‘If the players are apprehensive about me, they will have to get over it. I am here for a long time. They will have to shoot me to get me out.’ 1973

‘All I knew about Brighton was that it had a pier.’

On his ignorance of the club 1990

‘I couldn’t accept that I swapped the England centre half and six internationals for a bunch of players who couldn’t put their boots on the right feet. It was like asking Lester Piggott to win the Derby on a Skegness donkey – and then telling him he was rubbish when he didn’t do it.’

The reality of the job 1990

‘My young lad Nigel would insist on going to school with a Brighton bag. They gave him hell.’

On the consequences of bad results 1977

‘We spent an absolute fortune, got knocked out of the FA Cup by an amateur side and all we managed to do was finish fourth from bottom. That was my one and only period of self doubt.’ 1990

‘I am going to America for the big fight because I have missed the big time.’

Why he flew to New York to watch Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frazier while still manager of Brighton 1974

‘Brighton and I are having an affair and we’ll never be right for one another until the day we are married.’

On his struggle for results 1974

‘I cannot adapt to Third Division football.’

Facing up to his inevitable departure 1974

‘I didn’t make a mistake in going to Brighton. I just went there for the wrong reasons.’ 1974

‘My kids went through the purgatory of living in a football kingdom where I was the King who had been deposed.’

Life at Brighton 1978