English Football Quotes

English football has just had a transfer window imposed for the first time, so it will be interesting to see how managers cope with the squads they have until it re-opens.

In my first season I was learning about English football in a new team. I scored 13 which isn't bad, but I think I can do better.

I have come to know well that fates are fickle in the business of English football. And I feel that I have pushed mine well past the limit.

It was the proudest moment of my career to lead my team out at the home of English football. I never, ever dreamt that would happen!

You see how Spanish, Italians, Portuguese play football. I don't say they are perfect, I say English football has a few things to learn from them in the same way they have a lot of things to learn from English football.

I feel I have a lot to learn from English football and I am completely open to good influences in my way of thinking. But I also have things to give them.

I'm sure sex wouldn't be so rewarding as this World Cup. It's not that sex isn't good but the World Cup is every four years and sex is not.

Some people tell me that we professional players are soccer slaves. Well, if this is slavery, give me a life sentence.

The level of football in England is the top. English football is the leader in the world.

Football's a difficult business and aren't they prima donnas. But it's a wonderful game.

Football's not just about scoring goals - it's about winning.

When Im in town on Sundays, I sometimes go down to the Central Bar in the East Village to watch English football. But my natural inclination now is to get in the car with my wife and kids and get out of town.

English football is in a bad way because the foreign players here are so good, so dominant.

When I go to the press conference before the game, in my mind the game has already started...

There are lots of concerns facing English football but for me the major one is the way in which football clubs are run by owners, whether they are growing organically and sustainably and how that is being policed by the football authorities.

What United have got that Chelsea haven't is Paul Scholes. I think he is different to anything else in English football.

I couldn't settle in Italy - it was like living in a foreign country.

People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.

Winning the Championship is like taking a 26-year ball and chain from around our legs. Now we can go forward, and hopefully dominate English football for the next 10 years, like Liverpool did.

Doping in English football is restricted to lager and baked beans with sausages. After which the players take to the field, belching and farting. English football culture is one of pure, intense competition, and that's why I have always preferred it to Italy.

I am delighted to be here at Arsenal and to be part of one of the great teams in English football. It's a huge satisfaction to join this great club and it’s been a dream since I was young to play in the Premier League. I was attracted by the philosophy of football and Arsène Wenger’s 'touch' at this club. I have always admired Arsenal with its great history and reputation, and I now hope to achieve great things here. I’m very proud to be a Gunner and I will give my best for all the Arsenal fans.

If we had a starting XI that no one could argue about it wouldn't say a lot for English football. We'd probably be on a downward spiral. It's good that people have different ideas about who should play.

Is this good for English football? In the short run, Chelsea's rise has broken up what was turning into an irritating Arsenal-Manchester United duopoly. But football leagues (look at Scotland, look at Spain) can get along OK with duopolies. A monopoly, however, is a disaster. Everyone else in the Premiership has to operate on some kind of business footing, and the terror stalking Highbury and Old Trafford is that Chelsea will be immune from financial discipline forever.

I played English football - soccer - instead of American football, because we couldn't afford the equipment.

The chairmen of the largest companies in the world can cancel an appointment or move a board meeting; a manager cannot change the date of a game. In the combined 42 years that Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have managed in English football, I can only remember one occasion when Sir Alex did not attend a Manchester United game.

In England, it's a rare thing to see a player smoking but, all in all, I prefer that to an alcoholic. The relationship with alcohol is a real problem in English football and, in the short term, it's much more harmful to a sportsman. It weakens the body, which becomes more susceptible to injury.

However good an English team is, they will always have an additional advantage. It is that European players know that their English opponents will come at them in the belief they will win, and they can always be guaranteed never to stop fighting. They have a natural aggression that they are born with. If it ever goes, English football will lose its most valuable dimension.