Simon Jordan quotes megamix

Last updated : 31 March 2006 By Nik Taylor

You might have noticed Palace chairman Simon Jordan has given a few interviews over the past couple of days…

In fact, he seems to have had a rant to just about every newspaper and website going. So here are the key points he's come out with, including a couple of gems you might have missed…

On whether AJ will stay if we don't go up…
"Regardless of whether we go up or not, AJ will be at Palace next season if I choose for him to be there.
"Keeping him will be as hard as we want to make it, loyalty is reciprocal.
"All the speculation about him this season has been just that. His agent turned his head a little, but we nuked him in about five seconds.
"Besides, I don't think there are many clubs who could match the valuation I would put on him."

On former Palace manager Steve Bruce…
"I have no problems with Steve Bruce, I like him a lot. I just have an issue with the imbeciles he works for."

On AJ's World Cup chances…
"I think Johnson is a natural replacement for Michael Owen, because he plays in the same way.
"Jermain Defoe is out of favour at Tottenham, Darren Bent is a long shot, and is Darius Vassell really a candidate?
"If Andrew can put his boots on for the remaining games of the season, he can get himself to Germany."

On Birmingham chairman David Sullivan berating his players after their 7-0 FA Cup defeat…
"What is David Sullivan trying to achieve?
"There is a place for chairmen to speak to their players, but I don't think David Sullivan was achieving a lot.
"He was venting his spleen - and what does that do?"

On Sullivan and fellow chairman David Gold…
"I think they are disingenuous. The ethics with which they do business, I don't appreciate. I have had enough dealings with them to be able to have that view.
"Am I surprised? They sell dildos for a living. That gives you a judgement on what they may or may not be."

On Birmigham being in danger of relegation…
"I think in life you get what you deserve.
"Despite my distaste for the owners, I don't wish any club bad luck. If Birmingham go down, am I going to shed a tear? No. Because the best thing about Birmingham is the road out.
"The reality is that if they go down, they deserve to go down."

On Arsenal chairman David Dein…
"David Dein is the kind of person who will do you favours that you just don't want."
"Every time I see David Dein at a social event he has got a player for me who has probably got one leg and he will do me a favour by letting me have him for twice the price."

On other chairmen…
"I see other club's chairmen as the enemy.
"I want to go in there and beat them up. Some of them like Sullivan I would like to do that to."

On the problem of players diving (speaking to BBC Sport)…
"People say it's part and parcel of the game, but it's not and shouldn't be allowed to continue.
"Diving could be eliminated if you have proper officials. By that, I mean linesmen who do their jobs instead of flagging down planes or whatever it is they do.
"I think players who dive should be sent off, given a straight red. It would only take a few dismissals to stamp it out. "

On AJ's reputation as a diver (speaking to BBC Sport)…
"Andrew Johnson has been given this reputation as a player who dives but that's ridiculous.
"He gets clocked every week and doesn't get penalties. He would score far more goals if he didn't get pulled down."

On his future at Palace (speaking to BBC Sport)…
"I've been in football for six years, I find it ultimately to be a disingenuous and dishonest game.
"I'm certainly not in it for the money. If we are promoted it will cost £5m before we start in players' bonuses.
"Even if we make it to the play-offs and get no further, it will cost me personally £200,000.
"I'll get out when I've stabilised Palace in the Premiership, in a new stadium and when somebody comes along who can take it further.
"But there's never going to be a queue for that."

On the FA (speaking to The Sun)…
"The FA consider that a chairman speaking out is more of an offence against the system than a player using abusive language in the heat of the moment during a game.
"They're saying a chairman should know better and act in a manner more in accordance with their own role - but that's bullshit.
"Everyone has a right to speak out against certain issues within the game, especially football club chairmen and benefactors.
"I'm getting censured for things I say yet they're denying my basic right to freedom of speech.
"When I became a football club owner I don't remember hanging my freedom of speech hat on the door and agreeing not to talk anymore."