Top 140 Alex Ferguson Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Hard work will always overcome natural talent when natural talent does not work hard enough.”

— Alex Ferguson

2. “Attack wins you games, defence wins you titles.”

— Alex Ferguson

3. “Football, bloody hell!”

— Alex Ferguson

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4. “I’ve never played for a draw in my life.”

— Alex Ferguson

5. “Only true champions come out and show their worth after defeat- and I expect us to do that.”

— Alex Ferguson

6. “Once you bid farewell to discipline you say goodbye to success.”

— Alex Ferguson

7. “Once you shake hands with the devil, you have to accept they are in control.”

— Alex Ferguson

8. “Promise is one thing. Fulfilling that promise is quite another.”

— Alex Ferguson

9. “As long as there are games to play its not over.”

— Alex Ferguson

10. “Distinguish between power and control, delegate, be decisive – and always remember people’s first names.”

— Alex Ferguson

11. “All they can talk about is Manchester United.”

— Alex Ferguson

12. “The work of a team should always embrace a great player, but the great player must always work.”

— Alex Ferguson

13. “You start with what you believe in. I believe in building a football club rather than building a football team.”

— Alex Ferguson

14. “There’s a reason that God gave us two ears, two eyes and one mouth. It’s so you can listen and watch twice as much as you talk. Best of all, listening costs you nothing.”

— Alex Ferguson

15. “Never give in or give up easily on a cause.”

— Alex Ferguson

16. “I’m going to tell you the story about the geese which fly 5,000 miles from Canada to France. They fly in V-formation but the second ones don’t fly. They’re the subs for the first ones. And then the second ones take over – so it’s teamwork.”

— Alex Ferguson

17. “Ronaldo could play for Millwall, QPR, Doncaster Rovers or anyone and he’d score a hat-trick. I’m not sure Messi could do it. Ronaldo’s got two feet, he’s quick, he’s good in the air and he’s brave, though Messi’s brave too of course. I just think Messi is a Barcelona player.”

— Alex Ferguson

18. “I’m going to tell you the story about the geese which fly 5,000 miles from Canada to France.”

— Alex Ferguson

19. “The best have the courage and I say this all the time. The courage to take the ball all the time, the courage to make sure that they are not going to be intimidated by their opponents, and the courage to express themselves at all times and I think that all the great players have got that.”

— Alex Ferguson

20. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. Football. Bloody hell.”

— Alex Ferguson

21. “Kindness is a universal language regardless of age, nationality or religion.”

— Alex Ferguson

22. “We have to try to beat Everyone.”

— Alex Ferguson

23. “There is no evidence that changing your managers repeatedly leads to success, but there is evidence at Manchester United, I was managing there for 26 years I won 38 trophies.”

— Alex Ferguson

24. “The most important thing in a game like that is to win it.”

— Alex Ferguson

25. “Sweeter after difficulties’.”

— Alex Ferguson

26. “I realized I was good at developing young people. Eventually I started to believe in young people. I think when you give a young person an opportunity, he always believes who gave him his first chance. You create a loyalty that lasts a lifetime.”

— Alex Ferguson

27. “I’m-A-God-Look-At-Me.”

— Alex Ferguson

28. “I placed discipline above all else and it might have cost us several titles. If I had to repeat things, I’d do precisely the same, because once you bid farewell to discipline you say goodbye to success and set the stage for anarchy.”

— Alex Ferguson

29. “For me drive means a combination of a willingness to work hard, emotional fortitude, enormous powers of concentration and a refusal to admit defeat.”

— Alex Ferguson

30. “Manchester United might not win Premier League every year, but we’d always be up there competing for it every year.”

— Alex Ferguson

31. “I always said to the directors that the minute a player becomes more powerful than the manager of Manchester United, it’s not Manchester United. You have lost control of the whole club. So I always made sure that I was in control. They always knew who the manager was.”

— Alex Ferguson

32. “I do believe in fate.”

— Alex Ferguson

33. “You are responsible to each other because when you win a game of football, you only need eight players to perform well.”

— Alex Ferguson

34. “Origins should never be a barrier to success. A modest start in life can be a help more than a hindrance.”

— Alex Ferguson

35. “Sometimes you look in a field and you see a cow and you think it’s a better cow than the one you’ve got in your own field. It’s a fact. Right? And it never really works out that way.”

— Alex Ferguson

36. “You cannot lead by following.”

— Alex Ferguson

37. “I think Paul Scholes is the best player in England. He’s got the best skills, the best brain. No one can match him. There isn’t a player of his mould anywhere in the world. Paul is irreplaceable.”

— Alex Ferguson

38. “I’ve got a temper if I need it. Nothing wrong with losing your temper, if it’s for the right reasons.”

— Alex Ferguson

39. “Liverpool can play for only five minutes and win the game, that is the way they are. They pump the ball into the box and with good set-piece delivery they keep you under pressure.”

— Alex Ferguson

40. “I always say prepare to be a coach to anybody who wants to be a coach. At 24 years of age when I left engineering to become full time in football, I made sure that I was never going back to engineering.”

— Alex Ferguson

41. “Go make your mistakes in the first team. You’ll learn more in a month in the first team than you will in two years in the reserves.”

— Alex Ferguson

42. “Players know that they can trust me which is really important. They know that I had the ability to adapt to change, and they have seen that many times over the years. I think these are important parts of being in control of footballers.”

— Alex Ferguson

43. “If my parents were still alive, they would be very proud. They gave me a good start in life, the values that have driven me, and the confidence to believe in myself.”

— Alex Ferguson

44. “Sometimes you’re not sure about a player. Sometimes you doubt. Sometimes you have to guess. Sometimes you just know.”

— Alex Ferguson

45. “Jose understands winning and losing are twins in a way. When you win you don’t gloat and when you lose you don’t go bananas.”

— Alex Ferguson

46. “If ever there was one player, anywhere in the world, that was made for Manchester United, it was Cantona. He swaggered in, stuck his chest out, raised his head and surveyed everything as though he was asking: ‘I’m Cantona. How big are you? Are you big enough for me?’”

— Alex Ferguson

47. “It was time for me to spend more time with my wife. I’m not saying I do spend more time with my wife, because she would throw me out of the house, but we have breakfast together. I never did.”

— Alex Ferguson

48. “I’m privileged to have followed Sir Matt because all you have to do is to try and maintain the standards that he set so many years ago.”

— Alex Ferguson

49. “I don’t like losing but I’ve mellowed. I maybe have a short fuse but it goes away quicker now.”

— Alex Ferguson

50. “If I were running a company, I would always want to listen to the thoughts of its most talented youngsters, because they are the people most in touch with the realities of today and the prospects for tomorrow.”

— Alex Ferguson