Football quotes of 2018: Carlos Carvalhal, Jose Mourinho, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and more...

As another year draws to a end, we've done our best to boil it down to the quips and quotes that caught the imagination.

There has been another memorable mixture of inimitable remarks from managers and players alike to break up the more familiar repetitive answers, with the usual suspects responsible for classic one-liners as well as ramblings.

Jose Mourinho features prominently, but Jurgen Klopp and Zlatan Ibrahimovic both return while we also remember Carlos Carvalhal's press conferences during his time as Swansea manager.

So join us for a trip down Memory Lane as we revisit the last 12 months in words...

JANUARY

"We have money for sardines and I'm thinking lobster. I will do my best to try and bring in the best players. I will look to the lobsters and sea bass, but if not we must buy sardines. But sometimes the sardines can win games."
Carlos Carvalhal on Swansea's modest budget going in the January transfer window.

"Because I don't behave as a clown on the touchline, it means that I lost my passion. I prefer to behave the way I am doing it, much more mature, better for my team and myself, I don't think you have to behave like a crazy guy on the touchline to have that passion."
Mourinho makes a less-than-subtle dig at then Chelsea boss Antonio Conte, continuing a long-running feud between the pair.

"It's fair to say I didn't actually eat the worms. It was a bit of banter where you get a nice, big juicy worm hanging out the edge of your mouth as if you're chewing it. Of course the worm comes out and you wash your mouth out with water!"
Sean Dyche, en route to delivering European football to Burnley, denies eating worms is the reason behind his gravelly voice.

Burnley manager Sean Dyche was forced into making an unexpected defence

"I like night games. Fans can go out in Liverpool afterwards. It's a better time to play football than at 12. I'm hungry at 12."
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp talks about his preference of kick-off times ahead of his club's FA Cup fourth round match against West Bromwich Albion.

"You like the ones at the top. They are so nice and so orange and so round and so full of juice. When you see a tree with amazing oranges at the top of the tree and then you cannot get there and you say, 'I got the lower ones because I don't like the ones at the top'. But you can't get there, so you say 'I don't want to go there' or 'I prefer the other ones'. I think it reminds me a little bit of that story."
Mourinho gives an analogy for the Alexis Sanchez signing.

FEBRUARY

"It's a bit of parasite football then. They can prey and feed on our mistakes then. I don't blame them for that and they are very good at it. On the break they have quality."
Former Ipswich Town manager Mick McCarthy gives a unique analogy to his opponents' tactics after his side's 1-0 home defeat by Championship leaders Wolverhampton Wanderers.

"I say to the fans that the fans are the fans and have the right to their opinions and reactions but there is something that I used to call 'football heritage'. I don't know if, I try to translate from my Portuguese, which is almost perfect, to my English, which is far from perfect - 'football heritage', what a manager inherits. In the last seven years the worst position of Manchester City in the Premier League was fourth. In the last seven years Manchester City were champions twice and if you want to say three times, they were second twice. That's heritage."
Just a small part of a 12-minute rant from Mourinho after United exit the Champions League to Spanish side Sevilla.

"I remember the first time we played against Arsenal … and even back then, I had a chip on my shoulder. It might sound ridiculous - I was only eight when they let me go - but every time we played them, I thought, 'Alright, we'll see who's right and who's wrong'."
Tottenham forward Harry Kane on how far back the North London derby goes for him.

"He was lucky I didn't take him off again, he only brought one pair of boots with him from England and he was sliding around all over the pitch!"
Former RB Leipzig coach Ralph Hasenhuttl speaking after new loan signing Ademola Lookman came off the bench to score on his debut against Borussia Monchengladbach.

"We have an expression in Portugal at times like we had in the second half. We say it was time to put all the meat on the barbecue. We did that to try to win - and we got the three points. But I felt we deserved it against a strong team and I am very proud of my players."
Swansea boss Carlos Carvalhal on the attacking substitutions that helped engineer a 1-0 win over Burnley.

Carlos Carvalhal was always good value during his Swansea press conferences

"Sam has missed training this week. It could have been worse as the cow ran at him for a second time but he managed to get out of the way. He has a sore shoulder so he is getting closely monitored and a lot of treatment as we do not want to go into the game without a goalkeeper on the bench."
Queen of the South assistant manager Dougie Anderson talks about an injury back-up goalkeeper Jack Leighfield sustained on his father's farm.

MARCH

"Listen, I still have a job to do with Belgium, but it will be a dream for me, Interested? Yes. Who wouldn't be? But I have respect for the man in charge still."
Arsenal's top goalscorer of all time Thierry Henry speaks on Sky Sports about his interest in one day managing his former club.

"Eight months ago I was a bag of bones knelt over a basin being violently sick from the effects of chemo after being diagnosed with cancer for the second time! Last night I ran out at Wembley for Rochdale the club that I hold dear to my heart! Proud of the boys. I owe you."
Rochdale midfielder Joe Thompson shares a moment he will never forget, having beaten cancer twice.

"Messi this message is for you, and it's something you already have to know in advance. You have to go deep, deep inside of you to find all the strength you have inside. Messi, be a warrior."
Some pre-World Cup advice from US Talkshow legend Oprah Winfrey to Argentina's Lionel Messi.

Argentina captain Lionel Messi was given a pep talk by Oprah Winfrey

"I feel young. I feel like Benjamin Button. I was born old, and I will die young."
Newly-signed Los Angeles Galaxy forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic during his official presentation press conference.

"Harry Kane is, of course, a very important player for England because he's the best player in the world."
South Korea forward Heung-Min Son gives the highest praise of Tottenham Hotspur team-mate Harry Kane.

APRIL

"The managing director of marketing and communications has clearly slipped up. The actual question was what do you think of the manager, the players and the staff - and obviously our managing director of marketing is clearly not a great understander of football and how football works, because he is into marketing and branding and market research."
Under-pressure Everton manager Sam Allardyce is left unimpressed by a club survey including questions asking fans to rate his performance.

"I don't feel that that point will help West Brom massively. It feels like a complete waste of points, they don't need it, we would have needed it. They are all happy now, we are not happy. We stay in the league, they don't stay in the league. It's kind of a strange situation. I am a big football fan. You have to to do everything to create the best circumstances for all the boys to deliver. You let the home team decide if they water the pitch or not - it's not only football. It's also dangerous for injuries if the pitch is really dry."
Jurgen Klopp takes West Brom's two-goal comeback against his Liverpool side at The Hawthorns in unusual fashion.

"It was one of the most poignant moments of the night. To receive applause from a stadium like this, which has been graced by great players, is a unique experience. When I was a kid, I liked Juventus and the fact that their fans have clapped me will stay with me."
Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo reacts after being applauded by Juventus's supporters in Turin after scoring with a bicycle kick in his side's 3-0 win in the UEFA Champions League quarter-final, first leg.

"Most of all mate I will miss bumping into you and catching up and I always left your company with a smile on my face and a spring in my step. You will always be 'dangerously well'. They don't make them like you anymore Raymond."