John Barnes

The only fight worth fighting is to give all children equal opportunities regardless of race or gender, to judge individuals on their qualities and not their backgrounds. The victory won't come when nobody feels able to voice racist abuse, but when nobody thinks of doing so in the first place.

White players always said to me: 'You can call me 'a white so and so,' I don't mind.' But that's because society has indoctrinated us over the past 400 years to think that that's like saying 'you handsome so and so.'

I'm quite unfit. It's the motivation that's the problem, I need a goal. When I was a professional footballer I trained every day because I had to.

I felt I had to take the Celtic opportunity. You quickly learn that any managerial vacancy attracts up to 60 or 70 applicants, so you need a good reason to turn a job down. A start is a start.

A white manager loses his job and gets another job, he loses his job, he gets another job. Very few black managers can lose their job and get another job.

Football is all about scoring goals.

When you score a goal by dribbling you don't remember it because it is instinctive.

I think the only thing you should be judged on is your performance in whatever field you happen to be in.

The simple fact is there are no laws you can pass to stop people racially abusing black footballers. So the solution is to come up with something that doesn't make people want to abuse black footballers in the first place.

Football is a socialist sport. Financially, some may receive more rewards than others but, from a footballing perspective, for 90 minutes, regardless of whether you are Lionel Messi or the substitute right-back for Argentina, you are all working to the same end.

I'm quite laid-back but some people say I'm unemotional. I don't get carried away with success and similarly I don't get depressed when something bad happens. I didn't take it personally when rival fans threw banana skins at me when I was playing for Liverpool. I can't control 50,000 idiots shouting at me, so why would it bother me?

If you want to consider yourself one of the best teams, you need to be as close to the top as possible.