QUOTES OF THE WEEK

Cheer up, Luca, we love you. Dennis Wise's message to Chelsea's unhappy Italian striker Gianluca Vialli, revealed on the diminutive midfielder's T-shirt after scoring against Derby.

I only had a few days and my transfer to Middlesbrough arrived suddenly. Perhaps if I had seen certain things beforehand I would have chosen differently. Fabrizio Ravanelli makes his feelings about Middlesbrough known again.

I looked at the tape a couple of days after the fight and I realised Oliver McCall had his eyes closed when he landed that punch. There's no way he can get lucky again. Lennox Lewis aiming to avenge his second-round knock-out defeat to Oliver McCall three years ago.

It's her birthday tonight but with the match being on I couldn't take her out for a meal as we usually do. Hopefully she'll be in a better mood now than when I left her. Owen Coyle, the Motherwell forward, hoping his two goals against Kilmarnock would please wife Kerry.

Deano came and asked for the contract on November 17, to be precise, saying `I'm happy here' but since he signed I haven't stopped reading that he is going to West Ham and the ink isn't even dry yet. Joe Kinnear putting down rumours that his troubled striker Dean Holdsworth was leaving Wimbledon.

When we woke up this morning they weren't there. We ran around, but could not find them. Mailissa Baihiro, Ethiopia's football team manager, on discovering 16 members of his 23-strong squad, heading for an African Nations' Cup match against Morocco, had disappeared during a stop-over in Rome.

Lofty is very upset by any suggestion that he helped cause a problem. Des McBain, the Bolton Wanderers chief executive, on hearing that Wolves supporters had complained about the Burnden Park mascot "Lofty the Lion".