We look back on who has been saying what in an entertaining year of verbal sparring in sport.
Who's been saying what in the last 12 months of verbal sparring
A year in sport has seen a number of top stars demonstrate an innate ability to score own goals when they let their mouths rather than bodies do the talking.
Tiger Woods has issued more apologies than Jonathan Ross, Rafa's rant lives long in the memory, while Serena Williams had the tennis community choking on their Pimms after dropping the F-bomb on court. Roy Keane has proved customary good value by regularly employing diplomacy skills that would make Prince Phillip blush, in a year in which Twitter has been employed as a negotiating tool in contract talks.
Some of those featured below may regret speaking from the heart rather than head but in an industry where glib sound bites are the norm rather than exception, we salute those willing to shoot from the lip...
"I don't get a great reception at Anfield I must say - I'm not their favourite son."
Gary Neville - the master of the understatement.
"Two [substitutes] were asleep with hats pulled down and blankets over them. I said 'I'm sorry to drag you up here, I know it's cold and you could be home with the missus with a cup of tea. It's hard for 30 grand a week to watch the game."
Harry Redknapp offers to get the brews in at half-time during Tottenham's trip to Bolton.
"My Mrs would have scored that."
Redknapp considers starting with wife Sandra up front over £18million striker Darren Bent.
"Do I wanna go Hull City? NO. Do I wanna go Stoke? NO. Do I wanna go Sunderland? Yes."
Bent becomes the first footballer to negotiate his future via the medium of Twitter.
"That's part of the territory. I wouldn't go out and get drunk and start falling around or pulling some old slag tomorrow night, would I? I'm not that stupid. Because somebody will catch you out. Having said that, Tiger Woods didn't do too bad." It's been a vintage year for old
Harry.
"If someone said at the start, when I was 21 stone, that I would win two Ashes I'd have snapped their hand off."
Andrew Flintoff signs off his Test career, lights a fat cigar and cracks open the Boddingtons.
"If I had known you got a bottle of champagne for run-outs I would have practiced more."
Freddy reflects on his regrets after getting out Ricky Ponting.
"Don't be facetious."
Mike Tyson gives a SSN reporter short-shrift when asked if we'd likely be seeing him in Rocky VII.
"He was a lion of a man - no, make that three lions."
Gary Lineker pays tribute to the late Sir Bobby Robson.
"The great players cost a lot of money, and if you want them you have to pay it. I'm happy to be the most expensive player in the world."
Cristiano Ronaldo moves to Real Madrid for £80million, before hugging the mirror.
"I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children."
Tiger Woods after engaging with a fire hydrant, a tree and half of the world's female population.
"After much soul searching, I have decided to take an indefinite break from professional golf."
Woods rues the most expensive cocktail of all time.
"I hope she uses a driver next time,"
Jesper Parnevik refers to Elin Nordegren, Woods' wife, who definitely did not attack Tiger's car with a golf club.
"I am not a cheat and never have been." No, it's not Tiger again, but
Thierry Henry after his infamous handball against Republic of Ireland.
"I had a lovely letter from Tiger Woods thanking me for taking the pressure off. I believe he is now driving round Florida in an open top car singing 'super Mick McCarthy'. The latest email I've had is from Thierry who seems to think I've taken the heat off him as well."
Mick McCarthy laughs off criticism of his squad rotation policy.
"Sometimes you have a noisy neighbour and have to live with it."
Sir Alex Ferguson compares Manchester City to the Battersbys.
"I want to talk about facts. I want to be clear. I do not want to play mind games too early, although they seem to want to start."
Rafa Benitez gift wraps the title to Manchester United. Fact.
"If I could, I would take this f****** ball and shove it down your f****** throat."
Serena Williams rants at a US Open line judge.
"Jermaine is really generous - he bought me some Christain Louboutin shoes for Christmas which I love. But the best present he ever got me is priceless - a tattoo of my face on his forearm."
Jermaine Jenas' fiancée makes the rest of us reconsider whether life really is worth living.
"This club has got great ambition and I want to part of it."
Sol Campbell joins Notts County for a whole game.
"Slim dumps a small pile of powder on the coffee table. He cuts it, snorts it. He cuts it again. I snort some. I sit back on the couch and consider the Rubicon I've crossed."
Andre Agassi fine-tunes his pre-match warm-up.
"I'm seized by a desperate desire to clean. I go tearing around my house, cleaning it from top to bottom. I dust the furniture. I scour the tub. I make the beds." Crystal Meth sounds like a riot.
"I want to win everything this year. I am the new Nadal - and I am better looking than him."
Phil Taylor pops round to Andre's for lunch.
"We know that Arsene Wenger likes the look of [Andrey] Arshavin. But I like the look of Angelina Jolie and it doesn't always mean you get what you want." Arshavin's agent
Dennis Lachter plays hard to get before falling for Arsene Wenger's Gallic charm.
"My worry now is paying off my hotel-room bill and keeping a straight face as the lady looks through the Channel 43 charges."
Graeme Swann confesses cricket tours can be lonely affairs.
"On the first Valentine's Day I spent with my wife, I made her watch the curling. 'Let's see one more rubber and we'll go out,' I told her. It was the only rubber I got involved in that night, I can tell you..."
Robbie Savage tests your gag reflex after going all Carry On.
