English Football Quotes

Do I enjoy the aggression of English football? No. I like to play football. I like to score goals. I like to do things well.

I like English football, always have. It's just that people go on about the World Cup in 1986 and then I'm seen as the real bad boy.

I played with Michy for Belgium. He is still young; he can finish and is very good. He just needs to adapt to English football, and he will. He is intelligent and a good player.

I have always had the dream to play in English football and now I'm going to make it true.

I always say the Premier League is the best in the world, and I still feel it is an honour to be playing here, but I think English football suits my game. Football is more physical here; the ref is not whistling every foul.

My process to adapt to English football has been very good.

English football has an enormous following across the world, not just because of the players but because of its history, its tradition, the excitement, the capacity crowds.

German football is like English football. The Germans and the English do not play like a Brazilian side. They have to improve, bring up their young players, who have character.

Looking from the outside at English football, at Spanish football, it's more interesting, and they have the champions and the celebrities that they want to see. But with the passion that Italians have for football, the pride that they have, I don't think the game will stay that way.

English football is different: always on the attack. Although one thing is clear. The best football is the Italian.

I am fascinated by English football.

There are lots of concerns facing English football but for me the major one is the way in which football clubs are run by owners, whether they are growing organically and sustainably and how that is being policed by the football authorities.

There is a great deal of fair play in English football.

English football is very, very difficult. It is very disciplined.

I like English football so much - it is very strong.

The Football Association have always acted more as a referee than a governor. And the FA, aware the Premier League provide players for the England team, have always had too gentle a hand on the tiller. The result is that the Premier League are the tigers in the English football jungle everybody's scared of.

The arrival of Arsene Wenger in 1996 certainly heralded a change in English football. He was very successful very quickly, and suddenly, all the talk was about his revolutionary new training methods.

English football is really different to football in other countries.

The chairmen of the largest companies in the world can cancel an appointment or move a board meeting; a manager cannot change the date of a game. In the combined 42 years that Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have managed in English football, I can only remember one occasion when Sir Alex did not attend a Manchester United game.

When I'm in town on Sundays, I sometimes go down to the Central Bar in the East Village to watch English football. But my natural inclination now is to get in the car with my wife and kids and get out of town.

The romance of English football is fantastic, but it has lost its identity under the influence of other cultures.

I do not think any thinking individual buys a sports franchise, or an English football club, to make money.

You see how Spanish, Italians, Portuguese play football. I don't say they are perfect, I say English football has a few things to learn from them in the same way they have a lot of things to learn from English football.

I feel I have a lot to learn from English football and I am completely open to good influences in my way of thinking football. But I also have things to give them.

English football is changing: the champions don't play a 'typical' English style, for example. But in general, it's quicker than in Spain: more counter-attacks, more open, more direct.

Obviously, Spain is my home, and I have everything here - family, friends - but I'm very happy in England, with the way of life we have and with English football.

I like many things in English football - everyone lives and breathes it here. Of course, that doesn't mean I don't like Spanish football.

I'm passionate about English football; it's lived in a special way, unique.

English football is in a bad way because the foreign players here are so good, so dominant.

English footballers are honest - they will run for 90-odd minutes - but that is not always what you need. Sometimes you need to rein back a bit and try and control the game with your passing.