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Top Footballing Quotes of each Decade




1980s

  • "We talk about it for 20 minutes and then we decide I was right." Dealing with disruptive players the Cloughie way.


1990s

  • "I only ever hit Roy the once. He got up so I couldn't have hit him very hard" Brian Clough referring to the time Roy Keane under-hit a back-pass in 1991.
  • "I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the business. But I was in the top one." Brian Clough reviewing his illustrious career.
  • "I bet their dressing room will smell of garlic rather than liniment over the next few months" Cloughie was not too impressed with the amount of French players signed by Arsenal.
  • "For all his horses, knighthoods and championships, he hasn't got two of what I've got. And I don't mean balls." Cloughie mocking Fergie's European Cup record.
  • "Players lose you games, not tactics. There's too much crap talked about tactics by people who barely know how to win a game of dominoes." Brian Clough on England's dismal failure at Euro 2000.
  • "He's a handsome young man but he spends too much time looking in the mirror rather than looking at the ball. You can't keep goal with hair like that." Cloughie ponders the qualities of the ravishing David Seaman and his lovely ponytail.
  • "I can't even spell spaghetti never mind talk Italian. How could I tell an Italian to get the ball - he might grab mine." Cloughie talks about the number of foreign players in the league.
  • "Anybody who can do anything in Leicester but make a jumper, has got to be a genius." Brian Clough when asked about his views on his former player Martin O'Neill.


2000s

  • "Don't worry - I wasn't looking at a goalkeeper!" Sheffield Wednesday manager Alan Irvine after telling local reporters that he'd been on a scouting trip to Scotland to watch the 6:6 draw between Motherwell and Hibernian in May 2010
  • "Manchester Utd in Brazil? I hope they all get bloody diarrhoea." Brian Clough after Man Utd chose to compete in the World Club Championships instead of the FA Cup.

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