More quotes of the week . . .

"Wasn't it Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid who once said 'I want to fight them, I want to fight them..

"Wasn't it Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid who once said 'I want to fight them, I want to fight them . . . so stay there and fight them'." - Raindrops keep falling on his head, so to speak, but Martin O'Neill insists he's going to battle on at Sunderland.

"These little things are not the main issue. My first tie was blue." - Rafa Benitez on being criticised for wearing an orange tie for Chelsea's game against Fulham.

"If I was going to lie to you, honestly I would lie." - Paul Lambert speaking truthfully about why he's dumped Darren Bent from his squad.

"I remember in the 1980s when they were European champions and had fantastic players." - Reading manager Brian McDermott trying to be nice about Aston Villa, but.

"Even when I said in my last conversation with him that I loved him, it was not good enough to keep him here." - Fulham manager Martin Jol on the loving lengths he went to to keep Clint Dempsey at the club.

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Mary Hannigan

Mary Hannigan

Mary Hannigan is a sports writer with The Irish Times