Fergie's best quotes

After the surprise announcement of Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement we pick out his best quotes.

It was a sad day for the Red half of Manchester when, after 26 glorious years as Manchester United boss, Sir Alex Ferguson announced he will retire at the end of the current season. It will be a fitting end to his tenure as he will lift his 13th Premier League title at Old Trafford on Sunday. Over the years he has had a love-hate relationship with the media, but his thoughts and opinions have always got the world watching and listening, whether they agreed or not. Here are 26 of his most memorable quotes that have caused us much humour and aroused much debate over the years, and contributed to the person behind the success. "I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Football. Bloody hell," he exclaimed after winning the European Cup on May 26th, 1999. "Only true champions come out and show their worth after defeat - and I expect us to do that," he said after being beaten by Arsenal for a second time in the league 2006 season. "I'm privileged to have followed Sir Matt because all you have to do is to try and maintain the standards that he set so many years ago," an emotion Ferguson said after equalling Sir Matt Busby's Premiership record. "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 team-talks were to the point. "My greatest challenge is not what's happening at the moment, my greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their perch. And you can print that," he said in response to Alan Hansen questioning Sir Alex Ferguson's future as Manchester United manager in September 2002. "It was a freakish incident. If I tried it 100 or a million times it couldn't happen again. If I could I would have carried on playing," Ferguson said trying to play down the David Beckham 'boot incident'. "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 admitted he wasn't a fan of Mourinho's early offerings. "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 said of a young Ryan Giggs. "He was towering over me and the other players were almost covering their eyes. I'm looking up and thinking 'if he does hit me, I'm dead'," even he admits being intimidated by Peter Schmeichel. "I bet him he wouldn't get 15 league goals and I'm going to have to change my bet with him. If he gets to 15 I can change it and I am allowed to do that because I'm the manager. I'm going to make it 150 now," (on Ronaldo). "It can be difficult to pinpoint who would make it as a manager. For instance, nobody here thought Mark Hughes would become a manager, never in a million years, and we all thought Bryan Robson was a certainty to be a top manager," he said of his former players. "The pace of the game demanded a referee who was fit. It is an indictment of our game. You see referees abroad who are as fit as butcher's dogs. We have some who are fit. He wasn't fit. He was taking 30 seconds to