"I'll be giving my old mate Big Sam a hug and a kiss when I see him, maybe two kisses."- Ferguson, after Sam Allardyce's Bolton held The Special Team to a 2-2 draw that enabled United to open a five-point gap at the top of the Premiership standings with only three games remaining.
He stated: "We got ourselves into a good position by getting into a two-goal lead. But we let them back into the game with an individual mistake that they scored from. Then we made three more mistakes, including one from me, and we were punished. It is disappointing from our point of view."
"I've seen Beckham and Cantona — and films of George Best. Now I, too, have the No 7 and I will do my best to become a great player like those players from the past. They were entertaining players, like me, and perhaps there's a certain spirit about the jersey. The No 7 shirt is a legend's shirt at Manchester United, especially.
"Before I came, I knew it was a big club, one of the best in the world. Everybody, more or less, knows Man United, even those who don't follow football. Being the first Portuguese to play for them is a big honour. This is a club where you can grow as a footballer, reach as high a level as you want to. The manager encourages young players, Sir Alex has helped me a lot, supporting me through some difficult times. I think he's a very human person, very sincere."
I just can't resist reproducing these delicious remarks from Sir Alex Ferguson:
"It's a special night. It is amazing and a big honour for me to win trophies like this in the English Premier League. I am very proud. My colleagues have voted for me and that is fantastic because the players know the qualities of (other) players. I want to keep working hard and getting better because these trophies have now given me more motivation. This great team has helped me as well, because when the team win it is easier for us all to play with more confidence. Everything is right this season and I am really enjoying it."
Ever heard of the Lancaster City Football Club? No? I wouldn't blame you. Until last week, I hadn't heard of them either.
"Nobody can stop him. Probably the only way to do it is to kill him. When he runs at you, you try to grab his shirt or do whatever you can. But he just goes past you, makes fun out of you and leaves you kicking the air. Even when he is sitting on a bike, Cristiano is doing tricks. He eats with the ball, he watches TV with the ball. He probably even sleeps with the ball."
...and downright stupid. That's all I can say about the Americans after the slaying of 32 students by a student psychopath.
"We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.
"The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.
"Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."
"The fringe players are very important. Just look at Darren Fletcher — he was magnificent against Roma in central midfield. Then he was asked to play at right-back against Watford and looked as though he had been there all his life. He is a fantastic all-round footballer who is now starting to get the credit his talent deserves. The manager has said all along the players who weren't necessarily playing at the start of the season are the ones who have to come to the fore — and they have done exactly that."
I know it is already quite a long while after Cheng Beng but I copuldn't help laughing that in China, during the last Cheng Beng - or Tombsweeping Festival as it's known over there - people were burning paper replicas of Viagra pills at cemeteries.
"Russia is no longer a country ... where the government tries to pretend it is playing by the letter and spirit of the law. This court rejected the very presumption of my innocence. I was the one who had to prove that I was innocent, although there were no concrete allegations against me. Nevertheless, we consider today a victory. Today is an important demonstration of the degeneration of Putin's regime. The outrageous behaviour of the authorities only demonstrates that we live in a police state. But we are not going to stop here. We will continue to struggle. Although the Russian constitution clearly stipulates that every citizen has the right to speak freely, the current regime doesn't respect that right. The opinion of the average man simply doesn't count. This regime has shown its true colours and its true face. We now stand somewhere between Belarus and Zimbabwe.
"We were arrested when we were doing nothing. There was no action. We were just walking along. There was simply a criminal attack by people in riot-police uniforms on Russian citizens who were just walking along. Every possible (procedural) violation has been committed, from the moment we were grabbed up to this court .... I have to go back (into the court) now, because if I'm late they'll charge me with another violation."
"At 22, he has the same skill factor as Maradona and Pele. He is one of the best signings I have ever made. The measurement of his improvement this year is astronomical. In terms of top-flight football, where do you find a winger who has scored 20 goals. It is incredible. Without question, Cristiano is getting to the level of best player in the world. Thereafter, it is up to others to decide whether he is as good as Maradona and Pele. That is the challenge in front of him now.
"Why should he move? He's seen his career rise here, he plays in front of 76,000, he is well liked and there is a great atmosphere within the dressing room. There was no reason for him to leave, other than the fact people perceive Real Madrid as a club for galacticos, or whatever they call them. They have this pretty conceited notion about themselves but we never discussed that club with him. It was down to a simple equation of does the boy want to stay and how much is it going to cost us? Barcelona are a fantastic club, too, but I can't say they are miles in front of us. Most people recognise we are one of the biggest clubs in the world and we believe Cristiano is in the right place."
