2021 QUOTES
■■“Mine and my coaching staff’s methods are second to nobody in the world.”
– Jose Mourinho, two months before he was sacked by Tottenham Hotspur.
■■“I’m disgusted with Manchester United and Liverpool the most. Liverpool, they pretend: ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone, the people’s club, the fans’ club’. Manchester United – 100 years, borne out of workers from around here, and they’re breaking away into a league without competition that they can’t be relegated from? It’s an absolute disgrace.”
– Gary Neville spoke for millions of football fans when the breakaway Super League was proposed.
■■“It’s amazing the amount of uproar that comes into the game when someone’s pocket is being hurt. It’s a shame it’s not like this with everything that’s going wrong in the game, like racism.”
– Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford put the whole furore into perspective.
■■“We made a mistake and we apologise for it.”
– two days later the project had collapsed and the apologies began, this one from Arsenal.
■■“We are not just athletes, we’re people at the end of the day and sometimes you just have to step back.”
– gymnastics superstar Simone Biles stunned the world when she withdrew from the Olympic women’s team final.
■■“I feel incredibly proud to say that I am a gay man and also an Olympic champion.”
– a powerful message from diving’s golden boy Tom Daley.
■■“They have been an absolute joy to work with and they have gone further than we’ve gone for so long. But it is incredibly painful in that dressing room.”
– so near yet so far for England manager Gareth Southgate, after the penalty shoot-out defeat by Italy in the Euro 2020 final.