The most popular football league in the world embarks on the 26th edition. Premier League has been surging in popularity, around the globe and in India, ever since the first season began in 1992-’93. Every football fan growing up in that period, picked a team to support and the tradition has sustained ever since.

And over the years, the league has provided us with some memorable quotes – quotes that have become stuff of legends – thanks to the wide array of characters to have graced the English shores. Be it verbal battles between managers, or players losing their mind – we have seen it all.

Here, we pick the one memorable quote that stands out from each completed season of the Premier League till date. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

  • “I’m not interested in all the tittle‑tattle ... we all have to remember that he is a truly gifted player.” – Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson on new signing Eric Cantona, 1992-’93
  • “I represent about 12 players at Tottenham Hotspur and they’ve all told me in the last couple of days that they certainly will put in for transfers,” Agent Eric Hall reveals a shocking bit information after the North London club were fined £600,000 as well as having 12 league points docked ahead of the season after the English FA found financial irregularities – 1993-’94
  • “When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea. Thank you very much” – Cantona’s defence after his infamous ‘kung fu kick’ incident against Crystal Palace in 1994-’1995
  • “Because they were the People’s Champions! They were a down-to-earth club, weren’t they? It’s not even a city is it, Blackburn? We weren’t stock listed. We were privately owned by Jack, a local guy who had put his money in and said, ‘I want to see my football club go forward.’ “Manchester United were listed on the Stock Exchange. They were a global club. We were just a small town that happened to have a good football team.” - Liverpool legend and former manager Kenny Dalglish after winning the 1994-’95 title with Blackburn Rovers
  • “The problem with him having that great lump on top of his head is that I’m not sure he knows at which angle the ball will come off. It takes him so long to put it up I’m often waiting around to give the team talk.’ Former Nottingham Forest manager Frank Clark on his player Jason Lee’s haircut 1995-’96. British satirists had a field day poking fun at the gangly English striker. Take a look at the video below.

