Premiership Quotes & Sayings

Sad to hear of Paul Scholes retirement! One of the best midfielders to grace the Premiership! Idolised him for years! Legend. — Jordan Henderson

Henry is a great man, I really like him. He is a great professional and I think he will be a great captain for them. He's been the outstanding player in the Premiership for the last three or four years — Frank Lampard

He's a fantastic talent and the complete footballer, probably the most coveted in the Premiership. It's a privilege for the rest of us to be on the same field. If i could have anything i wanted for Christmas, i'd take Thierry Henry — Steve Bruce

Bolton are an established team in the Premiership these days and well respected by the other sides. — Mark Lawrenson

For years Paul Scholes has been one of the best players in the Premiership. He's incredible. He has always been under-rated throughout his career. He's a team player, a one and two-touch footballer who makes good decisions on the pitch and makes his team play. — Thierry Henry

I love this game, I love this sport, I love this league. Why don't I get my own team? (English Premiership football club) — Roman Abramovich

It is a certainty that Keegan would not have agreed to return unless Mike Ashley had committed to sanctioning a mammoth spending spree. The downside, which Keegan will soon discover, is the law of diminishing returns in a league that is now the richest in the world. The type of multi-million-pound investment that bankrolled the first Newcastle revival under Keegan is now two-a-penny. Buying success just isn't as easy as it used to be. The Premiership's paradox is that the more money there is, the more the art of management gains in value. — Pete Gill

Is this good for English football? In the short run, Chelsea's rise has broken up what was turning into an irritating Arsenal-Manchester United duopoly. But football leagues (look at Scotland, look at Spain) can get along OK with duopolies. A monopoly, however, is a disaster. Everyone else in the Premiership has to operate on some kind of business footing, and the terror stalking Highbury and Old Trafford is that Chelsea will be immune from financial discipline forever. — Matthew Engel

He is a very complete, spectacular footballer. He always fights for the ball and tries to lose his marker to help his team-mates - either to defend or to have a shot on goal. For any football player in the Premiership, Scholes is a player you want to emulate. I would happily end my career with the medals that Scholes has. I am young and I hope that I will be able to surpass him - but it is not going to be easy. — Cesc Fabregas

On Saturday morning, one of the two teams still unbeaten in the Premiership occupied a modest seventh place. It is an illustration of the relentless pace being set at the top of the league in which every stumble is a serious fall and draws usually constitute two dropped points. — Pete Gill

Look at my haircut. I am ready for the war. The objective is to win the Premiershp. I don't want to dominate, to finish without defeat, record points or goals or consecutive wins. The Premiership is so difficult you cannot be focused on that. I just think about winning. — Jose Mourinho

It is customary for columnists to complain about the excesses of Premiership footballers, whenever - as happens regularly - there is an incident involving some combination of sex, drugs, drink, violence and the constabulary. But modern footballers have a lot of both money and disposable time, a combination that has proved a recipe for personal disaster throughout history. And these incidents take place generally round night clubs rather than football clubs. The average Premiership player who turned up for work drunk would have a career-expectancy measurable in minutes. — Matthew Engel

We have to remember Damien Duff is one of the most good players in the Premiership — Frank Stapleton

My feeling would be that you lose something of the beauty of the Premiership by joining something not defined at the moment. — Roman Abramovich

At the start of the season you're strong enough to win the Premiership and the European Cup, but you have to be as strong in March, when the fish are down. — Gianluca Vialli

The time I've spent in professional Premiership club rugby has been invaluable. — Rob Andrew

I have always maintained a high level of fitness, and that is why I am still able to handle the demands of playing in the Premiership. People have always commented on my fitness, and it's something I pride myself on. — Richard Gough

The election of Shinzo Abe as the leader of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic party and now prime minister will have profound repercussions for Japan and East Asia. Most western commentary during the premiership of Junichiro Koizumi has been concerned with the extent to which Japan has allowed a freer rein to market forces. — Martin Jacques

Without any doubt the best player in the Premiership has to be Scholes. He knows how to do everything, and he is one who directs the way his team plays. On top of that, he has indestructible mental strength and he is a genuine competitor. — Thierry Henry

It goes without saying that when you're the manager of a Premiership club, you go eight miles down the road and get beaten by a team two divisions below you, it's disappointing. — Kevin Keegan

For those fed up with the lack of mystery at the top of the Premiership, could I refer you to the commanding heights of the Conference. The wide points gap between first and second says we are about to witness the return to the football league of Accrington Stanley. So legendary have they become that everyone across the generations knows them, yet even those of the certain age required (you'd be pushing 60) can scarcely believe they were ever there. What proof do we have that this most Garcia Marquez of football teams was, is and yet may truly be? — Peter Chapman

