Gordon Strachan Quotes

I think about the great players with whom I have shared a pitch: Eric Cantona, Zinedine Zidane, Pirlo, Xavi, Cristiano Ronaldo - and the greatest of them all is Messi.

There won't be more Messis, and we don't expect there to be more, as there won't be another generation in La Masia like the one with Xavi, Busi, Puyol, Iniesta and me.

Who were the best players I had ever played against? Raul, Messi, Zidane.

Ronaldo is better than George Best and Denis Law, who were two brilliant and great players in the history of United.

I think Liverpool have a long history with many great players. I hope one day to be up there with those great players. I'll try my best to write some history here.

I really liked watching Thierry Henry and Zidane, especially Henry in his Arsenal days.

I loved the style of Wenger, and I admired players like Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp.

Dave Mackay was one of the best I've ever seen. Jimmy Greaves was the greatest goal scorer, and George Best was just the best. The greatest.

I'm a Ronaldo fan as well, and for me, they're the top two players in the world. But for me, Messi is the kind of player that can do anything.

Messi is the great player of this generation, like there were great players in other generations.

For 20 years they have asked me the same question, who is the greatest? Pele or Maradona? I replay that all you have to do is look at the facts - how many goals did he score with his right foot or with his head?

Eric Cantona is a great player, but he's not as good as Ryan Giggs

I think now Messi is probably done more than most players. But he is in the same class as Alfredo de Stefano, Johan Cruyff, Pelé. When he finishes and he retires, he will automatically become one of them. A player that people will talk about forever, while the game of football is as good and as popular as it is. He is a sensational player.

I think Charlie George was one of Arsenal's all time great players. A lot of people might not agree with that, but I personally do

There have been so many outstanding players I've had as team-mates, but if I had to choose I'd choose Giggsy, he can do anything.

Critics have always questioned whether players like Pele from the 50s could play today. Lionel Messi could play in the 1950s and the present day, as could Di Stefano, Pele, Maradona, Cruyff because they are all great players. Lionel Messi without question fits into that category.

I’d go for Scholesy as the club’s greatest ever player. I’ve seen him do things that no other player can do. The way he can control the tempo of games, and his range of passing, are both incredible. We’ve seen over the years that players just haven’t been able to get near him. And you can’t forget his goals either.

I don't recognize myself in the players I see today. There's only one who excites me, and that is Thierry Henry. He's not just a great footballer, he's a showman, an entertainer.

Rooney is one of the best players in the world and I love watching him play. But if you had to pick out only one, then for their history and for all that they have achieved it would have to be Paul Scholes or Ryan Giggs. They are two shining examples for any player.

Leo [Messi] is the best player of all time - better than Pele, Maradona or Cruyff. There have been some great teams in history - Pele's Brazil, Cruyff's Ajax, Sacchi's Milan - but in the past 20 years this Barcelona team is the best.

Scholes was playing tiki-taka football when nobody in England knew what it was. He was another of those players, like Denis Law or Bobby Moore, who at 15 probably looked as if he wouldn't make it. Too small, you would think - can't run, dumpy little ginger nut - but then the ball would come to him and he would dazzle you. He was the best footballer in that Manchester United midfield, better than Ryan Giggs and Roy Keane.

Top players don't come much topper than Gerrard and Carragher

You look at Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit at Arsenal or Roy Keane at Man United, and they are players that can do everything.

I was doing all the coaching schools so that I'd be able to stay in the game, and I gave myself a chance by doing that. I was only an average player, could score a goal or two, that sort of thing, but I wasn't a Bobby Charlton or a Messi, or Ronaldo. There are very, very few really great players who have become great coaches.

The intelligence community, in particular the FBI, have been sounding alarms about this for more than a year. So to argue that suddenly we have to do this because of the San Bernardino case doesn't really pass the straight-face test. I mean, they've been talking about this. And to say, well, it will only apply to this case, that just - that doesn't wash. This is a major piece of public policy.