Top 140 Alex Ferguson Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “We had a virus that infected everyone at United. It was called winning.”

— Alex Ferguson

52. “The culmination of three trophies was the pinnacle of my career and it has been rewarded with a knighthood.”

— Alex Ferguson

53. “Football management is such a pressurized thing – horse racing is a release. I’m also learning to play the piano – I’m quite determined – it’s another release from the pressure of my job.”

— Alex Ferguson

54. “David Beckham is Britain’s finest striker of a football not because of God-given talent but because he practices with a relentless application that the vast majority of less gifted players wouldn’t contemplate.”

— Alex Ferguson

55. “Don’t play the occasion, play the game.”

— Alex Ferguson

56. “When an Italian tells me it’s pasta on the plate, I check under the sauce to make sure.”

— Alex Ferguson

57. “It was the most emphatic display of selflessness I have seen on a football field. Pounding over every blade of grass, competing if he would rather die of exhaustion than lose, he inspired all around him. I felt such an honor to be associated with such a player.”

— Alex Ferguson

58. “They say he’s an intelligent man, right? Speaks five languages! I’ve got a 15-year-old boy from the Ivory Coast who speaks five languages!”

— Alex Ferguson

59. “The experience of defeat, or more particularly the manner in which a leader reacts to it, is an essential part of what makes a winner.”

— Alex Ferguson

60. “You can’t applaud a referee.”

— Alex Ferguson

61. “We are very focused this time and our preparation has been better. We maybe made one or two mistakes last time, but not this time.”

— Alex Ferguson

62. “There has been a lot of expectation on Manchester City and with the spending they have done they have to win something. Sometimes you have a noisy neighbor and have to live with it.”

— Alex Ferguson

63. “I always felt that our triumphs were an expression of the consistent application of discipline.”

— Alex Ferguson

64. “There’s a lot of satisfaction that comes from knowing you’re doing your best, and there’s even more that comes when it begins to pay off. I.”

— Alex Ferguson

65. “In the long run principles are just more important than expediency.”

— Alex Ferguson

66. “Watching others, listening to their advice and reading about people are three of the best things I ever did.”

— Alex Ferguson

67. “Critics have always questioned whether players like Pele from the 50s could play today. Lionel Messi could play in the 1950s and the present day, as could Di Stefano, Pele, Maradona, Cruyff because they are all great players. Lionel Messi without question fits into that category.”

— Alex Ferguson

68. “At the last minute, from what I can gather, either Emmanuel Adebayor or his agent phoned us after they had agreed a deal with City and then did the same with Chelsea. He was desperate to get to either Chelsea or us.”

— Alex Ferguson

69. “You have to make everyone feel at home. That doesn’t mean you’re going to be soft on them – but you want them to feel that they belong.”

— Alex Ferguson

70. “He could start a row in an empty house.”

— Alex Ferguson

71. “Pippo Inzaghi was born in an offside position.”

— Alex Ferguson

72. “I tell the players that the bus is moving. This club has to progress. And the bus wouldn’t wait for them. I tell them to get on board.”

— Alex Ferguson

73. “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.”

— Alex Ferguson

74. “That lad must have been born offside.”

— Alex Ferguson

75. “Losing is a powerful management tool so long as it does not become a habit.”

— Alex Ferguson

76. “Peter Schmeichel, Paul Ince, Bryan Robson, Roy Keane, Mark Hughes and Eric Cantona could all start a fight in an empty house.”

— Alex Ferguson

77. “If he was an inch taller he’d be the best center half in Britain. His father is 6 ft 2 in – I’d check the milkman.”

— Alex Ferguson

78. “Gianfranco Zola once sent Gary Pallister the wrong way to such an extent that he needed a ticket to get back in.”

— Alex Ferguson

79. “But there is always that unpredictability about a derby match and that’s what it was today.”

— Alex Ferguson

80. “I remember the first time I saw him. He was 13 and just floated over the ground like a cockier spaniel chasing a piece of silver paper in the wind.”

— Alex Ferguson

81. “Lampard, for me, was a marvellous servant for Chelsea, but I didn’t think of him as an elite international footballer. And I am one of the few who felt Gerrard was not a top, top player.”

— Alex Ferguson

82. “If you can assemble a team of 11 talented players who concentrate intently during training sessions, take care of their diet and bodies, get enough sleep and show up on time, then you are almost halfway to winning a trophy. It is always astonishing how many clubs are incapable of doing this.”

— Alex Ferguson

83. “He’s a novice – he should keep his opinions to Japanese football.”

— Alex Ferguson

84. “If we can play like that every week well get some level of consistency.”

— Alex Ferguson

85. “If Chelsea drop points, the cat’s out in the open. And you know what cats are like – sometimes they don’t come home.”

— Alex Ferguson

86. “You have to put all the criticism of this club down to jealousy. United have produced more players who have played for their country, more world-class players and more players who have won European Footballer of the Year than any other team in this country, so we must be doing something right.”

— Alex Ferguson

87. “I used to have a saying that when a player is at his peak, he feels as though he can climb.”

— Alex Ferguson

88. “Eleven Nobel laureates are not going to win the FA Cup.”

— Alex Ferguson

89. “I have nothing but praise for the boy. He is easily the best player in the world. His contribution as a goal threat is unbelievable. His stats are incredible. Strikes at goal, attempts on goal, raids into the penalty box, headers. It is all there. Absolutely astounding.”

— Alex Ferguson

90. “It’s a conflict of parallels.”

— Alex Ferguson

91. “Well, football is a hard game; there’s no denying it. It’s a game that can bring out the worst in you, at times.”

— Alex Ferguson

92. “It was our worst-ever day, the worst result in my history, ever. Even as a player I don’t think I ever lost 6-1.”

— Alex Ferguson

93. “Evolution happens. There’s no football team in the world that has stayed together for time ever more.”

— Alex Ferguson

94. “Sometimes in football you have to hold your hand up and say, yeah, they’re better than us.”

— Alex Ferguson

95. “The credit to them, the better team won and there’s nothing we can do about that now.”

— Alex Ferguson

96. “I think that fear does come into it in some respect in the sense of when I lost my temper I didn’t hide behind a bush on it in respect to the times that I did lose my temper. But you know the quality that I had when I lost my temper, I never, ever brought it back again.”

— Alex Ferguson

97. “Keeping players happy is not easy and I think anyone with a big squad will tell you that.”

— Alex Ferguson

98. “I’m a Pele fan from way back when I was a kid, and then there was always this thing later about Pele and Maradona. I was young and impressionable as a kid but it was always Pele for me.”

— Alex Ferguson

99. “The pace of the game demanded a referee who was fit. It is an indictment of our game. You see referees abroad who are as fit as butcher’s dogs. We have some who are fit. He wasn’t fit.”

— Alex Ferguson

100. “I tried it 100 or a million times it couldn’t happen again. If I could, I would have carried on playing.”

— Alex Ferguson