They said it: Sporting quotes of the week - February 8

David Beckham speaking days before being axed by new England boss Fabio Capello

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"One day I will tell you more about the story and you will be surprised"

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger teases reporters after revealing he came close to signing Cristiano Ronaldo before he joined Manchester United

"It would very easy for me to sit here and try to find a way to hide behind those injuries for what happened in the second half but I am not going to do that"

England head coach Brian Ashton refuses to make excuses for his side's incredible second-half collapse to Wales

"I rang her after the match and she said that when we were losing she went to the cemetery and prayed. She came out and we won! You know what mothers are like. It was all down to her!"

Wales assistant coach Shaun Edwards believes his mother Phyllis may have had a hand in Wales' extraordinary comeback. The game was played on what would have been his late brother's 25th birthday

"If you want to sleep, you don't become a football manager"

Reading boss Steve Coppell after his side's sixth straight Premier League defeat

"I was full of it, I wanted to cuddle everyone I could see!"

Fulham's Jimmy Bullard on hugging the ref after hitting the winner against Aston Villa with a cracking free-kick

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"The bottom line is that Steven Gerrard doesn't need to be England captain, but you get an extra 10 per cent from JT if he's in charge. I'm not saying John is less of a player when he's not captain"

Former England boss Steve McClaren gets himself tied up in knots as he backs John Terry for the national team captaincy

"I'm sure he'll have a headache because I hit him with shots where his face was changing shape but he was still standing there"

Amir Khan is impressed by the durability of defeated opponent Gairy St Clair

"I thought Poulter was number two in the world"

Tiger Woods when asked about the gap between him and the real number two Phil Mickelson. Woods was responding to Poulter's comments in a magazine that he was Tiger's only serious rival

"The federation wants to show its absolute repulsion at these incomprehensible incidents and demonstrate its support and solidarity for the McLaren team and especially their driver Lewis Hamilton"

The Spanish motorsports federation condemns the racist abuse of Lewis Hamilton at pre-season testing in Barcelona

"It was like going to a new school. We were like schoolkids waiting to suck up all the information he's got"

Rio Ferdinand has done his homework on Fabio Capello

"I have reached journey's end" - Former Olympic sprint champion Maurice Greene after announcing his retirement.

"I don't think as a footballer you are scared of any manager but you have to respect them"

Steven Gerrard is not intimidated by new England boss Fabio Capello

"I am not a Messiah, I'm just someone who tries to reap results through hard work"

Capello insists he has no magic wand to cure England's ills

"If you are asking me as an individual, would I be comfortable seeing Dwain Chambers in an Olympic vest, the answer is no," Lord Coe, chairman of the London 2012 Olympic organising committee on the controversial sprinter's relaunched athletics career.

"It is rugby all the way for the next eight weeks - and then I will be cramming in the revision"

Jamie Roberts on combining an international rugby career with a degree in medicine

"I threw the ball over the guy's head - end of story"

Jonny Wilkinson refuses to make excuses for the errant pass that contributed to England's Six Nations downfall against Wales

"A lot people have aches and pains - I had one or two before I got there!"

Munich air crash survivor Harry Gregg produces a lighter moment at the service which marked the 50th anniversary of the disaster

"If it hadn't been for the accident, United would certainly have won it that year. We were certainly up for it. There was no challenge too big for us. We would have actually done it"

Fellow survivor Sir Bobby Charlton is in no doubt that United side would have gone on to lift the European Cup

"I was really nervous - I was just hiding it. I was thinking 'I don't want to go on', but the cheer I got from the people was a massive lift"

Lesley Vainikolo admits to nerves ahead of his England rugby union debut last weekend

"He wanted a winning mentality, he wants us to get back winning, so we've done that for him"

Captain Steven Gerrard shows England's players have quickly taken on board new boss Fabio Capello's "winning mentality" mantra after the win over Switzerland

"I'm just trying to catch up to my dad's number of goals for England. He thinks that I can't achieve it so I've got something to prove to him"

Shaun Wright-Phillips, who scored the winner at Wembley, wants the bragging rights over step-father Ian

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"If people perform as I want, they will stay on the pitch. If they don't, they will come off. Players are all equal"

Capello lays down the law

"I just have to work as hard as Beckham did to try and get to the level he did - and hopefully further"

David Bentley sets his sights on surpassing David Beckham's England achievements

"It's disappointing he chose not to come and it kind of affects the way we feel about him. If he wanted to really push himself, he could have come here"

Jamie Murray is critical of brother Andy's withdrawal from the Davis Cup meeting with Argentina

"He didn't play in any of the six away games in the last qualifying group, and we have asked him that if he could manage a few this time around we would appreciate it! Now we have got three away friendlies on the run, Luxembourg, Iceland and Holland, and the bookies in Cardiff have offered me 11-1 that he won't be on any of them"

Wales manager John Toshack on the problem of persuading Jason Koumas to turn up for Wales away games

"This is the night 'The Executioner' gets executed"

Joe Calzaghe promises to end American veteran Bernard Hopkins' legendary career when the pair clash in Las Vegas

"This isn't Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama"

Hopkins refuses to retract his comments from December when he said "I will never let a white boy beat me"