The SJA’s resident old blogger NORMAN GILLER has picked 25 memorable quotes from the past 12 months. Take a break during the Christmas festivities and see if you can identify who said what.
Cartoons by KEVIN MACEY
1. Who said: “The last time I felt really confident was a couple of years ago when I won the UK, the world championship and made a few 147s. Then it all disappeared”?
b) John Higgins; b) Ronnie O’Sullivan; c) Peter Ebdon
2. “Some of the things Sepp Blatter has said defy belief. Comparing footballers to slaves. Completely crass. Any other organisation would have got rid of him years ago.”
a) Clive Woodward; b) Brian Moore; c) Eddie Butler
3. “Andy, you are too good a player not to win a Grand Slam. Don’t worry about it.”
a) Roger Federer; b) Raphael Nadal; c) Tim Henman
4. Who said: “It’s not about the money, it’s about playing football and the love of the game. It’s no longer a hunger, it’s a craving”?
a) Sol Campbell; b) Ryan Giggs; c) David Beckham
5. “That’s it. I’m done. I can’t compete. I can’t play like I used to.”
a) Freddie Flintoff; b) John Daly; c) Jonny Wilkinson
6. “I feel Tiger has not carried the same stature in the game as other great players like Jack, Arnold, Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan. I think he needs to clean up his act and show the respect for the game that others before him have shown”
a) Tom Watson; b) Gary Player; c) Phil Mickelson
7. “I didn’t get much sleep last night, reading text messages under my duvet. Everyone believed in me more than I believed in myself.”
a) Jessica Ennis; b) Amy Williams; c) Beth Tweddle
8. “I thought, I thought, I thought and I thought about going for the England coaching job. I was fighting myself. On one side I wanted it, on one side I knew it was not the job for me. Not for my mentality, my passion for football, for training every day.”
a) Rafa Benitez; b) Arsene Wenger; c) Jose Mourinho
9. “For all that I have done, I am so sorry. I never thought about who I was hurting. I thought only about myself. What I did is not acceptable. I am the only person to blame.”
a) Ricky Hatton; b) Tiger Woods; c) Wayne Rooney
10. “A big club will always go for that big name, a sexy name. You’ll have to ask my wife if I’m sexy and she’ll definitely say no.”
a) Harry Redknapp; b) Steve Bruce; c) Ian Holloway
11. “The people who write the headlines probably know even less than the people who write the articles.”
a) Sir Alex Ferguson; b) Andrew Strauss; c) Martin Johnson
12. “It’s good to get angry. It’s good to go a bit mad, but I don’t throw teacups. I’d rather throw punches.”
a) Sam Allardyce; b) Roy Keane; c) Neil Warnock
13. “The biggest annoyance for me, even in our position, is when people don’t try. I said to the lads at half-time ‘We’re 2-0 down and I am not prepared to accept another five-goal thrashing.’”
a) David James; b) Paul Robinson; c) Robert Green
14. “I hope that one day I will wake up and think that this is not for me. That I am not as good as I was and can tell myself not to make a fool of myself by carrying on too long. But I’ve got a funny feeling someone is going to have to drag me down and tell me.”
a) Phil Taylor; b) Steve Davis; c) AP McCoy
15. “Players here have a different culture from Italian players, but all players are the same. They all want to play. They all want to win. They all don’t want to work hard. I played for 20 years and I was the same.”
a) Roberto Mancini; b) Carlo Ancelotti; c) Fabio Capello
16. “When I first played Twenty20 I used to think of them as exhibition matches, but it’s a serious business now and the more times you play this format the better you become.”
a) Paul Collingwood; b) Stuart Broad; c) Kevin Pietersen
17. “The influx of foreigners has been far too big. They should be restricted. The only clubs with foreign players should be Premier League clubs. Right now everyone has foreign players, even down to the third and fourth divisions. They have any name, not because they are so good but because they are cheaper than the counterpart you will find in England.”
a) Ossie Ardiles; b) David Ginola; c) Ricky Villa
18. “I am not afraid of anyone or anything in this World Cup unless they are wearing a mask. Fear doesn’t exist in football. Whoever is afraid should stay at home.”
a) Raymond Domenech; b) Diego Maradona; c) Marcel Lippi
19. “I get on great with everyone. It’s part of the way I play and part of what I do. If I’m in charge of the keg of Guinness, that will be great.”
a) Darren Clarke; b) Ian Woosnam; c) Sandy Lyle
20. “I kept getting injured and being shouted at by the coach. I wasn’t enjoying it so I walked out. Now I like being shouted at and I have a very strong work ethic”
a) Jenny Meadows; b) Chris Thompson; c) Dai Greene.
21. “The time I say I am a No2 driver I will not race any more. I am not a No2. I will fight for victory here. I’m not just here to race, I’m here to win.”
a) Lewis Hamilton; b) Felipe Massa; c) Rubens Barrichello
22. “I was happy to pull up an armchair at second slip, have the best seat in the house, and watch my mates do all the work. I’m an inherently lazy person and will be happy to do nothing again if the others bowl as well as they did at Trent Bridge.”
a) Jimmy Anderson; b) Paul Collingwood; c) Graeme Swann
23. “Playing with Tiger makes you focus more and that’s what I need after a fortnight away from the game. I think he likes playing with me, too. A lot of players act differently when they’re around him but my caddie and I take the mickey out of him and he returns in kind. It’s probably what he needs right now, with everything that’s going on in his life.”
a) Ian Poulter; b) Lee Westwood; c) Rory McIlroy
24. “We have supporters who follow us all over the world and spend large amounts of money doing it. I can understand their frustrations. I’m sure there will be boos at times. If I was a fan, I’d probably boo too.”
a) Steven Gerrard; b) John Terry; c) Frank Lampard
25. “Our message to the 24 FIFA executive committee members is that a World Cup in England will do more than any other tournament to help develop football as a platform for social and human change across the world.”
a) Prince William; b) David Beckham; c) Rio Ferdinand
The answers will be posted here from Dec 27.
- In the meantime, Uncle Norm would like to wish his regular reader a very Merry Christmas and a stonking New Year