion Than Lose, He Inspired All Around Him.

I Feel Sympathy For The Working Class Lad. I've Always Championed About Ticket Prices And Try To Equate That To People's Salaries.

Attack Wins You Games, Defence Wins You Titles.

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.

They Say It Was Cesc Fabregas Who Threw The Pizza At Me But, To This Day, I Have No Idea Who The Culprit Was.

I Don't Like Losing But I've Mellowed. I Maybe Have A Short Fuse But It Goes Away Quicker Now.

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.

Football, Bloody Hell!

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.

The Lads Really Ran Their Socks Into The Ground.

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.

The Philosophy Of A Lot Of European Teams, Even In Home Matches, Is Not To Give A Goal Away.

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.

Wayne Is Truly Blessed. He Doesn't Just Have Ability, He Has A Fire Inside Him.

Distinguish Between Power And Control, Delegate, Be Decisive - And Always Remember People's First Names.

Gianfranco Zola Once Sent Gary Pallister The Wrong Way To Such An Extent That He Needed A Ticket To Get Back In.

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.

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.

I'm-a-god-look-at-me.

The Culmination Of Three Trophies Was The Pinnacle Of My Career And It Has Been Rewarded With A Knighthood.

I Think Paul Scholes Is The Best Player In England. He's Got The Best Skills, The Best Brain. No One Can Match Him. There Isn't A Player Of His Mould Anywhere In The World. Paul Is Irreplaceable.

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.

Kindness Is A Universal Language Regardless Of Age, Nationality Or Religion.

Only True Champions Come Out And Show Their Worth After Defeat- And I Expect Us To Do That.

Sometimes You're Not Sure About A Player. Sometimes You Doubt. Sometimes You Have To Guess. Sometimes You Just Know.

I Think Rafael Benítez 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.

The Work Of A Team Should Always Embrace A Great Player, But The Great Player Must Always Work.

Everest In His Slippers. That's What He Was Like.

Once You Shake Hands With The Devil, You Have To Accept They Are In Control.

I've Got A Temper If I Need It. Nothing Wrong With Losing Your Temper, If It's For The Right Reasons.

Her Majesty Said She Hoped I Would Have Time For My Horses - I Own Two And Have Shares In Four.

To Not Apologize For The Behavior Of The Players To Another Manager Is Unthinkable. It's A Disgrace, But I Don't Expect Wenger To Ever Apologize...he's That Type Of Person.

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.

I Realized I Was Good At Developing Young People. Eventually I Started To Believe In Young People. I Think When You Give A Young Person An Opportunity, He Always Believes Who Gave Him His First Chance. You Create A Loyalty That Lasts A Lifetime.

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.

That Lad Must Have Been Born Offside.

We Have To Try To Beat Everyone.

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?'

I Tried It 100 Or A Million Times It Couldn't Happen Again. If I Could, I Would Have Carried On Playing.

In Any Normal Season, Most Of The Teams Below Chelsea Would Think They Are Doing Quite Well.

They (the Press) Have A Hatred Of Manchester United.

Manchester United

Sometimes In Football You Have To Hold Your Hand Up And Say, Yeah, They're Better Than Us.

Trending Author

Category