Football Clichés

What is a cliché and why are they so common in football? This page lists some of the more popular footballing clichés used by players, commentators and fans to describe the beautiful game.

Clichés are expressions or sayings that have become so overused that they have lost some of their original impact. In football, clichés are used quite a lot and they are often associated with the emotional aspect of the game. Sometimes the meaning is clear or extremely obvious, e.g. football is a game of two halves but more often than not the original meaning of a cliché is often difficult to understand. Why, for example, are parrots sick? How can a player give 110% when 100% surely is the maximum? And why does a victory send players and managers over the moon?

Many feel that the overuse of clichés demonstrates the fact that football players, managers, fans, commentators and pundits have a poor vocabulary and are lacking in imagination. However, clichés form part of the football discourse and though there is often no logical explanation to their meaning, they do provide some colour and humour for the football world.

You will often hear football clichés in interviews with players before and after a match, as well as from TV match commentators and pundits. Former manager Ron Atkinson famously introduced new expressions to the game such as ‘early doors‘, while British commentator Clive Tyldsley never seems to tire of referring to Manchester United’s 1999 Champions League win as ‘that night in Barcelona‘, among others.

Below are some of the more common clichés you may come across while reading about or listening to the football world but if you hear any others then let us know by posting a comment below. It will, to paraphrase the great manager, Brian Clough, only take a second.

To run your socks off

This cliché is used when a team or an individual player is seen to work very hard during a game. The expression is often used with the verb ‘work’ as in he worked his socks off throughout the game. Indeed, this phrase is synonymous with certain types of battling midfield players such as Steven Gerrard or formerly Roy Keane who often run their socks off to get their teams back into a game. If a team works their socks off it means that they battled hard and did not give up. To work your socks off.

A great advert (for the game)

A great advert for the game is a cliché used by commentators and fans to describe an exciting match that usually represents the best of something or somewhere. Sometimes a match can be described as being a great advert for the Premier League, that is, it represents all that is good from the English league, such as battling skills, bravery, attacking play and so on. When it is used to describe a game from the lower leagues it is praising the standards of the two teams involved – thus, West Brom versus Newcastle was a great advert for the Championship – it was of a Premier League standard despite being played in a lower division.

Gatecrash the Top 4

To gatecrash a party is to attend a party that you have not been invited to. Many football fans in England feel that Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal, known as the top 4 in the Premier League, have become so big and powerful that it seems as if they have their own mini league, or private party. Thus, any team that attempts to finish in the top four, that wishes to make a breakthrough, is seen as a gatecrasher – an unwanted guest in an elite or powerful group. This year, Manchester City have been tipped to gatecrash the top four thanks to their incredible wealth. To gatecrash the top four.

You can’t win the title in August but you can certainly lose it

This cliché is a classic example of stating the complete obvious to make a point. As most European leagues start in August and finish in May it is mathematically impossible for a team to win the title so early in the season. So no matter how well a team begins the season it is far too early to predict that they will become champions. However, if a team that is tipped to do well has a bad start to the season then it might be difficult for them to recover and go on to win the title, meaning that a winning start is vital. You can’t win the title in August but you can certainly lose it.

A game of two halves mp3

One of the biggest football clichés has to be it’s a game of two halves. Of course it is! The first half and the second half. But sometimes this cliché is true. For example, Liverpool against AC Milan in the Champions League final in 2005. AC Milan in the first half score three goals. Surely they are going to win. In the second half, Liverpool score three goals to force extra time and finally to win on penalties. Truly a game of two halves.

To be as sick as a parrot mp3

This is the opposite of being over the moon and means to be upset after losing a game – usually an important one. This phrase is not heard as much as it was before, particularly in the 1970s when players frequently used it. Nowadays players tend to say that they are ’sickened’ at losing or conceding a late winner rather than using the expression containing the original unwell bird!

Too good to go down mp3

This cliché is always wheeled out when a ‘big’ team, or a team with a history in the division is in danger of being relegated. At the beginning of the season most people choose which teams they think will be too weak to stay up, but there is always one team with a big reputation that is involved in the fight to stay up. Last year in the Premier League it was West Ham that were too good to go down, though they did actually stay up. This season, people are already talking about Bolton and Tottenham in the Premier League being in danger of relegation. Their fans of course will argue that they ‘are too good to go down’. We’ll just have to wait and see.

There are no easy games mp3

Usually on the show we have an English for football phrase, but today we’re going to look at a footballing cliché: a phrase that has been used so much that it shows a lack of originality, a phrase that is very predictable. So here goes with this week’s cliché. “There are no easy games.” Now, this phrase is often used by managers and coaches of big teams just before they play a weak team. Everyone expects the big team to win, but the coaches often say, “There are no easy games” in order to excuse in advance any failure. If their team lose they can always say, “Well, I said there are no easy games any more.” Just to prove it’s not only managers that reach for the clichés here’s Team USA’s, Kirstin Lilly , talking about the USA’s chances in the recent Women’s World Cup. She said, “but the beauty of the game now is that any team can beat you, there is a new level of parity in the women’s game. The top ten teams in the world can realistically win a world title. There are no easy games anymore.”

It’s all to play for mp3

This phrase is originally a sporting term used when a competition or a match has not been decided. If, in football, a team is only one goal behind and playing well we say, it’s all to play for. The team still has a chance. In a football league, if the teams at the top have similar points and are all playing quite well then, it’s all to play for. So despite being 6 points behind Arsenal, Chelsea are still winning games and still have a chance of becoming champions. It’s still all to play for in the Premier League.

To be over the moon mp3

To be overjoyed; elated; very, very happy – especially after scoring or winning. This cliché is not as popular as it used to be in the 1970s when it seemed that every player mentioned it at least once when being interviewed. It is the opposite of sick as a parrot.

To be strong on paper mp3

The names on the team sheet include some very good players, the team looks very strong individually. How they might perform as a team is another question altogether.

To be at sixes and sevens mp3

This means to have no organisation, to be in disarray, to be a mess, to be all over the place. My team Tottenham has been lacking in any sort of organisation this season and so on many occasions our defence has been at sixes and sevens trying to cope against our opponents.

Football is a funny old game mp3

This is a cliché that means football is unpredictable: that we just don’t know what is going to happen, or that anything could happen in football. In Spain they use the expression ‘El Futbol Es Asi‘ which means football is like that, i.e. there is nothing you can do about it, while in American football, commentators often use the expression ‘that’s why we play the game’ to convey the same meaning.