Sir Alex Ferguson

[Guest Eric Tait Spurts]

HIS strike rate is amazing but he hasn’t beaten my record. I scored 45 in 51 games for Dunfermline. — on Ruud van Nistelrooy

THE European Cup will be 6ft away from you and you’ll not be able to touch it if we lose. Many of you will never get that close again. Don’t you dare come back in here without giving your all. — half-time team talk v B Munich

Football. Bloody hell! — after lifting the European Cup

IT was a freak incident. If I tried a million times I couldn’t do it again. If I could I’d have carried on playing! — Becks flying boot incident

DRIBBLING or sprinting he leaves the best defenders with twisted blood. — on Ryan Giggs

I can understand why clubs come away from Anfield choking on their own vomit and biting their tongues knowing they have been done by the referee .

My greatest challenge is not what's happening at the moment, my greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their f*cking perch. And you can print that - 2002

[Tormod Macleod]

Add to that:

I'm a right bitter English b*****d!

[Musketeer Gripweed]

Bill Shankly :

"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

Bill Shankly on boardroom meetings :

"At a football club, there's a holy trinity - the players, the manager and the supporters. Directors don't come into it. They are only there to sign the cheques, not to make them out. We'll do that, they just sign them."

Bill Shankly on his relationship with the fans :

"I'm just one of the people who stands on the kop. They think the same as I do, and I think the same as they do. It's a kind of marriage of people who like each other."

Bill Shankly on Tommy Smith :

"If he isn't named Footballer of the Year, football should be stopped and the men who picked any other player should be sent to the Kremlin"

Bill Shankly :

"Fire in your belly comes from pride and passion in wearing the red shirt. We don't need to motivate players because each of them is responsible for the performance of the team as a whole. The status of Liverpool's players keeps them motivated."

Bill Shankly :

"Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple."

Bill Shankly to a Liverpool fan :

"Where are you from?"

"I'm a Liverpool fan from London."

"Well laddie . . . . What's it like to be in heaven?"

Bill Shankly :

"Of course I didn't take my wife to see Rochdale as an anniversary present. It was her birthday. Would I have got married in the football season? Anyway, it was Rochdale reserves."

Bill Shankly on offsides :

"If a player is not interfering with play or seeking to gain an advantage, then he should be."

Bill Shankly :

"If Everton were playing at the bottom of the garden, I'd pull the curtains."

Bill Shankly to Tommy Smith :

"You son, you could start a riot in a graveyard."

Bill Shankly on the day he signed Ian St John :

"Son, you'll do well here as long as you remember two things. Don't over-eat and don't lose your accent."

Bill Shankly to Kevin Keegan :

"Just go out and drop a few hand-grenades all over the place, son."

Bill Shankly on Brian Clough :

"He's worse than the rain in Manchester. At least the rain in Manchester stops occasionally."

Bill Shankly to Tommy Smith, who tried to explain that his bandaged knee was injured :

"Take that bandage off. And what do you mean about YOUR knee? It's Liverpool's knee!"

Bill Shankly to the journalist suggesting Liverpool were in difficulties :

"Ay, here we are with problems at the top of the league."

Bill Shankly to a translator, when being surrounded by gesticulating Italian journalists :

"Just tell them I completely disagree with everything they say!"

Bill Shankly about the "This is Anfield" plaque :

"It's there to remind our lads who they're playing for, and to remind the opposition who they're playing against."

Bill Shankly to Alan Ball, who'd just signed for Everton :

"Don't worry, Alan. At least you'll be able to play close to a great team!"

Bill Shankly to a barber when asked if he wanted anything off the top :

"Aye, Everton."

A scout told Shanks about a young player who he'd given a trial at Liverpool

"He has football in his blood," the disappointed scout complained. "You may be right," Shanks said, "but it hasn't reached his legs yet!"

Bill Shankly at Dixie Dean's funeral :

"I know this is a sad occasion but I think that Dixie would be amazed to know that even in death he could draw a bigger crowd than Everton can on a Saturday Afternoon."

Bill Shankly when told he had never experienced playing in a derby :

"Nonsense! I've kicked every ball, headed out every cross. I once scored a hat-trick; One was lucky, but the others were great goals."

Bill Shankly after beating Everton in the '71 cup semi :

"Sickness would not have kept me away from this one. If I'd been dead, I would have had them bring the casket to the ground, prop it up in the stands and cut a hole in the lid."

Bill Shankly to a photographer who suggested Brian Clough was outspoken :

"Laddie, that man scored 200 goals in 270 matches - an incredible record - and he has won cup after cup as a manager. When he talks, pin back your ears."

Bill Shankly :

"A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are. In my time at Liverpool we always said we had the best two teams on Merseyside, Liverpool and Liverpool Reserves."

Bill Shankly :

"If you are first you are first. If you are second, you are nothing."

Bill Shankly :

"The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game."

Bill Shankly to a reporter in the 60's :

"Yes, Roger Hunt misses a few, but he gets in the right place to miss them."

Bill Shankly after signing Ron Yeats :

"With him in defence, we could play Arthur Askey in goal."

Bill Shankly after a hard fought 1-1 draw :

"The best side drew."

Bill Shankly after a 0-0 draw at Anfield :

"What can you do, playing against 11 goalposts?"

Bill Shankly to the players after failing to sign Lou Macari :

"I only wanted him for the reserves."

Jock Stein on Shanks :

"I don't believe everything Bill tells me about his players. If they were that good, they'd not only have won the European Cup but the Ryder Cup, the Boat Race and even the Grand National!"

Bill Shankly talking to a Liverpool trainee :

"The problem with you, son, is that all your brains are in your head"

Bill Shankly on Ian St.John :

"He's not just the best centre-forward in the British Isles, but the only one."

Bill Shankly on Ian Callaghan :

"He typifies everything that is good in football, and he has never changed. You could stake your life on Ian."

Bill Shankly on his resignation :

"It was the most difficult thing in the world, when I went to tell the chairman. It was like walking to the electric chair. That's the way it felt"