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  • “If Bergkamp thinks he’s gonna set the world alight he can forget it. When the fog, ice and cold arrive, he won’t want to know.” -  Then Tottenham Hotspur chairman Alan Sugar on Arsenal’s new signing Denis Bergkamp for £7.5 million in 1995-’96. Easily, one of the greatest foot-in-the-mouth predictions in the Premier League era.  
  • “For Tony Adams to admit he’s an alcoholic took an awful lot of bottle” - Arsenal legend Ian Wright shows that his pun game is as good as his goalscoring prowess, during the 1996-97 season.
  • “I want this to become the ticket to the dreams” - Manager Christian Gross after arriving late while being unveiled as the Tottenham boss ahead of the 1997-98 season. Gross flashed a London underground ticket as he said the words. He would go on to get the sack nine months into his tenure.    
  • “I’m out at the moment, but should you be the chairman of Barcelona, AC Milan or Real Madrid, I’ll get straight back to you. The rest can wait” - Much like a certain Portuguese, former Wimbledon boss Joe Kinnear decides to take a break from management in 1998-99
  •  “Obviously there’s a language barrier. The majority of the lads speak Italian, but there’s a few who don’t.” Chelsea skipper Dennis Wise hints at being slightly left out in the dressing room. There were as many as six players and the manager (Gianluca Vialli) who were Italians – 1999-2000
  • “At the end of the day they need to get behind the team. Away from home our fans are fantastic, I’d call them the hardcore fans. But at home they have a few drinks and probably the prawn sandwiches, and they don’t realise what’s going on out on the pitch. I don’t think some of the people who come to Old Trafford can spell football, never mind understand it. To win games by three and four every time – these people need fantasy football. They need to get in the real world.” United skipper Roy Keane has some scathing words to address a section of the Red Devils fans during the 2000-’01 season.  
  • “My greatest challenge is not what’s happening at the moment, my greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their f***ing perch. And you can print that.” – Ferguson’s rallying cry in 2001-’02, after former Liverpool player and analyst Alan Hansen opined that the United boss was past it.
  •  “Everyone thinks he has the prettiest wife at home.”  – Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger gem, also from the 2001-02 after Ferguson claimed that United played the better football during the season, despite finishing second to Arsenal in the league.
  • “We have to carry on doing our best. It’s getting tickly now – squeaky-bum time, I call it.”–Sir Alex Ferguson, 2002-03, on the edge-of-the-seat title race with Arsenal.
  •  “Titus looks like Tyson when he strips off in the dressing-room, except he doesn’t bite and has a great tackle.” Newcastle United boss Sir Bobby Robson weighs in on his player, Titus Bramble in 2003-04
  • “Please don’t call me arrogant because what I am saying is true. I am European champion so I am not one of the bottle. I think I am a special one” It’s not like newly unveiled Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho think any less of himself or achievements ahead of 2004-’05 season.
  • “If people come to your window and talk to your wife every night, you can’t accept it without asking what’s happening.” – Arsene Wenger on his player Ashley Cole being pursued by Chelsea in 2005-06, a season before the latter moved to Stamford Bridge. 
  • “You lot are so bad. You really aren’t the best judges.” Why wouldn’t you laugh at the media? They had written United off at the start of the season. United, though, went on to win their first league title in four years. – Sir Alex Ferguson, 2006-07.
  • “It is omelettes and eggs. No eggs – no omelettes! It depends on the quality of the eggs. In the supermarket you have class one, two or class three eggs and some are more expensive than others and some give you better omelettes. So when the class one eggs are in Waitrose and you cannot go there, you have a problem” – Mourinho uses a food reference to segregate his players just before his shock exit from Chelsea during the 2007-’08 season.
  • “He’s six foot something, fit as a flea, good looking – he’s got to have something wrong with him. Hopefully he’s hung like a hamster - that would make us all feel better. Having said that, my missus has got a pet hamster at home, and his c*ck’s massive.” - Blackpool manager Ian Holloway can’t stop gushing about the four-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo in 2008-’09.
  • “The goal’s mine – it’s not a question of having to claim it. It’s mine. We’ve seen plenty of examples recently of shots that were going wide being deflected in and at least mine was heading for the middle of the goal.” Sunderland striker Darren Bent couldn’t care less if the ball ricochet off a beach ball, as long it got the desired effect. The English striker’s controversial goal earned his side a 1-0 win over Liverpool during the 2009-’10 season.
  • “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.” –Ferguson [2010-11] after talisman Wayne Rooney placed a transfer request midway during the season:
  • “When I score, I don’t celebrate because it’s my job. When a postman delivers letters, does he celebrate.” –  Mario Balotelli has a bizarre take on putting the ball at the back of the net as his Manchester City side made a historic surge towards their first Premier League title. 
  • “I know other Romans came 2,000 years ago. They conquered the North East and were here for 100 years. Maybe after two months it will be ‘Di Canio f*** off, bye bye Paolo.’ It can happen but I’m sure it won’t.’ Fiery Italian Paulo Di Canio after becoming Sunderland boss in 2012-13.
  • “Look at me – it’s taken 10 years off me today. It’s these tablets, they’re great!” - Ferguson after landing United their 20th league title. He would retire from the Old Trafford touchline a few days later. 2012-’13
  • “If he is right and I am afraid of failure it is because I didn’t fail many times. Eight years without silverware, that’s failure. He’s a specialist in failure” - Ah, Jose! The man gives one of the most famous quotes in PL history during the 2013-’14 season as he takes on familiar foe, Arsene Wenger. Ironically, Wenger is still at the same club.  
  • “All this tippy-tappy stuff everybody keeps going on about as the right way to play football is all a load of b***ocks.” – West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce never shied away from mincing words. Here he is, generously handing out his two cents on modern-day football, 2014-’15 season. 
  • “From the beginning, when something was wrong, I said ‘Dilly-ding, dilly-dong, wake up!’ during training sessions.” –  Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri, with his contribution to the football lexicon as he explains how he gets his players to focus, during the historic 2015-’16 season.
  • “Desire – it is a great word. I often use the word horny with my players.” – How could one not keep Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal and his out-of-the-box, quirky observations about his team’s ambitions. This priceless soundbyte also came in the 2015-’16 season
  • Until the moment [Chelsea] have a manager that wins four Premier Leagues for them, I’m the No1. When they have somebody who wins four Premier Leagues for them, I’ll be No2. For this moment, ‘Judas’ is No1.” - 2016-17, Jose Mourinho, this time features as Manchester United boss to hit back at boos from the Chelsea fans.