He said what?
The pick of this year’s quotes
BEING a football manager is a tough job and the life expectancy is getting shorter and shorter. So it’s no wonder they feel the pressure – especially after a defeat.
We’ve taken a look back at our issues of sister publication, The Football League Paper, this year to pick out some of their best postmatch comments. Some are funny, some are bizarre and some are full of fury. We hope you enjoy them:
Jan 3 – Mansfield boss Adam Murray was left feeling suicidal after a frustrating 3-2 home defeat by Accrington Stanley:
“We have conceded three awful goals and then we are nowhere near as clinical as we need to be at the other end,” he said. “That game was like putting a gun to your head and shooting yourself.”
Jan 17 – Leeds boss Steve Evans on the display of referee Anthony Taylor after the official controversially disallowed a Leeds ‘goal’ in the 2-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday:
“He’s a Premier League referee who’s stepped down to take charge of a big derby,” he said. “Well, he should be on the park pitches refereeing the Under-9s for his next game after that performance.”
Jan 17 – Scunthorpe boss Mark Robins tells it straight after seeing his side humbled 5-0 at Blackpool:
“It was rubbish, absolute rubbish,” he fumed. “That is as bad a display away from home as I’m prepared to accept and they need to get their fingers out and put it right.”
Jan 17 – Hartlepool boss Ronnie Moore on his side’s 1-0 win against Wycombe: “In the last 20 minutes they threw the kitchen sink at us,” he said. “The ball needed an aspirin at the end of the game they thumped it that high and that long.”
Jan 24 - Evans following a hardfought 1-0 home win against Bristol City:
“The first half was like a morning at the dentist,” he said.“We were a yard off all over, and I can’t repeat the words I said at half-time – there’s a nine o’clock watershed.” Feb 7 – Burnley manager Sean Dyche waxes lyrical after his side’s 1-0 win against Hull City: “It’s a good win, but if the league table could talk at the end of season, then it wouldn’t give a monkeys who you beat along the way,” he said. Feb 7 – Evans again after seeing his side beaten 1-0 at home by ‘defensive’ Nottingham Forest:
“I’d rather watch paint dry, but when you win a game that way you’re watching winning football while you watch paint dry,” he said. Feb 14 – Neil Warnock returns to management at Rotherham – and has a customary pop at the ref after his side’s 0-0 draw against Birmingham in his first game in charge. The Millers had Richard Wood and Joe Mattock sent off: “I felt sorry for the ref at the end,” he said. “That’s the one thing I haven’t missed because nothing has changed has it? I thought he had a bad day at the office.” Feb 14 – Doncaster boss Darren Ferguson on his side’s 1-0 derby defeat at home against Sheffield United: matches“That was I have one everof the seen most and, boringas a manager,derby you can’t “There defend was thatno tempo, performance,”no energy he and said.I was Feb bored 14 to- Newporttears watching County it.” boss Warren Feeney after watching his side’s 1-0 win against Carlisle from the TV gantry while serving a one-match touchline ban: “If we keep winning and keeping clean sheets I might stay up there every week,” he joked. “My phone bill will probably be £200 this month because I was constantly on the phone to the bench.”
Feb 28 – Blunt Ipswich boss Mick McCarthy is bored of play-off talk after his side’s 1-0 win at Huddersfield: “I’m sick of talking about the play-offs,” he said. “If we end up in the play-offs, brilliant. If we don’t, there won’t be a damn thing I can do about it and we’ll have tried our best, so brilliant.” Feb 28 – Northampton manager Chris Wilder hits out after his side’s 0-0 draw at Hartlepool, who had recently sacked boss Ronnie Moore: “They (Pools) were excellent,” he said. “If they ran around like they did today for the previous manager he’d still be here. I came to watch them against Stevenage and they never tried a leg, and that is a bit of a joke to me.”
Feb 28 – Crawley manager Mark Yates lets fly after his side’s 2-0 defeat at Leyton Orient:
“We tried to liven the group up at half-time and the reaction was pathetic,” he said. “We’ve made them look like Barcelona.” Feb 28 – Mansfield’s Murray fumes at the referee and pitch after a 1-0 defeat at
Newport:
“The referee was poor,” he said. “He didn’t have control of the game from the first minute and was throwing yellow cards around like sweets. And the pitch was horrendous.”
