Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho’s infamous quotes have been added to Oxford English Dictionary’s new edition


Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho’s infamous quotes have been added to Oxford English Dictionary’s new edition

Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson have both contributed memorable quotes to the most recent edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. The dictionary is an indisputable compilation of the English language and contains 600,000 words, three million quotations, and over 1,000 years of English.

ADVERTISEMENT

And two legendary managers make the most recent update, with Mourinho’s “park the bus” and Ferguson’s “squeaky bum time” also making the cut. The OED released a quarterly update with 15 new additions prior to the World Cup in Qatar.

“There’s a World Cup kicking off in November, and while the OED already covered a large number of football terms, from catenaccio to nutmeg to water carrier, this select batch of additions fills a few gaps in our formation,” it said. When he tried his infamous mind tricks against Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal in 2003, Manchester United great Ferguson’s phrase entered football folklore.

He commented at the moment as the title battle came down to the wire: “They [Arsenal] have a [cup] replay against Chelsea and if they win it they would face a semifinal three days before playing us in the league. But then they did say they were going to win the Treble, didn’t they? It’s squeaky bum time and we’ve got the experience now to cope.”

ADVERTISEMENT

READ MORE: Former Barcelona star Andres Iniesta set to take up a special role at the 2022 FIFA World Cup

Along with Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho’s infamous quote has also been added to Oxford English Dictionary

Chelsea's Jose Mourinho

The expression is used to describe difficult situations or outcomes in athletic events, and Mourinho’s insult of Tottenham in 2004 is known as “park the bus” which means “playing in such a negative way that they might as well have put their team coach in the goalmouth,” according to the OED.

It added: “There are new entries resulting from our Monitor Lexicography programme, where we review databases, corpora, social media, and even failed searches on oed.com, to analyse the language of the moment and ensure we’re providing our readers with what they need. And we have a football-themed batch too, to help everyone get to grips with the necessary soccer-speak ahead of the World Cup later this year.”

ALSO READ: Barcelona wants to conclude a deal with Atletico Madrid for this star before 2022 FIFA World Cup: Reports

ADVERTISEMENT

ALSO READ: BREAKING: Ukraine to join Spain and Portugal’s bid to get hosting rights for 2030 FIFA World Cup