Roy Keane, Jose Mourinho, David Moyes, Brendan Rodgers - Quotes of the Year, part II

It was the year David Moyes was shown not to be the ‘messiah’, Roy Keane and Jose Mourinho had their say, and Arsenal became the punchline

FOLLOWING FERGIE

We have brilliant fans, but that was unfair. He was the second coming, the messiah 12 months ago. As Evertonians we shouldn’t forget that.

Tim Howard after David Moyes was booed at Everton as Manchester United manager

He’d slowly lost us. I didn’t enjoy playing under him. Sometimes our main tactic was the long, high, diagonal cross. It was embarrassing. It was always how to stop the other side. Moyes set us up not to lose. We’d been accustomed to playing to win.

Rio Ferdinand on Moyes’ reign

If I was sat at home in David’s shoes I would be wondering why they didn’t spend the £150m with me.

Sam Allardyce as Van Gaal invested heavily

New United boss Louis van Gaal (Getty)

He’s a bit like a mad genius; he looks a bit crazy.

Scholes on Van Gaal

I sat there, looking up at him and didn’t take my eyes off him. I was in this trance listening to everything he was saying.

Rory McIlroy on Sir Alex Ferguson’s Ryder Cup pep talk to Europe’s golfers

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ROY SPLEEN

We’d like to throw him up and not catch him.

Roy Keane on why Manchester United players never gave Ferguson the “bumps”.

You always get the impression from Everton that Seamus [Coleman] and James [McCarthy] are barely able to walk. So when they actually turn up [to play for Ireland] and they’re walking through the reception ...it’s like praise the Lord, a miracle.

Keane

TV’s an easy gig. When I heard “I liked your commentary last night”, I knew I was talking bullshit like the rest of them.

Keane

All these men he kicked, after his career he really began to enjoy their company. When he said he hated people, there’s great respect in that.

Roddy Doyle, Keane’s ghostwriter

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MADE IN CHELSEA

When he decided to go to a direct competitor the love story was over. I don’t believe in stories of passion and heart.

Jose Mourinho after Frank Lampard joined Manchester City

It’s not hard to coach 10 players to be on the edge of the 18-yard box.

Brendan Rodgers after Chelsea won at Liverpool in April

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho (Getty Images)

If one day I go to a game and I don’t feel I can win, maybe I don’t go.

Mourinho after Rodgers rested big names at Real Madrid

We don’t spend holidays together.

Mourinho on Manchester City rival Manuel Pellegrini

I didn’t realise Sergio had done a Masters in medicine.

Mourinho after Sergio Ramos criticised the withdrawals of Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa from Spain’s squad

Do you read these books? I don’t. I have an invitation to do a memory book with 100 photos from my career ... but not a book to tell shit and criticise people.

Mourinho after Suarez followed Keane in attacking him

[Mourinho] is perfectly suited to these bombastic, shallow times... I’ve never heard him say a single thing about football worth remembering, in public or in private.

Jorge Valdano, former Real Madrid sporting director

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GUNNING FOR CHANGE

Arsène: Thanks for the memories but it’s time to say goodbye.

Arsenal fans’ banner at West Bromwich Albion

I like Arsène for his principles, but principles are a sort of restriction. And restrictions are always lost possibilities.

Alisher Usmanov, major Arsenal shareholder

Arsene Wenger has come under yet more pressure this season (Getty Images)

Modern society wants less pain, to suffer less and be treated better in every aspect. Pain has to disappear, whether you go to the dentist or go to work.

Wenger

I would’ve been really sad and disappointed to see Luis [Suarez] go to Arsenal. With all due respect to them, I told him he was too good for Arsenal.

Steven Gerrard

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WATERMELON MAN

It’s too simple to sack David Hockaday. The squad isn’t finished. That’s my fault, so if I fire anyone, I should fire myself, or else I’m a coward. I have to control my ego.

Massimo Cellino – before firing Hockaday at Leeds

Leeds owner Massimo Cellino (Getty)

I don’t know why I’ve chosen him. Coaches are like watermelons. You find out about them when you open them.

Cellino on appointing Slovene Darko Milanic, sacked six games later

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RED CERT COMES SECOND

[Brendan Rodgers] makes you go on the pitch feeling like a million dollars.

Gerrard early this year

It gave the title to City, as simple as that.

Mourinho on Gerrard’s slip v Chelsea

Steven Gerrard’s slip gave the title to City, said Mourinho

It’s probably been the worst three months of my life.

Gerrard on the end of 2013-14 and the World Cup

I wasn’t lying on a sunlounger on a beach over the summer crying and fretting over the fact that we lost the league.

Rodgers

He dribbled through Spurs’ defence like Ricky Villa, but his finish was more like Ricky Gervais.

Rodgers on Raheem Sterling at Spurs

I didn’t understand what the gaffer said. Then I typed both names into Google, so now I know.

Sterling

I always believe that in sport, and football in particular, losing can be the making of you as a player and a manager.

Rodgers after four successive autumn defeats

Liverpool’s problem is that they’ve been conceding goals at the wrong end.

Mark Lawrenson

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STELLAR STREET

The grass on that wing will never grow back again.

‘Marca’, Spanish newspaper, after Gareth Bale scored Real Madrid’s winner v Barcelona

It’ll take another 600 years before his record’s broken.

Pep Guardiola after Lionel Messi broke La Liga’s scoring record

Lionel Messi had another record-breaking year (Getty Images)

I don’t think he’ll be unhappy with me saying it, but some days you look at him in training and he’s useless.

Joe Hart on Sergio Aguero

I’m a sportsman, not a brand ambassador or a person who poses in underwear. I hate the red carpet. I prefer the green grass.

Manuel Neuer, Germany’s World Cup-winning keeper

He left too quickly because he had a moment of weakness and didn’t know how to say no.

Enrique Cerezo, Atletico Madrid president, on Costa joining Chelsea

Excuse me for being human.

Sterling on criticism for saying he was “too tired” to start for England

He had a smoke, but it’s not the end of the world. At United the laundry room used to be full of smoke in the mornings because Laurent Blanc and Fabien Barthez wouldn’t start training until they had a cigarette.

Scholes on Jack Wilshere

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HOOP SCREAMS

The days of shouting, screaming and throwing tea cups at players are gone. There’s no point effing and blinding at someone who can hardly speak English.

Harry Redknapp at QPR

I can’t keep protecting people who don’t want to run about and train, who are three stone overweight. What am I supposed to keep saying? “Keep getting your 60, 70 grand a week but don’t train”?

Redknapp on Adel Taarabt

Adel Taarabt and Harry Redknapp had a row about the player's weight (Getty Images)

If there was four really ugly girls, I’m thinking “she’s not the worst” – that’s all Ukip are.

Joey Barton of QPR on TV’s ‘Question Time’

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SEPP BLATHER

Football’s a simple game that becomes complicated only when you attempt to explain the active and passive offside rules to your wife.

Sepp Blatter, Fifa president

Fifa president Sepp Blatter (Getty Images)

I think it’s quite hard to damage the image of Fifa.

Greg Dyke, FA chairman

Phil Shaw is the author of ‘The Book of Football Quotations’ (Ebury Press, £14.99)