Per Mertesacker

Some days you realise that everything is a burden, both physically and mentally. That it's not about fun, but you have to deliver without a doubt. Even if you are injured.

Of course I have an advantage with my size on set pieces.

That's what I love, getting the tube, not getting any recognition, trying to be as normal as possible. Sometimes you get a big Arsenal fan and they tell you they have a season ticket or want to have a chat, which is fine. Some want a selfie, but sometimes I just want to say: 'Let's just shake hands. It means more than a picture.'

Arsene Wenger is a coach who has a very special personality. He has an experience that not many coaches have, and all at one club, at Arsenal.

For a national player it is a good thing to get experience playing abroad.

Sometimes you need a humbling experience to think about a few things.

Youngsters need self-esteem, simple targets in life which give energy. In the academy they can be so easily distracted by so many other things it's amazing.

Obviously, everyone looks at whether we bring young footballers into the first team, that's one of the goals. But I wouldn't discard someone who is successful in life, that's big. The hall of fame in the academy should be a wide variety of stories.

Living in London is very different to living in a little town in Germany.

I don't see myself coaching because the intensity of that is massive, and the intensity as a manager, for example Arsene Wenger, is even more.

I had a totally different upbringing, totally different background, raised in Germany, small town, now I am in London taking care of 180 kids who think they are the one percent who can make it in professional football.

I've never had that dream in my head: 'I want to play Bundesliga or Premier League.' I was a fan, but it was never the dream that one day I was going to make it, because a lot of people had told me already that I wouldn't.