Brian Clough

“Who the hell wants fourteen pairs of shoes when they go on holiday? I haven't had fourteen pairs in my life.”

“Players lose you games, not tactics. There's so much crap talked about tactics by people who barely know how to win at dominoes.”

“We used to go to the pictures every Saturday night but we had to leave a little bit early and get home and watch Match of the Day - and my wife still complains she missed the last five minutes of every film we saw.”

“Don't send me flowers when I'm dead. If you like me, send them while I'm alive.”

“If a chairman sacks the manager he initially appointed, he should go as well.”

“Women who choose to stay home and raise their families make one of the most valuable contributions to society. as far as I am concerned.”

“When I go, God's going to have to give up his favourite chair.”

“Beckham? His wife can't sing and his barber can't cut hair.”

“Academically, I was thick. School wasn't bad, but I was.”

“They say Rome wasn't built in a day, but I wasn't on that particular job.”

“I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the business. But I was in the top one.”

“Walk on water? I know most people out there will be saying that instead of walking on it, I should have taken more of it with my drinks. They are absolutely right.”

“Telling the entire world and his dog how good a manager I was. I knew I was the best but I should have said nowt and kept the pressure off 'cos they'd have worked it out for themselves.”

“The river Trent is lovely, I know because I have walked on it for 18 years.”

“My values stemmed from the family. Anything I have achieved in life has been rooted in my upbringing.”

“I've decided to pick my moment to retire very carefully - in about 200 years time.”

“I want no epitaphs of profound history and all that type of thing. I contributed. I would hope they would say that, and I would hope somebody liked me.”

“My early memories are full of football talk around the house, of Dad standing on the terraces at Ayresome Park, of the occasional precious new pair of boots.”

“To me, scoring goals was just like other boys might regard delivering papers. I just did it - every day.”

“What young men nowadays don't realise is that ballroom dancing can be such a source of enjoyment.”