News

“I’m not a robot. I’ll be back with a vengeance”

IAN COLE collects the week’s sports and journalism quotes, including England football, cycling world championships, the Boat Race, cricket World Cup and the first F1 Grand Prix of the season

“If somebody does have a problem, I would respect them coming to me in person. There are certain players at clubs who don’t get on with each other. That’s life” John Terry, reinstated as England football captain, challenges the squad to tell him what they really think.

Fabio Capello, apparently indicating to Wayne Rooney how many yellow cards he had already received in the Euro2012 qualifiers

“If my mind is not OK to drive this team, I go home. I am here. I like my job. I want to stay. I hope to stay here for a long time” Fabio Capello has to confirm his commitment to the cause despite England’s 2-0 win in Wales.

“Under sharp interrogation, the manager was swiftly obliged to admit he hadn’t warned the player of his situation before the game. He hadn’t trusted his English sufficiently to say something as complex as, ‘Hey, knobhead, remember you’re already on one caution'” James Lawton on England manager Fabio Capello, writing for The Independent.

“You can have all this Welsh stuff, dragons, etcetera… which is great, it puts bums on seats. You can have as much dragon-fire talk as you want. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything if you don’t have the team” John Hartson on the problems surrounding his national team.

“The fans were booing the National Anthem and stuff like that. When you hear that you are pumped up even more. I don’t want to get in to whether it’s insulting, because when you play away from home you get that. But you pump your chest out even more and sing louder” John Terry, whose England side was two-up in 14 minutes.

“I was a bit rusty to start with, then  I managed to beat a few. Then I dropped it in about my mum and dad…” Matt Jarvis is king of the England football squad’s table tennis table. His parents, Nick and Linda, were British No.1s in the 1980s.

“I want to be frozen like Walt Disney and Michael Jackson. I don’t want to be buried so I don’t need a gravestone. I want to be cremated… but I’m never going to die” Kelly Sotherton, the heptathlete-turned-400m runner, clearly a little confused about cryogenics, cremation and immortality.

“Straussy and I have discussed his one-day future and certainly he shouldn’t be making any decisions right now. He’s still a very important part of England’s future, whether that includes one-day cricket or not” Andy Flower, the England cricket coach, after the side is knocked out of the World Cup quarter-finals by 10 wickets against Sri Lanka.

Michael Yardy: depression

“Jimmy has had a long, tough winter and he’d got to the stage where he was pretty burnt out. I think he’d sort of reached the end of the road” Andrew Strauss explains Ashes hero James Anderson’s failure to win selection for the later stages of England’s World Cup campaign.

“I wish I’d had the chance to say he had nothing to be ashamed of, that we all understood and were right behind him” Paul Collingwood, surprised to hear that England team mate Michael Yardy had to go home from the cricket World Cup suffering from depression.

“I’ve been, with respect, a better player. I always got picked and played pretty good. So I’ve not been in that position where my quality of play has been poor and got to me mind-wise” Geoff Boycott, now a BBC radio pundit, with his opinion of Michael Yardy’s early departure from the World Cup with depression.

“The alarm bells have been ringing recently regarding my long game but nothing to hint at this. On a course where you have to be in control of your game, I was in control of nothing. My driving was weak, iron play poor, putting truly awful” Graeme McDowell, US Open champion, shoots a first-round 80 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

“I can hardly remember being at a Games where I have seen a more spectacular backdrop to a venue” Lord Coe looks out over the Thames estuary from the Olympic mountain biking course at Hadleigh, Essex.

“Xchanging, the internet informs me, is a ‘fast‑growing international “pure-play” business processing company’, which made it a little incongruous when Clare Balding called it ‘the 157th Xchanging boat race’. I never realised there was a demand for international business processing companies back in 1829″ Martin Kelner in The Guardian.

“I always said I was never going to row, like Dad, and never going to do medicine, like Mum. Now I’m doing both” Natalie Redgrave, medical student daughter of five-time Olympic champion Sir Steve and Dr Ann, is a member of Oxford’s victorious women’s Boat Race crew.

Pendleton: world reign ended

“I’m not a robot. I’ve been sprint champion a long time and wearing the winner’s stripey jersey can become a bit of a burden. But I’ll be back next year with a vengeance” Victoria Pendleton, five times world sprint cycling champion, has to settle for bronze.

“I’ve been practising better and training hard but on the match court I can’t get anything going. I am pissed off. I don’t want to be playing like this. I don’t know exactly what it is” Andy Murray, whose world tennis ranking has slipped to No5, loses to an opponent outside the top 100 (Alex Bogomolov Junior) for the second successive tournament.

“I feel really privileged to be up here, because we thought it was going to be quite a bad weekend. But I’m back up here, back in the fight, only a few points behind the guy in front who has a much, much faster car. There’s only one more guy to beat and it’s the world champion in the world championship-winning car. Beside him, there was no one who could have competed with me today” Lewis Hamilton is overjoyed to finish second to Sebastian Vettel in the Australian Grand Prix.


UPCOMING SJA DATES
Tue Apr 5: SJA Olympic Question Time
. Click here to find out more

Wed Apr 13: SJA 2011 Annual Meeting, at offices of UK Sport, Russell Square. Strictly SJA members only.

Wed Dec 7: SJA 2011 British Sports Awards – note the date in your diary now.

All details subject to alteration. Keep checking sportsjournalists.co.uk for updates