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John Gregory Quotes

COMING SOON - Players Quotes.

On A Question Of Sport. He had a picture to identify of a bloke posing with his foot on a football (turned out to be Rubens Barrichello). Quoth JG: "Not one of mine then, he's got control of the ball..."

On completing the London Marathon: 'When I was in my mid-20s, I ran a marathon in Brighton in about 2hr 40min - but I was as fit as a butcher's dog in those days. I wish that was the case today! I'm totally exhausted. But I did it. It is quite a feeling to get to the finishing line even if I only did just beat Monday's rush hour.'

I don't think we should have penalty shoot-outs. We should have a shoot-the-ref shoot-out.

Taylor is so important to us and is Villa through and through, so I don't foresee any problems. But if he rejects it (a new contract offer), I'll throw him in the Holte End and they'll get him to sign.

"Perhaps I should put �50,000 in the bank, give the FA my credit details and then they can direct debit me over the course of the season.�

"I personally think referees should be wired up to a couple of electrodes and they should be allowed to make three mistakes before you run 50,000 volts through their genitals."

�If Coventry win the Premier League I will show my bare arse out of the window.�

"We gave [Delaney] a b****cking at half-time because we thought he was playing like a tart. When he went to smack that ball I think he must have seen my face and hit is as hard as he could. He's learning all the time, it�s all very new to him. Sometimes he is like an autograph hunter when he sees all the big stadiums and has to pinch himself every now and again."

"The chairman of Brighton wouldn't recognize Gareth Barry if he was stood on Brighton beach in the team strip, with a seagull on his head and a ball in his hand."
- in response to claims that Brighton mmade Barry the player he is and worthy of a �2.5m compensation payment."

"We paid Stan two million pounds in two years and we got seven Premier League goals in return. I tried everything but I am the third manager in four years who has ended up pulling his hair out. We paid for him to spend months in a clinic for depression, then the day after the season finished he checked out and went on holiday."

On being asked about a strain which was expected to keep Collymore out of action: "It's quite a bad one. It will probably keep him out for a couple of weeks - it's located just between his ears."

Interviewed on Sky: "Well, we're still top of the Premiership," [turns and looks to camera]. "I do apologise for that."

JG on Gareth Barry: "I thought he was rubbish the first time I saw him play."

JG: "I went to see Eric Clapton on Tuesday."
Pat Murphy: "Isn't he a West Brom fan?"
JG: "Yeah, it must be terrible to be that big and still have to follow the Baggies."

"I've got no time for the usual manager's claptrap you hear. They often say "Well, so and so was very disappointing", but I'd rather say, 'He played crap'."

Bringing his mother to the press conference to back the story up, Gregory explained that the grudge stemmed from his late father's time as a player at West Ham in the early Fifties. Gregory Sr didn't make the grade, so the club transfered him to Scunthorpe United. "That meant I was born in Scunthorpe," Gregory said. "I have always held that against him."

"I shan't duck any issues," Gregory, September's Manager of the Month, said. "But don't expect me to divulge confidential conversations with my players - I've got a pre-season diary out next week."

"Draper didn't pass to Stanley when he was through on goal... and he'll probably have his testicles removed afterwards in the changing room."

Gregory was quick to put Merson at ease: "I know Paul has had his problems but we have people here who like wearing dresses and having their bottoms spanked, so I think he should fit in quite well."

In an interview before the Middlesbrough game, JG commented about the age of most of his squad, "The team breakfast was Ready Brek."

"I'm going to kill that Brian Little..." - Gregory's opening statement at the annnual general meeting.

Question at AGM: "You said that every player has his price and Dwight Yorke's was 16 mill, how come you only accepted 12 million?"
Gregory: "It was all I could get out of the Scottish Git."

On Yorke: 'If I'd had a gun I could have shot him.'

"I needed to become my own man. I had visions of getting Wycombe into the play-offs or maybe even into the First Division, but never this. We were in 15th place, Brian had gone and we couldn't win a match for love or money. The dressing-room was in uproar, fighting and scratching each other's eyes out. And I wasn't a popular choice with the fans. They wanted a big name." There were only two days training before Michael Owen and co arrived. "My head was spinning and I had hardly slept, but I didn't have time to be nervous. If I'd come in June and we were playing Liverpool in August, I'd have crapped myself."

"I'm going to put 20 grand on Stuttgart," said Gregs before the Cup Winners Cup Final, "so I can't lose either way".

'The bottom line is that I am not interested in selling Dwight,' said Gregory. 'If United keep on they are going to have to offer me David Beckham, Andy Cole and Jaap Stam. Only then might I consider their offer, providing they back it up with some cash as well.'

Villa will be without hamstring victim Taylor for three weeks, so would Gregory be knocking on chairman Doug Ellis's door this week?

"I don't see why this week should be any different," he said.

"The door may be open, but the chairman's wallet has been closed for a while".

"I spent ten minutes telling them we needed a second when someone whispered we were 2-1 up already. They thought that I'd really lost it"

"Ten thousand? I gave out more than that. I was up all night printing twenty thousand"

Commenting on the Villa fans holding up '�' signs to remind Deadly Doug what his wallet is for against Spurs

"I'd rather he (Hendrie) was booked for kicking someone rather than throwing the ball away"

"When the ref didn't send him off I was trying to shut the linesman up! The ref? It's not the first time he's done something like this is it. But I thought it was very good of Grimandi to give him a nudge when he forgot to send him off"

John talking about Hendrie's sending-off against Arsenal

"My phone's never stopped ringing with enquiries about Julian. I'm fighting off Premiership clubs who want him"

On seeing Julian Joachim still at the club

"If you don't like it, don't buy it"

Commenting on the new Villa kit for the 2000/01 season.