Arguably, Blackburn have got the best forward line in the Premiership. There's no denying that. — Mark Lawrenson

Speed is what makes the Premiership exciting. The millions who would have watched Manchester United and Chelsea would have seen a non-stop game in which the pace was electric even though the first half was a non-event. You could see a better technical game in Spain but for sheer frenetic movement there is nothing that comes close ... Pace is more critical in the Premiership than in any other major league and if you don't have pace, you have to compensate with power or ability in the air and since Shevchenko has no power and is not particularly good in the air, he is in trouble. — Alan Hansen

I would not say he (David Ginola) is the best left-winger in the Premiership, but there are none better. — Ron Atkinson

Titus Bramble: The only explanation for his existence in the Premiership is that he is already here. — Pete Gill

So when they have Mourinho and Benitez joining the Premiership they should say it's good for us, maybe these guys have something new to give. — Jose Mourinho

When he's on fire, he is impossible to stop. He dribbles like a winger, but is still able to score 20 goals a year in the Premiership.
(on Thierry Henry) — Fabio Capello

Both Chelsea and Manchester United will be challenging for the Premiership title next season. — Roy Evans

I was a bit worried coming back to the Premiership from America, but I have been pleased with my form, and the interest I have received has been good for my ego. I have no worries about my fitness, and I am really looking forward to the season starting now. — Richard Gough

The plan was that I was going to retire and take a job with the American Federation, but Nottingham Forest offered me a contract and there was interest from West Ham and another Premiership club. — Richard Gough

Tony Cottee once played in all four divisions in one season. Cottee started 2000-01 at Leicester City, where he made a couple of Premiership appearances as a sub before being released to Norwich, in what was then Division One. In November the chance to be player-manager of Barnet came up and soon Cottee was playing in Division Three, but alas it did not work out. By March he was again looking for work and found it, with two sub appearances, at Millwall in Division Two. — Phil Cornwell

I've left Boro in the Premiership, which was always what I wanted to do. Actually that's not quite true. I took them to three cup finals, where they'd never been before. But I had set my eyes on being the first manager in their history to deliver a major trophy. — Bryan Robson

I've given these guys the blueprint on how to win a premiership, now I just have to be patient until they're ready. — LeBron James

Three years without a Premiership title? I don't think I would still be in a job. — Jose Mourinho

The bottom line is that I wanted to come back and play in the Premier League again and wake up on Saturday morning and really fancy getting out there and playing in front of this fantastic support, scoring goals and enjoying football.
(on returning to the premiership) — Michael Owen

The Spanish league is fantastic, but it has not the great passion the English Premiership has got. — Michael Owen

Even before 2007, this half of a small island was the richest football country on earth. In 2005-2006 the Premiership's total revenue was about £1.4bn, 40 per cent more than its nearest rival, Italy's Serie A. That was before take-off. Now foreign television channels are sending so much cash that the Premiership is expected to take in nearly £1.8bn this season. Even the team that finishes bottom of the table (Wigan might be a good bet) will get £26.8m from TV. That's more than all of Argentine or Belgian football put together. — Simon Kuper

This was football played at the speed of ice hockey and the ball was in play for only 53 minutes of the 90. The Premiership at its highest level is enthralling, edge-of-the-seat stuff, but sometimes it is too fast and frenetic for its own good. — Daniel Taylor

I'm a working class lad. So at 25, and with no-one in our family having any theatrical inclination, when I said, 'I'm going to scratch all that and become an actor,' I may as well have said I was going to be a Premiership footballer for the chance I'd have. — Rob James-Collier

Deaner ran down to the barrier separating the crowd from the pitch, and eventually persuaded the stewards that he had a part to play in the unfolding drama. (Anyone who has ever attempted to talk to a steward at a Premiership football ground will recognize that, whatever else during the afternoon required divine intervention, Deaner's success in getting on to the White Hart Lane turf really was a miracle.) — Nick Hornby

The statistics John Wesson has compiled in The Science of Soccer show that Premiership football players are vastly more likely to have been born in the first half of the school year. These were the biggest boys in the class and were thus selected for the school team. How fair is that? — Daniel Finkelstein

In order to restore security for Israeli citizens, every home, mother and child in Israel, and to establish a stable and strong government that will unite the nation ... I hereby declare my candidacy for the Likud party leadership and premiership of Israel. — Benjamin Netanyahu