I watched 'Match of the Day' growing up every week and I'm talking until I was 29-years-old.

If there is ever one thing you learn as a professional footballer, you have a lot of critics and you have the chance to silence your critics.

I grew up desperate to be a professional footballer and I was willing to do anything to be one.

Players want a manager you feel in your gut you want to play for - they can have the best tactics and philosophy in the world but if you have lost a player in his heart or head, you have lost him in every other department.

In club football you have your players and staff with you all the time, preparing for two games a week, you know them inside out, you have a discipline over them.

Not missing games, miss one game due to injury in my career, and that even hurt me to miss that game, but I just love to get out there and compete, both ends of the ball, and I don't think I'm afraid to take the big shot. If I'm 2-for-15, I'm not afraid to take that shot, make it 3-for-16.

I am used to moving homes in football, and it seems to be a recurring theme in my career.

I started out playing football in the streets, playing barefoot like all the boys there - we didn't have the money for football boots.