You have to remember that professional football is a job, too, and some people have to get results on the pitch to pay to live.

When I'm out and about or walking my dogs, United fans are coming up to me saying, 'We'd rather City win the league than Liverpool.' It's strange to hear, but I can assure you the United players aren't going to leave a red carpet and say, 'Go on, City, score past us.'

I've played a lot of games in my career - against Fulham was my 400th.

As footballers, we do get lazy sometimes and take the ball with our preferred foot to control it, but that split second of controlling it with your left foot and playing with your right can make all the difference in creating a chance or scoring a goal.

As an athlete, you only have so much time. The window only has so much time and then it closes. You have to take care of yourself the best you can.

Back in the day, when I was a university professor, I used to teach a class in Human Anatomy and Physiology. This class was popular with the football players, who all took it under the tragic misapprehension that it would be easy.

I was totally dominated and revered my father. I admired everything he did. He was a great sports person. He loved me. I was his only boy at that time, before my brother Billy came along.

When I left Leipzig I was thinking about my next step, and I want to stand in front of a new team, new language, to get developed personally and in my view of football. That's why I made the decision to come to Southampton.