By MARY HANNIGAN
Quotes of the week
"One of my friends, one of the few I have lately, told me 'you're like Rocky'. I'm full of punches and blood but I say to my opponents, 'you don't hurt me, hit harder because you're not hurting me'. There's nothing that can knock me out, my mother used to hit me harder."
– Juventus coach Ciro Ferrara. After his side lost to Chievo yesterday we reckon even his Ma would knock him out of the job.
“The Portuguese is very lucky. Inter are the least bad side in a dreadful league. After all, the big name coaches and stars have moved abroad. He is nothing more than an amateur, a fish out of water.”
– Former Juventus director Luciano Moggi on his old pal Jose Mourinho.
“When the dressingroom was installed, for some reason I could only go there. And the foreign lads don’t really get why I’m waiting behind them when there’s plenty of spaces elsewhere.”
– John Terry on a superstition that allows him perform in only one urinal in the Chelsea dressingroom.
“I know John likes to have a wee in the right-hand side urinal. If I’m standing there and I’m ready to go but I see John coming up, I’ll move . . . you’ve got to have your captain right for the game.”
– Frank Lampard on Terry’s strange wee habit.
“I can’t bear swear words. Here in Spain, people swear less than in Italy. Sometimes in Italy I asked my Milan team-mates not to swear. It’s not God’s fault if they mistake a goal or a pass.”
– Kaka, Real Madrid’s Holy One.
Liverpool jump to conclusions
EMAIL sent by Liverpool to season ticket holders two hours before Wednesday’s FA Cup third round replay against Reading: “As a valued member of the Auto Cup Scheme, we’d like to confirm details for the following FA Cup match: Liverpool v Burnley (Fourth Round), Saturday, 23rd January, 2010. Kick-off: 12.45pm. The Ticket Office will begin taking payments for the above game from Thursday 14th January.”
Ooops!
More quotes of the week
“That is what happens if you lose your concentration.”
– Angola’s Gilberto with a somewhat understated verdict on his team’s concession of four goals to Mali in the last 11 minutes of their African Cup of Nation’ game.
“I am afraid the chairman will need a hell of a tub of cream to get rid of me – I’m like a bad rash and not easily curable.”
– Blackpool manager Ian Holloway ruling out taking over at Burnley and leaving us with a delightful image.
“You can rarely cheat the heart-rate monitors but at QPR one player did – he put it on his dog.”
– Holloway again. If that dog chased a cat around his neighbourhood the club must have been mightily puzzled by the “player’s” heart rate.
“I had him when he was 16. He was a man then, I don’t know what he is now. Probably just a bigger man.”
– Kevin Keegan on the growth of Micah Richards.
“Everyone needs to talk. Everyone has a Twitter.”
– Rafa Benitez tweets back at Ryan Babel after he revealed on the internet that he’d been dropped for the game at Stoke.
Out of date
FOOTBALL 365 paid a visit to the website of AIG last week and noted that the large banner at the top reminding us of their sponsorship of Manchester United. “We see the value of teamwork in creating success,” it read, over a photo of three players celebrating a goal: Cristiano Ronaldo (now Real Madrid), Carlo Tevez (now Manchester City) and Danny Simpson (now on loan at Newcastle).
Lads? Keep up.
Chivu's injury caps Cech's
INTER Milan defender Christian Chivu suffered a particularly nasty injury in the league game against Chievo last week, fracturing his skull after a clash of heads. The Romanian underwent a series of tests and was operated on, before being discharged from hospital on Thursday.
The prognosis? He should be back in action in three months. Will he have to wear a helmet, like Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech? “No,” said neurologist Giovanni Broggi. “Cech uses the helmet because they have put two metal plates in his head. Chivu will not need protection because when the bone sets he can give all the head butts he wants.”
Eh, great news.
Ferguson does U-turn on Qatar
BACK in October, you might remember, Alex Ferguson was none too pleased about England playing Brazil in a friendly in some “unknown country” in the Middle East, as he described Qatar. Three months on we’re pleased to report that he’s located Qatar on the map, taking his squad there last week for a sunny break. Not only that, he told the Gulf Times that he supported Qatar’s bid to host the 2022 World Cup.
“The England v Brazil game added value to Qatar as a host of big games,” he said, “they were telling Fifa that ‘we can do this’, which was the whole idea of that exercise.”
Is that what you call a U-turn?
