WORD OF MOUTH
“I believe so, sincerely. I’ve never seen anyone better. I say it from my heart: the most complete player that’s ever existed.”
Cristiano Ronaldo on being asked who is the greatest footballer of all time. Yes, yes, he picked himself.
“I respect if someone would prefer Messi, Pele or Maradona, but to say that CR7 isn’t complete is a lie. I’m the most complete. I excel in every aspect: heading, free-kicks, left foot, right foot. I’m fast, I’m strong.”
Cristiano? Enough.
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“Quite a few players need to be dropped, but who do you replace them with? It’s like saying your Ferrari’s not been performing well and you want to use your other car, but that other car is a Ford Focus.”
Manchester United old boy Paul Parker. Who’s the most offended – Ford or United’s fringe players? Hard to say.
“I am not saying this to make headlines, but I think Accrington Stanley gave more trouble to Liverpool than Tottenham tonight.”
Jamie Carragher, making headlines.
QUOTE
“Liverpool are the best team in the world, never mind anywhere else.”
Ally McCoist suggesting that Arne Slot’s lads aren’t just kings of Earth, but Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune too.
English pub come up with unfortunate drinks promo
The most unfortunate landlady of the month? We’ll go with Beccy Webster who runs The Gedling Inn in Nottingham and who spoke to The Guardian last week about a promotion she ran to attract more customers.
Seeing as Nottingham Forest had been hammered 5-0 the week before and Brighton had kept two clean sheets and conceded just twice in their previous four games, Beccy might have thought offering a free pint for every goal Forest scored in the sides’ Premier League meeting would be a safe enough gamble.
And then? Forest only went and scored seven, giving them their biggest top flight win in 34 years.
“The punters were just laughing at us,” said her partner Cassian Prime. “They were lining up, getting the pints, and they’d literally put the pint on the table and another goal would go in.”
They ended up giving away 300 pints, at a cost of around €1,500. “As the seventh goal went in, the couple poured themselves a drink and joined in.” Hopefully it numbed the pain.
NUMBER: 44
The percentage of English Premier League clubs’ transfer window spending that came from Manchester City’s coffers – €214m out of €484m, €164m more than the second club on the list, Wolves.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s and Lionel Messi’s lockers go on sale
Both Real Madrid and Barcelona having been spending mountains of loot on the renovation of their respective stadiums, so naturally enough they’re doing whatever they can to chip away at the debt. As the New York Times reported, Madrid auctioned off a collection of items from the Bernabeu late last year, including individual player lockers from the dressingroom. And now Barcelona are doing the same.
Look away, Cristiano: his locker was sold for €23,000, the bidding for Lionel Messi’s currently standing at €290,000. Add in a 22 per cent bidder’s fee and the cost of delivery of this sizeable item, and you wouldn’t get much change out of €350,000. But if you still fancy it, you have until Wednesday to make your offer on auctioneers Goldin’s website. Be wary, though, of being sniped at the last second by a CR7 from Riyadh with a bid of €290,000.01.
Dublin player gets sent off for unusual reason
Fundraiser of the Week: The one set up by Dublin’s Palmerstown FC to “Match The Fine For Jack’s Crime” after their player Jack Young was sent off before their game against Whitehall Rangers even kicked off. What did he do? He had a wee at the side of the pitch.
Just to add to his woes, Palmerstown managed to win 4-2 without him, so he wasn’t even missed, and on top of that he was fined €50.
But how much did the fundraiser yield? €110. That’s a bonus €60, then, to, well, go on the lash.
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