THEY SAID IT...
"I asked them to play with belief and take responsibility, that is what they didn't do. It's naive, how we played today. We said: invite them in to press and play long. We attracted them, the space was high on the pitch and we had to choose that option. That's what we couldn't do. It's no good, definitely. That's not the standard on how we want to play. You can have a plan, but we put the plan in the bin. It's nothing to do with tactical - the first two goals. It's about dealing with the ball.” New Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag’s take on why the Red Devils’ looked worse than ever as they crashed to a 4-0 defeat away to Brentford last Saturday.
“Look, if you looked at how it happened, it was early in the game and then from there he couldn’t recover. It’s unlike Siya. He is one player that in one-versus-one situations is one of the best we have. Unfortunately, he was not himself today. I think because of the knee as well. He came to me, because he couldn’t finish the game and said ‘I’m not 100% okay, but I’ll give my best’. I said if he can’t, we’ll obviously take him out and bring in someone else because we didn’t want to break that combination of him and Zitha Kwinika right now.” Chiefs’ coach Arthur Zwane on defender Siyabonga Ngezana’s early blunder that set Kaizer Chiefs on the slippery road to defeat against Mamelodi Sundowns.
Since the first day he has been at Bayern Munich, Sadio has improved the squad. I have often said that he is very humble - a dedicated team player who keeps his vulnerabilities in the background. A player who very consciously directs things within the squad. A player who can consciously withdraw himself to let others shine. A player who has had many successes with his previous teams, but also individually. But he never lets you feel that he is a superstar. He is more at the other extreme - sometimes a little bit too submissive maybe for the status that he has. But that makes it really enjoyable” Bayern Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann on new signing Sadio Mane.
"I never experienced anything like this. We can’t get used to things like this." Striker Santiago Silva of relegation-threatened Argentine Liga Profesional club Aldosivi, whose fans set alight five players’ cars and a bus parked at the club's training complex.
"We took the pictures in advance, so it looks like I was there, but I wasn't. My brother had to represent me at the wedding itself." Sierra Leone international Mohamed Buya Turay who missed his wedding in order to finalise his transfer to Swedish champions Malmo. His wedding was set for 21 July, but he had to fly to Sweden to close the deal. The photos of Turay and his bride in their wedding dress were real, but Turay's brother was his stand-in at the actual wedding