"I have impressed upon them the advantages of a Mediterranean diet over ketchup and chips."
Fabio Capello catches Wayne Rooney at the chippy.
"I thought it wouldn't hurt to try."
Usain Bolt after breaking the world record for the 200m in Berlin.
"I would in all possibility be sitting out a season of rugby. After having discussed this with my girlfriend, I took the view that adequate compensation for all of this would be the club apologising to me, extending my contract terms and paying off the mortgage on the house I own with my girlfriend."
Tom Williams wants compensation from Harlequins after his ban following the infamous 'bloodgate'. Ask nice enough Tom and they'll probably get an official to come round and wipe your rear...
'I'm out of your league. I'm a multi-millionaire."
Marlon King officially becomes the most deluded individual in the history of the human race.
"We made an offer and it was turned down. We offered Stoke-on-Trent."
Tony Pulis admits defeat in his bid to bring Kaka to the Britannia.
"If you're a burglar, it's no good poncing about outside somebody's house, looking good with your swag bag ready. Just get in there, burgle them and come out. I don't advocate that obviously, it's just an analogy."
Ian Holloway after watching his Blackpool side lose 4-1 to Crystal Palace.
"We walked across there yesterday. We saved a girl actually - considering her future, shall we say."
Phil Brown turns good Samaritan before turning water to wine for his next trick.
"I'd have put an 'a' in it."
Brown when asked whether Jozy Altidore had put the twit in Twitter.
"Whether it's the internet, radio, television, there are always areas of debate, but you have to accept it. The media has become an absolute monster." If you'd like to comment on
Tony Pulis' viewpoint please fill in the feedback form below.
"We decided to do it last night. He (Phil Brown) took it well. It was a bit of banter to do it if we scored a goal, and we agreed that whoever scored an equaliser or winning goal had to be the one who did the pointing. I think Paul McShane will be the one to take the flak for it."
Jimmy Bullard explains the thinking behind arguably the decade's best celebration."I have to say Manchester City's behaviour was absolutely disgusting. They took the p*** out of us, to be honest. They have shown a lack of respect for this football club and the player himself."
Steve Bruce goes all red when asked about Man City's pursuit of Wilson Palacios.
"I didn't deliberately do it," Pinocchio, sorry,
Thierry Henry tucks into a porky pie.
"But it was handball." No kidding Sherlock.
"I cheated."
Henry is caught on camera conceding his guilt to a devastated Richard Dunne.
"C'est la vie."
William Gallas couldn't be more French had he conducted his post-match interview donning a beret and stripy t-shirt, with a string of onions round his neck and a copy of Allo Allo tucked down his shorts.
"The replay. I'll do it when you want on a PlayStation." QOTW regular
Patrice Evra is decidedly less het up about the matter."
"I was putting a chicken down there as protection. Seriously I swear it's true. When the doctor saw that technique he said 'what are you doing?' But it helped me a lot. I couldn't feel the ball too much but it protected me a lot."
Evra uses a chicken fillet to protect a gash on his foot. I kid thee not...
"I played one month with meat in my boots. The funny thing is, after the game, the meat was cooked. Not ready to eat, but a little bit cooked." Sounds like KFC.
"The proposed figure of £10m is ridiculous. For that amount they would only get Milito's ear." Genoa president
Enrico Preziosi wonders aloud whether star striker Diego Milito would consider doing a Van Gogh.
"I would like to be Eddie Murphy, the comedian. I would love to be an actor in Hollywood and why not? I always try to make people happy." Eddie has yet to get back on whether he'd like to be
Emmanuel Eboue, the footballer.
"Ever since I have been a professional footballer it has been harder for me to go out and not be noticed. Especially by female fans. I have never had any problems with women; I often get letters from girls, who send me their phone numbers and photos."
Samir Nasri. We've all been there Samir, you've just got to roll with the punches.
"I couldn't care less about this Daily Mail poll. It's really a crap paper, how can they judge that?"
Stephane Guivarc'h talks eminent good sense after being named the Premier League's worst ever striker.
"I acted in a youthful and inappropiate way, not in a manner people have come to expect from me. For this I am sorry."
Michael Phelps apologies after being caught on camera apparently smoking a bong, before stepping out for munchies.
"And, of course, there were distractions. Like when I was younger and was in a shop buying candy - I would pay for one but then take another one. For instance, my friends tried to make me have a drink, have a cigarette and stuff - well, you know, it was Holland."
Robin van candy man Persie admits a previous life of crime.
"I had three aims this year - to get into the Arsenal team, qualify for the World Cup and to be Player of the Year. I have achieved them all." Clearly
Nicklas Bendtner failed to show similar restraint on his own trip to Holland.
He continues: "I want to be top scorer in the Premier League, top scorer at the World Cup and, within five years, I want to be among the best strikers in the world." I want to be three inches taller, three inches slimmer and the editor of the New Yorker. Guess life's a b****
"He'd clean my shoes, make me cups of tea and even came to one of my fan club afternoons...he may be a global superstar but has he ever sold out Discotheque Royale on a Sunday afternoon?"
Lee Sharpe puts David Beckham's achievements into perspective.
And finally...
"France are going to the World Cup. Get over it."
Roy Keane after the Irish lost their World Cup play-off to France courtesy of Henry's helping hand.
