Inspiring: 10 Alex Ferguson Quotes Ranked | OneFootball

Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola may rule the managerial roost in the Premier League right now, but both have a long way to go to get anywhere near Sir Alex Ferguson amongst the pantheon of greats.

The Scot spent 26 years in charge of Manchester United, winning 13 league titles and two Champions Leagues and, during his reign, he was one of the most quotable men in football.

Here is our Top 10 ranking of the most inspiring and outrageous quotes from the managerial career of Sir Alex Ferguson from his time at Manchester United.

Top 10 Sir Alex Ferguson Quotes

10) ‘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 were asking: ‘I’m Cantona. How big are you? Are you big enough for me?’

Of all the transfers Ferguson oversaw during his time at Old Trafford, the capture of Eric Cantona was perhaps the most important.

The Frenchman moved to Manchester after helping Leeds win the 1991/92 First Division title, although his image as an “enfant terrible” led many to perceive the £1m sale as good business for the Yorkshire outfit.

Four Premier League titles later, as well as 82 goals in 185 games for the ‘Red Devils’, proved Cantona’s point. Of course, Sir Alex knew what his star arrival would bring all along, and that’s why this inspiring quote has made it into our top 10.

9) ‘The BBC are dying for us to lose. Everyone is from Liverpool with a supporter’s badge. They will be at our games every week until we lose, that mob, Bob, Barry, Hansen – the lot of them.’

Ferguson had a problematic relationship with the media, and the BBC was often on the receiving end of his infamous temper.

The boss even refused to speak to the broadcaster for seven years between 2004 and 2011 after disagreeing with the content included in a documentary about himself and his son, Jason, although that was arguably just the straw that broke the camel’s back.

This comment was perhaps his most scathing attack on the institution, and that’s why it has made it onto our top 10 ranking of his best quotes!

8) ‘Football, bloody hell’

A short one, but those three words sum up a feeling every football fan has had at least once.

The quote came on the pitch after United had come from 1-0 behind in the 90th minute of the 1999 Champions League final against Bayern Munich to win 2-1, thanks to goals from Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær.

For once, the Scot was almost lost for words. However, he still conveyed the mood perfectly with just one small sentence, a sentence that makes it to number 8 on our list of his iconic quotes.

7) ‘My greatest challenge is not what’s happening at the moment, my greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool off their f***ing perch.’

While Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City were often United’s biggest threats during Ferguson’s tenure, the former Aberdeen boss always considered Liverpool his main rivals and was desperate to get one over on the Merseyside club at every opportunity.

At the start of the 2002/03 campaign, Fergie’s men lost twice in a week and fell three points behind their nemesis at the top of the table, leading Alan Hansen to suggest turning United’s fortunes around was the ‘biggest challenge of his career’.

The gaffer came out all guns blazing, and would ultimately get the last laugh as United won the title, their eighth under Ferguson. Liverpool, meanwhile, finished fifth, meaning that this inspiring quote ended up becoming one of his most iconic!

6) ‘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.’

Arsène Wenger and Ferguson’s battles on the touchline and in the press were a thrilling backdrop to the rivalry between Arsenal and Manchester United on the pitch, especially during its peak in the late 1990s and early 00s.

From the moment the Frenchman arrived in England after a stint in Japan, Ferguson barely gave his adversary a moment’s rest.

This comment about Wenger’s intelligence was one of the more light-hearted jibes, but it’s still a great quote that makes it into our top 10 ranking.

5) ‘It was an incident which was freakish. If I tried it a hundred or a million times it could not happen again. If I could, I would have carried on playing.’

Another key player during Ferguson’s reign was David Beckham, who was part of the ‘Class of 92’, a group of United academy graduates that became the base of the team’s starting XI.

Ferguson nurtured the midfielder, but the relationship between the two was not without its run-ins, the most notorious of which came in 2003 when the now 80-year-old kicked a football boot at ‘Golden Balls” head.

Years later, Ferguson made jest of the incident in a way only he could, and the two have reconciled now that the dust has settled.

Still, as far as memorable quotes go, we couldn’t help but put this in at number five.

4) ‘It’s getting tickly now – squeaky-bum time, I call it.’

‘Squeaky-bum time’ is now a beloved part of the football lexicon and is the only way to describe a tight title race or a tense relegation battle at the business end of the season.

It was initially coined by Ferguson in 2003, as Arsenal and United fought it out at the top of the Premier League table.

In the end, the latter triumphed, beating the former to top spot by five points. As was often the case under Ferguson, United held their nerve.

Squeaky-bum time has gone even beyond football culture and that’s why it gets in at number 4 on our ranking.

3) ‘I would not sell them a virus.’

As United won the Premier League title and the Champions League in 2007/08, Cristiano Ronaldo was the jewel in Ferguson’s crown, scoring 42 goals in 49 matches and subsequently winning that year’s Ballon d’Or.

It was no secret that Ronaldo was eager to move to Real Madrid to cement his status as a superstar, though, which led to strong disruption tactics from the Spanish side as they looked to acquire another ‘Galáctico’.

Ferguson was understandably keen to keep the Portuguese in Manchester but on one of the few occasions during his career, his wishes weren’t fulfilled, and Ronaldo moved to the Santiago Bernabeu in 2009.

Still, the 37-year-old has a close relationship with his former mentor, who has been present for many of his protégé’s greatest moments, and this ‘virus’ quote will forever be intertwined as one of the greatest quotes in his career.

2) ‘Sometimes you have a noisy neighbour. You cannot do anything about that. They will always be noisy. You just have to get on with your life, put your television on and turn it up a bit louder.’

Manchester City were never a rival to United up until 2008, when the ‘Citizens’ were sold to Sheikh Mansour Khaldoon Al Mubarak.

City’s new billions made them a player at the top of the Premier League, threatening to end their city rivals’ dominance.

Ferguson, though, was not immediately troubled by the threat and suggested that the ‘noisy neighbours’ would not be a problem.

By the time City won the 2011/12 Premier League title on the final day of the season, he had changed his tune.

1) ‘You can’t ever lose control, not when you are dealing with 30 top professionals who are all millionaires. If they misbehave, we fine them, but we keep it indoors. And if anyone steps out of my control, that’s them dead.’

It is only fitting to end this top ten with a quote that epitomises what made Ferguson so successful, and what also allowed him to have such a long spell at one of the biggest clubs in the world in what is otherwise a cut-throat sport.

He ruled with an iron fist, acutely aware that any show of weakness would forever undermine his role as the man in charge.

Beckham, Roy Keane and Ruud van Nistelrooy all found that out to their peril. Ferguson’s methods may not have always pleased his players, but they ensured everyone was pulling in the same direction.

This final epic quote from the former Man Utd manager makes it to the top of our ranking of Sir Alex Ferguson’s 10 most inspiring quotes for good reason!