Sun, Mar 13 – MK Dons manager Karl Robinson makes his point after his side’s 1-1 draw against Hull:
“I have seen a lot written in the media recently about Premier League clubs getting relegated and then not looking forward to going to little MK Dons on a Tuesday night,” said Robinson. “Let’s get it right, we don’t have a horrible stadium and we are not little MK Dons. So it’s fair to say my team talks have been written for me.”
Mar 13 - Rotherham boss Neil Warnock after his side scored three times in the last seven minutes to earn an amazing 3-3 draw against Derby:
“This is the result of the season, never mind the day,” he said. “I don’t think there will be another one like this.We were 3-0 down against Derby County, with the players they have got, and have got a point.”
Mar 13 - Burnley boss Sean Dyche after his side’s 3-1 win at Huddersfield kept their promotion drive on course:
“Some people come up with stats about us not having the ball as much the opposition,” he said.“We keep putting the ball in their net though.”
Sun, Mar 20 – Most clubs are desperate to get into the play-offs, but Wycombe boss Gareth Ainsworth insisted he wasn’t too bothered after seeing his side draw 1-1 at Carlisle: “Both teams went for it, and the draw doesn’t do much good for both teams but it puts us within four or five points of our target total,” he said.“It’s not a blow if you’re not going for the play-offs. The aim is only to get 61 points and
finish as high as we can.” Sun, Mar 20 – Portsmouth boss Paul Cook on seeing his side’s automatic promotion hopes hit by a 1-1 draw at Mansfield: “We are so disappointed with how we are playing,” he said.“We might as well be five points off the moon at the minute.”
Sun, Mar 27 – Doncaster boss Darren Ferguson after his side’s dreadful run continued with a pitiful 4-1 defeat at Colchester: “That’s probably the worst half an hour I’ve seen,” he said. “I’m absolutely fuming, that was a complete embarrassment. It’s nonsense what I’ve seen out there. We’ve lost four goals and it could easily have been seven.We had no characters, nobody leading the side.We completely collapsed as a team, it was an absolute shambles. I could easily play the youth team against Blackpool on Monday, and I think the fans would probably appreciate that. I can’t defend that performance. Clearly we are miles short of characters. When I see a performance like that, I have to say I fear for safety. I need to now pick a team that won’t embarrass the football club.”
Sun, Mar 27 – Barnet boss Martin Allen after his mid-table side’s 1-1 draw at Exeter:
“It might not be relegation or promotion that we are facing, but it is about the future,” he said. “No one here is thinking we are mid-table Tommies.” Sun, Apr 3 – York boss Jackie McNamara after his side let in an equaliser to drop two crucial points against Leyton Orient: “I wouldn’t say it was a kick in the teeth,” he said.“It was a kick in somewhere else.”
Sun, Apr 17 – Warnock on whether he’d stay at Rotherham after his side’s 0-0 draw against Forest made it nine unbeaten and continued their Great Escape: “It depends which way you want to look at it,” he said. “Can we do it again? The bloke behind me said,‘ You’re rubbish Warnock’. I said, ‘Are you serious? Did you not come earlier in the season?’ “But you get plonkers like that.” Sun, Apr 17 – Southend boss Phil Brown after his side were beaten 1-0 at Walsall with a controversial late winner: “I can’t see whether the ball crossed the line and I can’t see how the linesman can give that,” he fumed. “He has been sucked into a great atmosphere. “With the little pitch invasion that followed, he probably felt quite good about himself when he gave it.”
Sun, Apr 24 - Chesterfield boss Danny Wilson blasted his World Cup wallies after the 1-0 defeat at Swindon: “The game is very simple,” he said.“You get the ball and you pass the ball.We get the ball and we want to have a World Cup ball every time we get it and that doesn’t work. There are one or two in our dressing room who have a ringing in their ears now and rightly so.” Sun, Apr 24: Bristol Rovers boss Darrell Clarke feels the promotion pressure: “The only injury we have is to my heart,” he said. “I keep telling other people we have to enjoy all this, but on the bench I am a bag of nerves.”