On Rafael Benítez and his 'facts' rant

 

"I think he was an angry man. He must have been disturbed for some reason. I think you have got to cut through the venom of it and hopefully he'll reflect and understand what he said was absolutely ridiculous."

 

On Italians and pre-match mindgames

 

"When an Italian tells me it's pasta on the plate I check under the sauce to make sure. They are the inventors of the smokescreen."

 

On Liverpool rivalry

 

"My greatest challenge is not what's happening at the moment, my greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their fucking perch. And you can print that."

 

On Arsène Wenger

 

"They say he's an intelligent man, right? Speaks five languages. I've got a 15-year-old boy from the Ivory Coast who speaks five languages!"

 

On referee Alan Wiley

 

"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 book a player. He was needing a rest. It was ridiculous."

 

On José Mourinho

 

"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."

 

On whether Liverpool would win the title in 2007

 

"You must be joking. Do I look as if I'm a masochist ready to cut myself? How does relegation sound instead?"

 

On Manchester City's Carlos Tévez poster

 

"It's City, isn't it? They are a small club, with a small mentality. All they can talk about is Manchester United, that's all they've done and they can't get away from it."

 

On Manchester City again

 

"Sometimes you have a noisy neighbour. You cannot do anything about that. They will always be noisy. You just have to get on with your life, put your television on and turn it up a bit louder."

 

On Wayne Rooney's transfer request

 

"Sometimes you look in a field and you see a cow and you think it's a better cow than the one you've got in your own field. It's a fact. Right? And it never really works out that way."

 

Luiz Felipe Scolari as Chelsea coach

 

“I read that Scolari is more experienced than me. What have I been doing for the last 34 years? I must have missed something or been asleep somewhere. They are saying because of Scolari’s experience, Chelsea are going to win the league. I don’t understand that.”

 

On Alan Pardew

 

"Pardew has come out and criticised me. He is the worst at haranguing referees. He shoves them and makes a joke of it. How he can criticise me is unbelievable. He forgets the help I gave him, by the way. The press have had a field day. The only person they have not spoken to is Barack Obama because he is busy. It is unfortunate but I am the manager of the most famous club in the world. Not Newcastle, a wee club in the North-East."

 

On journalists who criticized Juan Sebastian Veron

 

"I don't give any of you credibility. You talk about wanting to have an association with people here and you wonder why I don't get on with you? But you're a fucking embarrassment. One of these days the door is going to be shut on you permanently."