"Ultimately it's my responsibility, my job. When I took it on I said I'd live and die by results, and I'd live and die by qualification. Judge me on that -- and people have."
-- Fired England coach Steve McClaren.

"A lot of people have joked about it being a shield against stuff thrown from the crowd, but I don't really think so. In any case, that's what the Kevlar vest was for. I simply think when you take as much care of your hair as McClaren does, you're more than averagely wary of downpours."
-- McClaren's red umbrella being interviewed in Giles Smith's tongue-in-cheek column in the London Times.

"I've been brought up over the last few years believing that this was the golden generation. But I have to tell you, if this is the golden generation, the sooner we move away from the gold standard the better."
-- Lord Mawhinney, a member of the Football Association board that fired McClaren.

"The England team is central to a lot of people's lives. We know we are now in the situation where tens of millions of people won't enjoy the kind of summer tournament that we have got used to."
-- English FA chief executive Brian Barwick on the impact of England not being at Euro '08 next summer. (The FA put its financial loss of England's failure to qualify at approximately $10 million.)

"I read in your papers that no Croatian would start in the England team. That's ridiculous. Wake up!"
-- Croatia coach Slaven Bilic.

"I don't think international football is that important to a lot of these players these days and club football has taken over, especially for a lot of top players involved in the Champions League. From the outside looking in, I tend to think there are too many egos in there, too many big heads."
-- Sunderland manager and former Manchester United and Ireland star Roy Keane.