"I don't know what it is with Madrid but it seems to happen time and time again. They seem to have no regard for anyone but themselves. The way they kept talking in Spain and trying to unsettle clubs the way they do. We know it is a game they like to play when their elections are coming. You could report them to Uefa, but I don't think it matters to them. If you fined them, it wouldn't bother their backsides, would it?"
"I am delighted. I spoke with Sir Alex and David Gill about my future and everyone knew that I wanted to stay. I am at the right club and this is why I signed. Everything is good with the club, the president, the boss, the staff and the supporters have helped me so much, and the big reason is I want to win trophies and hopefully we will do that this season."
Ferguson: "It is fantastic news, it emphasises the point that Cristiano is happy here and that he is at the right club. He has a great relationship with the team, staff and the fans and he will go on to be one of Manchester United's great players."
Giggs: "I don't believe there is anyone who could rival him as being the best player in the world. For someone in his position, and of his age, to be as consistent as he has been, is remarkable. To secure his future for the next five years is great news for everyone."
"Old Trafford is the Theatre of Dreams. When you have 76,000 people behind you, you are determined to give your best."
"What more can you say about Cristiano? He is the best player in the world just now. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the performance. He is going to have an awful lot to say in terms of how we finish the season. At the moment we just have to give him the ball and let him get on with it. Put it this way, I am glad he is in my team and not anyone else's."
Okay .... eeeasy does it. Let's be careful unloading this grand piano. After all, it's a Bosendorfer. You know what's a Bosendorfer, don't you? Well, it's like a Stradivarius, only much, much bigger.
So we gotta be careful, lads. After all, these folks have paid a lot of money for the piano. They've been saving and scrimping these past two years to raise £26,000 to buy this rare Bosendorfer and they want to play it this weekend at the Two Moors British music festival.
Altogether now, heave.....
Oops!
"Everyone is pleased for Alan. His enthusiasm spreads throughout the team. His great quality in the last year has been his patience and the perseverance to keep going. He’s deserved it more than anyone. He’s been patient. He’s trained like a beast. He got his reward tonight."
Apple yesterday announced that the company had sold 100 million iPods worldwide since its launch in Nov 2001. That's a lot of iPods, if you ask me. It seems that there's an iPod for every occasion and it comes in all shades of the rainbow.
Last Friday, the New Straits Times reported deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak as saying that Malaysians, especially the media, should not overreact to bomb scares as they could cause chaos.
I've a bone to pick with Pos Malaysia.
GEORGE TOWN: It has turned out that the phone call which led to the closure of the Penang Bridge came from State Works and Public Utilities Committee chairman Datuk Koay Kar Huah.
Koay yesterday admitted that he received a call from a friend who was stuck in a traffic jam enquiring if there was a bomb on the bridge.
"I got the call and instructed my staff to check and verify if it was true. They then called the Malaysian Highway Authority," he said at a specially called Press conference by Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon.
PENANG (April 5, 2007): The chain of events that led to the closure of Penang Bridge yesterday afternoon was apparently set in motion by a query from a bridge worker to a state executive councillor, and was not a bomb threat.Datuk Koay Kar Huah, who is the exco in charge of public works, utilities and transportation, said today he received a call from a friend, who is a staff at the bridge, asking him whether it was true there was a bomb at the bridge.
Koay said this when asked by reporters about talk that it was his call to the police that led to the bridge's closure for two hours and 40 minutes that resulted in a gridlock for peak-hour commuters.
"I called up my staff to check it out and the staff then called the Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM) to verify the information," he said in a joint press conference with Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon.
"The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father. He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared, he didn't give a shit. It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive."Richards has since denied saying this:
Which version would you believe??"I wouldn't take cocaine at this point in my life unless I wished to commit suicide. The truth of the matter is that I planted a sturdy English Oak. I took the lid off the box of ashes and he is now growing oak trees and would love me for it!"
"Lots of things drive me on. The disappointment of games we've lost, the trophies we have lost. It is not the trophies that you have won that drive you on; it is those you've missed out on. Maybe having only a year or two left drives me on as well. You can see the finishing line and you just have to enjoy it. It brings out the best in you. When you are 19, 20 and 21, you think the end will never come, but once you are in your 30s, you know the end will come around 35-36. You just try to enjoy it and win as much as you can, because you know that in three or four years, you won't be doing it."
