The Week in Quotes
“It’s a love story worthy of Hollywood. I went back to the club hotel after dinner with the sporting director. I knew the following day I had a medical, a meeting with the president and the contract [signing], so I was nervous and didn’t want to sleep. So I went to the hotel bar with my brother for a coffee. The woman who is now my wife was serving. There were still four days left in the transfer window. Another team wanted to lay on a private plane for me to go and sign for them, but I told my brother, ‘No, I’ve given my word to the Sevilla president. I’m going to sign the contract tomorrow – and I’m going to marry that waitress. I lived in that hotel for almost three months, and I would go to the bar every day and order a coffee and an Orange Fanta, because that is all I knew how to ask for in Spanish! When another waitress tried to serve me I’d have to say, ‘No, not you, the other one!’ Raquel would always say she had to work so she couldn’t come out with me. But one day a friend tipped me off that she was in the bar on her day off, so I jumped straight in the car and drove to the bar. I walked up to her, pulled up a chair and said, ‘Here I am, and now you have no choice about coming out with me because you’re not working’. She came out for dinner with me the next day and we have been together ever since. George Clooney couldn't have done it better!”
Ivan Rakitic on how he got together with his wife
"We’ve done some mad things. We’ve been doing this a few years. But that’s up there with the ultimate. I’ll give all the awards back, everything. I wouldn’t swap [Ranieri’s words] for anything. That’ll do me that. We were in Bulgaria, so we managed to find somewhere that was showing the game. We watched the game, which was incredible. For him to say that on Match of the Day… wow. Wow.”
Serge from Kasabian, a diehard Leicester City fan, on Claudio Ranieri using the rock band’s songs to inspire the side
“It was surreal, it was as if it was in slow motion. As I could see the ball going over the goalkeeper’s head I was thinking, ‘Oh, no, don’t do this’. As soon as it went in I was thinking, ‘Can the referee give a foul throw and disallow the goal?’ It was apparent that they weren’t going to be able to do that. I just felt the right thing for us to do was to go and let Bury score. The one thing I wanted to do was to keep the good name of Doncaster Rovers and football intact.”
Paul Dickov on ordering his Doncaster side to allow Bury to walk the ball into the net and equalise in injury time in their English third-flight opener. The visitors had put the ball out when Nathan Cameron went down injured, but Harry Forrester’s attempt to return possession to Bury, aided by the wind, gave Doncaster a 90th-minute lead.
“It was as if it was in slow motion. As soon as it hit the grass I thought, ‘That’s gonna turn and go in that’. When it did, first thing [Dickov] said was, ‘We’ve gotta let you score’. It was an incredible gesture.”
David Flitcroft, Bury manager
“I hope that Eden Hazard gets diarrhea. You can have as many tactical plans as you want, but if Eden starts running it’s chaos. He's at a level where he decides how good his team are. Messi and Ronaldo are stats animals. If you look at their talent, you can compare Eden to them.”
Vincent Kompany ahead of Manchester City-Chelsea