Tittle-Tackle #7

Martin Petrov wants to move on:

No footballer is content with polishing the bench and I am no exception.

Good point, but Man City do pay bench polishers, as in the actual cleaners of the bench area, around £20,000 a week.

Tittle-Tackle #5

The Independent have collected some of Sir Alex Ferguson's best work. Here's an example:

If Chelsea drop points, the cat's out in the open. And you know what cats are like - sometimes they don't come home.

Ah, yes, of course.

Tittle-Tackle #4

In the wake of Josh's assertion that Ancelotti will be the manager of the season, Jonathan Northcroft reports on the Italian's attitude to life and to football:

But he is relaxed, without airs, ready with the dry-witted quip. A farmer must be stoical and he is even-tempered in the dressing room. “I won’t shout, I will explain,” he says when asked what he does when unhappy with a performance. “I want to have a discussion with my players. I don’t want to impose upon them. I want to propose to them. Treat them like men. I never want to control the private life of my players. Never. When I played, a coach controlled my private life. He said when I played, when I had to stay at home. In the relationship he was above me. I didn’t like it very much.

"Now, as a coach, I want to have a relationship with my players that is on the same level. I have kids and as a father I’m the same. I have my character and I want to stay with my character when dealing with people. I want to be true.”

Tittle-Tackle #3

Sir Bobby Robson, explaining his love of football to Amy Lawrence:

I love the unpredictability of it and I love the athleticism and the beauty of it sometimes, and the ruggedness of it. I like the commitment and the competitiveness that football, in spite of its beauty, can give. It's just the adrenaline in me. I fell in love with the game when I was a kid and it's been that constant love affair. I'm immersed in it. I can watch football anywhere.

Brilliantly summed up. You will be missed Sir Bobby.