"I don't like Chelsea and I've never liked Chelsea"

"He wanted to know who had won the 3:30" 

On why Paul Merson had a conversation with him on the dugout phone against Sunderland

"I'll take that son"

After Paul Merson was given a bottle of champagne for being chosen as man of the match

"Emile Heskey could probably pick up Gareth Southgate and throw him the length of the pitch but he has developed a very fine art of falling over like a sack of spuds every time he gets touched"

After Villa captain Gareth Southgate's sending off against Leicester City

"I have to thank the referee's assistant for the fact that we got the penalty. The referee was 10 yards away and missed it and the linesman was 35 yards away and picked it up. There was no doubt that Iversen handled the ball and the player should have been sent off. But Mr Harris didn't see who it was. Still, he got the minute's silence right at the beginning of the game"

John's view of Rob Harris' performance against Spurs

After John Gregory's magnificent broadside at modern art ("What the f*** is art? A picture of a bottle of sour milk lying next to a smelly old jumper? What the f*** is all that about?") comes David James' love of sketching.

"The boys look as fit as butchers' dogs. As for David (Ginola)? Well, it depends on which butcher's you shop at."

Dear [Mr X],

I am sorry that you were unimpressed by my team selection, but I have to pick the side for each match bearing in mind the number of games we have to play, and I had already admitted that this competition was our lowest priority.

Perhaps you think I should have walked into the dressing room and said "Well, lads, I was going to pick this team, but I've just heard that [Mr X] is in the crowd, so I'm afraid that I'll have to make some changes"?

However, as you were so pissed off about it, give me a call at the club and I'll arrange two free tickets for you to see a game of your choice. And when you get them, get your arse down to Villa Park, get behind the team, and stop being such a miserable git.

Yours sincerely,
John Gregory

Gregory, referring to the pre-match minute's silence held to mark the 11th anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy, said: "At least he (Harris) got that right. The way he watched the little hand on his watch ticking round for 60 seconds was impeccable. He was spot-on there and I'll be giving him a high mark for that."

I don't know why Emile feels he has to do it. But it looks to me as if he has brought his roller skates with him from Leicester.

On Petit: 'He couldn't wait to come off because he wasn't being allowed to dictate play. He was a big baby, crying to come off. That is why he got the bird from our fans.'

'I am already in trouble for speaking out but what happened at West Ham was a classic case in point. However, what's the use of protesting - referees are a protected species.'

�An outrageous decision. We have to take in on the chin while Mr Elleray gets into his car and drives home with a smug look on his face�
"Mr Elleray is Mr Elleray and he seems to enjoy giving that kind of decision. I'm appalled that he should bring Sunderland back into the game after we worked incredibly to get into that position."

"I want to get one thing clear, this tapping-up thing we've been accused of, I think there's a bit of a personal feud going on between the chairman of Coventry and the chairman of Aston Villa."

'Alex Ferguson didn't win anything in his first two or three seasons but I don't think I will be given that long.'

In the Man Utd car park speaking with the Man U fans... "What are you doing here? Have you come to get Dwight back?"
"No, you keep him - but we'll hang on to the �13m, if that's all right with you."

"They [pundits] make me laugh, I'm afraid. They had a panel of four on Sky the other day all telling us what we should do and where we were going wrong as Premiership managers. I looked at them and all four had had a bloody nightmare when they had tried management."

Gregory was involved in a post-match centre-circle confrontation with Martin Keown, and the Villa chief said: "He was upset because apparently one of our lads was winding up the Arsenal players after we had beaten them. Arsenal can dish it out when they win, but Martin Keown asked us to celebrate our victory with dignity. Is he sure? Let's have three cheers for the Arsenal."


"Everyone's saying we haven't played anyone yet, but they haven't played us either," said Gregory, which is a fair point.
"They also say they're not sure we can last the pace, the implication being that United wouldn't blow up in our position. But on 10th January they were 12 points clear of Arsenal. They still finished second."

"I've got no time for the usual manager's claptrap you hear. They often say "Well, so and so was very disapponting", but I'd rather say, 'He played crap'."

Asked by the press if he had any comment linking him with the England job Gregory replied, "Nah, I'm safer with Deadly".

Villa's unending success this season has surprised many but JG refuses to accept that luck has anything to do with it, although he admits that as a player he was very superstitious. "I used to drive the same route to all my home matches and would always play the same music, upbeat stuff like U2, on the car cassette player, but when I got the Villa job I decided to throw it all out of the window."
"Why?" someone asked.
"Because it's all bollocks," he replied.

"I got hold of Stan Collymore a couple of minutes before the kick-off and told him not to get into trouble. After 30 seconds of the game he got himself booked."

Gregory confirmed that he expects Bosnich to leave the club at the end of the season, even if Villa finish in the top two. Why? Gregory said nothing, just pulled out a roll of banknotes from his trouser pocket.

Gregory was asked had he thought of omitting Bosnich at Hillsborough... "No, we have been having some contract talks as you know and I told him this morning I'd like to TIE him up for 5 years". And, "I know what Bosnich has for breakfast: instant WHIP." He then added that the mystery third man on the Yorke home movie was his chairman, Doug Ellis.

Nobody can quibble with a return of seven wins in nine premiership games since he replaced Brian Little, except that the defeats have been inflicted by Barnsley and Bolton. "I just hope those two go down," Gregory said.

"Better not call the bench the Doug Out!"

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