The Oxford English Dictionary is one of the finest English linguistic books published by Oxford University Press. The first edition of the book was published in 1884, and they kept publishing new editions every now and then. In their latest September 2022 release, they have added some sports lexicons to the book; Sir Alex Ferguson’s “Squeaky bum time” and Jose Mourinho’s “Park the bus” are two of them.
Sir Alex Ferguson is the best football player in the history of Manchester United, lifting 38 major trophies, including 13 EPL trophies, 5 FA Cups, 2 UEFA Champions League trophies and many more. The Scottish man was also revered as an impactful coach who always prioritized and facilitated the youth.
The phrase “Squeaky bum time” was first used by Sir Alex Ferguson during an interview in 2003 while his team was about to face Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal in a league match. In order to get rid of the pressure, the top scorer of Scottish league of 1965–66 season stated,
“They have a 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.”
Jose Mourinho has also been the greatest football coach of recent times and has been managing some of the biggest clubs in recent times. The special one has successfully managed teams like Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and many more. This versatile coach has been named Portuguese Coach of the Century by FPF.
Back in 2004, the then Chelsea coach used “Park the bus” to criticize Tottenham Hotspur for their defensive play, though he did not use the exact phrase. The current Roma coach stated,
“They brought the bus and left the bus in front of the goal, as we say in my country.”
But the OED simplified the statement and represented it as a phrase. The latest edition also has some soccer lexicons like Tiki-Taka, Gegenpressing, Paneka, etc. This September’s Edition has been a gift for soccer fans from OED right before the FIFA 2022 World Cup.
