--- title: "Our Top 20 Football Quotes Of All Time" canonical: "https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/our-top-20-football-quotes-of-all-time/" type: "post" language: "en-GB" author: "Jamie Frier" section: "Liverpool Football Club" published: "2012-10-27T19:48:43Z" modified: "2012-10-27T19:48:43Z" --- # Our Top 20 Football Quotes Of All Time ![](https://cdn.footballtransfertavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/124.jpg) **From the men who seemingly can only think with their feet to those who are always ready and willing with a witty one-liner,  football is an absolute mine of verbal entertainment.** With well over a century of material to gather, here is our list of the twenty best football quotes of all time in no particular order. - *‘It’s often said that football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it’s much more important than that.’* Legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly in 1981 explaining just what football means to him. - *‘Please don’t call me arrogant, but I am European champion and I think I am a special one.’* Jose Mourinho makes himself an instant tabloid favourite by bringing out this pearler in his first press conference. - *‘I wouldn’t say I am the best in the business, but I’m definitely in the top one.’* Ok, we could have done a top twenty best Clough quotes without diluting the quality, but this has to be the best of the bunch. - *‘No wonder he’s in the f\*\*\*ing reserves.’* If you haven’t seen this on Youtube, get there now. ‘Arry Redknapp reacts with understandable fury after being hit by a wayward football. If he was leaning out of his car window, it would never have happened. - *‘Chile have three options. They could win or they could lose.’* Kevin Keegan struggling somewhat with his maths. That could explain why he rarely completed a 38-game season. - *‘They were lucky to get nil.’* Len Shackleton of Newcastle commenting on sorry Newport’s performance after a 13-0 drubbing. - *‘Today’s top players only want to play in London or for Manchester United. That’s what happened when I tried to sign Alan Shearer and he went to Blackburn.’* Future Blackburn manager Graeme Souness temporarily relocating his future club 230 miles south-east. - ‘*Sometimes you lose a game, and sometimes the other team wins.’* Otta Rehhagel nearly perfectly summing up the sport of football. If only he didn’t forget about draws. Or penalties. Or abandoned matches. Yeah, he mucked that one right up. - ‘*I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.’* Football’s first playboy star George Best horrifies accountants all over the country with this quote. Aston Martin dealers in the Cheshire area were less concerned. - *‘I was feeling as sick as the proverbial donkey.’* Sometimes there are just too many cliches to fit into a single press conference, so Mick McCarthy decided to economise and meld two together. Either that or he was just a bit of an idiot, but anyone who heard his Euro 2012 commentary knows that’s not true. - ‘*When seagulls follow the trawler it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.’* The poetic thug Eric Cantona at his post-kung-fu kick press conference bemusing and delighting journalists brought up on a diet of ‘At the end of the day I can only apologise to the gaffer, the lads and the fans that I’ve let down.’ - *‘We must have had 99% of that match. It was the other 3% that cost us.’* Ruud Gullit getting his percentages hopelessly wrong. 102% as a whole? What about the other 8% Ruud? - *‘If the ball had gone in, it would have been a goal.’* Joe Royle clearly failing to predict Pedro Mendes, Frank Lampard or Marco Devic’s attempts. At the time he felt foolish, now even more so. - *‘I was really surprised when the FA knocked on my doorbell.’* Now I’m not entirely sure whether Michael Owen made a muck-up of this quote or the FA genuinely did knock on his doorbell. Either way, someone’s been a plank. - *‘Liverpool will be thinking they should have won this 2-2.’* Ok, not the worst thing that anyone has ever heard Ron Atkinson say, but definitely one of the daftest. - ‘*If you can’t stand the heat of the dressing room, get out of the kitchen.’* Maybe if Terry Venables didn’t insist on a food preparation facility in every dressing room, England may have won Euro 96. - ‘*I never predict anything and I never will.’* Paul Gascoigne living up to his word for all of half a second. - *‘For those of you watching in black and white, Spurs are the team in yellow.’* The ever-helpful John Motson differentiating between the team in grey and the team in grey. - *‘Well we got nine and you can’t get more than that.’* The late, great Bobby Robson forgetting about the existence of the number ten. Oh, and 11. And all numbers above that. - ‘*Some people are on the pitch. They think it’s all over. It is now.’* The quote guaranteed to send shivers down the spine of any England fan came from the legendary mouth of Kenneth Wolstenholme. [![](https://cdn.footballtransfertavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Picture-151.png)](https://www.shotdeadinthehead.com/bi-large-t-shirt-mens.html)