The Week in Words: The transfer window slams shut, Walker riles Klopp | OneFootball

It’s been another eventful week in the world of football with a late flurry of transfer activity and plenty of interesting results on the pitch.

Here’s an oral history of the last seven days …

Pep Guardiola

On Europe’s elite

“I’ve said many times: who are the best teams in the last decade? Juventus, Bayern Munich, Barcelona. These are the three best teams in Europe. Why? Because every season they win the league, every season they win the cups, every season they are there. Because they are the best.”

Santiago Solari

On Europe’s elite

“Real Madrid is the best team of the last century and therefore the best team in history. Having said that, this is also the best team of the last decade.

“This is so precisely because we never underestimate anybody in any circumstances.”

Heung-min Son

On South Korea’s Asian Cup exit

“I felt physically empty. I feel so sorry to have let down my team-mates, coaches and the fans.”

Thomas Tuchel

On VAR

“Why do we have VAR? Why do we have VAR? Why? If it’s a penalty, if it’s not a penalty. If it’s a red card, not a red card. There’s no point looking at VAR anymore, it’s ridiculous.”

Gennaro Gattuso

On Krzysztof Piątek

“[Piątek] reminds me of [Jon Dahl] Tomasson, he has very specific characteristics. Jon never relented in training and he gave us a great hand even when he wasn’t starting.”

Lionel Messi

On his son Thiago

“[He] understands football more because he’s the biggest [of his children] and he talks about everything to do with football.

“I have already had some criticism from him! Barcelona, LaLiga, the Champions League … he follows it all. He likes it, he asks questions and he gives me pointers when things don’t go so well.”

Samir Nasri

On his doping ban

“I was on holiday with my family. I became ill, I had a virus. I did not leave my room, I was suffering from vomiting, big headaches, I was empty.

“I called a friend and told him to find me a doctor. He couldn’t. He said to me: ‘There is a clinic, it will re-boost you’. Especially as I was going back to Sevilla in two days’ time.

“I said okay. I didn’t know the rules. And that, by the way, should serve as a lesson to all young players, to properly read the anti-doping rules, to really pay attention, because everything can go in a completely different direction.

“To be honest, I did not think that anything would come of it. This woman came to give me a drip of vitamins. She asked for a photo, I said yes, for me I hadn’t done anything wrong. I was of the view that this was not a doping product, it was fine.

“Can I promise that I have never doped? Yes, I have handed over the files, there was no doping product in it.”

Maurizio Sarri

On Eden Hazard’s links with Real Madrid

“Eden is 28. If he wants to go, I think he has to go.”

Cardiff City’s Sol Bamba

On the shock of Emiliano Sala’s disappearance

“We have had some help. We travel by plane and some of the lads have been thinking ‘I don’t want to go on it anymore.’

“It was that deep, the gaffer has been good and the club have been good in terms of bringing someone in to talk to if we need to.”

Mauricio Pochettino

On his Tottenham future

“It depends on the mood of my chairman, on the decision of the company, it’s not only my decision.

“I signed for five years. I am respecting my contract. But to sign a five-year contract does not mean you’ll be here for ever.”

Jürgen Klopp

On Mohamed Salah’s alleged diving

“There are more obvious situations that we don’t talk about and nobody is talking about because it’s not City, United, Arsenal or Chelsea.

“All the others can do it from time to time and nobody really talks about it. It’s all fine.

“All the penalties against him were penalties but people handle it like it was halfway diving – it was not.

“We don’t need blood for a foul in football. That’s all I will say about it. No, I didn’t speak to him about it.”

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

On Bayern Munich’s pursuit of Callum Hudson-Odoi

“The only one Hasan [Salihamidžić] would have liked to buy was this player [Hudson-Odoi] from Chelsea.

“I have to say that he nearly fell in love with this player and his qualities. All the other things [stories about transfer links with other players] were rumours.”

Santiago Solari

On Karim Benzema

“I’m sorry for those who have discovered Benzema last week.

“But hey, they still have time to enjoy him, he is in a great moment, it’s true.”

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

On tap-in merchant Cristiano Ronaldo

“Cristiano was the best, the way he’s changed to now. That’s part of any player, you’ve got to model yourself on someone, but you’ve got to have more challenges ahead of you and for Marcus [Rashford] and Anthony [Martial] it is to score more simple tap-ins.”

Jürgen Klopp

On Kyle Walker’s social media banter

“I never celebrated when another team dropped points or lost a game, that’s not allowed.

“I never asked anyone to clear one side of the pitch and leave the other in the mud.

“That’s how I understand sports. You have to do your own things to try to show your best performance.

“I don’t care, I don’t understand it. For supporters it’s a bit different, for people involved I don’t understand, but it’s nothing to criticise from my point of view because I don’t understand.”

Neymar

On talk of a return to Barcelona

“Don’t piss me off.”

Thibaut Courtois

On Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure from Real Madrid

“He is not being talked about in the locker room.

“It is mainly the press that drops his name. There were matches that we lost in which we got 10 chances but did not score.

“At the same time he scores two for Juventus. Then it’s easy to talk about him.”

Roma ultras

On Serbian international Aleksandar Kolarov

“Kolarov is a Croatian shit.”

Cardiff boss Neil Warnock

On winning for Emiliano Sala

“It has been a very emotional 10 days and it just got to me at the end. I said to the lads: ‘I know he’s not here today, but Emiliano would have been proud of us all today.'”