Quote

What happens is once you start to understand football, you realise that it's not just about the physical side of the game and chasing after a ball. It's a strategic sport which requires a lot of intelligence. It's a very mental game.

Things are neither clear nor clean in the world of football right now and many people recognise this reality.

I think that people that don't really understand the game of football and are just fans that think people just show up on Saturday and go, I don't think they understand the work that we put in here and what our schemes are and what we're trying to do.

I understand football. I have always been a good footballer, and that gets overlooked by most people.

Football is made up of all kinds of conflict. In a dressing room, between players, between us and the manager, between us and loads of people who don't seem to matter. It's constant and harsh sometimes.

And I think because of the passion of every English player and every English supporter, and every English journalist for the game, most of the game is played with passion, love for football and instinct, but in football you also have to think.

As someone who loves football, I will continue to speak out frankly about FIFA's problems.

Football is a game you cannot play without making mistakes.

Taking them out of the picture, so to speak, what football really is, the savagery, the core root of football, it doesn't change. It really puts the real in football.