Johnny Giles - Quotes

Quotes

"Messi is a real, real world class player. He's the nearest I've seen to Maradona. I have to say, if you look at the difference between Messi and Ronaldo, it's incredible. They keep saying this is a match-up about the two best players in the world, but Messi, in my opinion, is miles ahead of him."

"Eighty to ninety per cent of management is about getting the right players in the club."

"He's an amazing man, Sven. I've a great deal of admiration for him, to survive the way he did, to make the amount of money that he did. The great Bill Shankly, Bill Nicholson, Alf Ramsey, they finished up broke these guys. And then Eriksson comes along, a total spoofer, and makes £25 million from managing England. But what does he actually do?"

"All the great managers are different, Shankly was different to Clough, Clough was different to Revie. Matt Busby was a very laid-back manager. He was the first man to get the young players into Manchester United and form the Busby Babes. What struck me most about Matt was his patience. I never saw him lose his temper. He believed in his players, and gave them the freedom to play. Don was much more attention to detail, he was much more hands-on than Matt was."

Following Ireland's 3–2 home defeat to Russia in a UEFA Euro 2012 qualifier Giles said: "Over the 90 minutes I thought Ireland were awful... awful!"

"I think Brian Clough was a genius, what he did at Nottm Forest and what he did at Derby was great. But it was the wrong time with the wrong people when he came to Leeds United."

"Oh God, what has Avram Grant ever done, particularly in the Premiership? I remember one instance with Chelsea in a cup final at extra-time, when John Terry had the players around him and he was giving the team talk, and Grant was standing back out of the way. That's when a manager should be really doing his job."

"I wouldn't have Aaron Lennon in the England team or I wouldn't have Shaun Wright-Phillips, I think they're brainless. I can't stand brainless players anyway. Most wingers are a bit brainless, but there's some good ones as well."

"I now believe that Bobby Charlton was the greatest player I ever played with or against."

Giles: "I've no time for the UEFA Cup at all." Bill O'Herlihy: "Hold on a second, John. We've got the final on Wednesday." Giles: "It should be a great final, Bill. It always is on RTE."

When quizzed on how his signing of Cyrille Regis at West Brom was regarded at a time when racism was more prevalent in English football, Giles replied: "There was a perception in the game that black players didn't have any bottle. I never subscribed to that at all. There were fewer black players, but I used to make the point, 'What about Pele, what about Jairzinho, what about Garrincha?' These were all black players and they were the best in the world."