“You’re a f***in’ bottler Incey! You cannae handle the stage, can you? You are a f***in’ bottler!”

– Alex Ferguson to Paul Ince at half-time, Barcelona, 1994

“At the end of this game, the European Cup will be only six feet away from you and you’ll not even able to touch it if we lose. And for many of you that will be the closest you will ever get. Don’t you dare come back in here without giving your all.”

– Ferguson’s half-time team talk during the 1999 European Cup Final.

“My greatest challenge is not what’s happening at the moment, my greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their f***ing perch. And you can print that.”

– Ferguson responding to Alan Hansen questioning his future as Manchester United manager in September 2002 in the Guardian.)

“Just f***ing patch him up”

– Ferguson to a club physio after kicking a boot at David Beckham’s head which left him needing stitches above his eye.)

“It’s getting tickly now - squeaky-bum time, I call it”

– Ferguson on the 2002/’03 end of season title race.

“They say he’s an intelligent man, right? Speaks five languages! I’ve got a 15-year-old boy from the Ivory Coast who speaks five languages!”

– Ferguson on Arsene Wenger.

“If he was an inch taller he’d be the best centre half in Britain. His father is 6ft 2in – I’d check the milkman.”

– Ferguson on Gary Neville.

“When an Italian tells me it’s pasta on the plate I check under the sauce to make sure. They are the inventors of the smokescreen.”

– Ferguson before Manchester United played Inter Milan in the Champions League quarter-final 1999.

“Pippo Inzaghi was born in an offside position.”

– Ferguson on Pippo Inzaghi after finding out that Pippo is the most offside player in football ever.

“He could start a row in an empty house.”

– Ferguson on Dennis Wise.

“He was certainly full of it, calling me Boss and Big Man when we had our post-match drink after the first leg. But it would help if his greetings were accompanied by a decent glass of wine. What he gave me was paint-stripper.”

– Ferguson on Jose Mourinho.

“I remember the first time I saw him. He was 13 and just floated over the ground like a cocker spaniel chasing a piece of silver paper in the wind”

– Ferguson on Ryan Giggs.

“He’s a novice – he should keep his opinions to Japanese football.”

– More on Wenger.