You should never get ahead of yourself car-wise; no Merc when you're still in the youth team, no Porsche unless you're a Premier League regular.

Right from school, I got mockery for the way I look. I took it to heart early on. I admit there were times when I doubted myself.

I'm not the type of player that's going to run in behind or go past three and score.

It was only when I got to Tottenham as a youth player that they said, 'You need to be good in the air.' It was made clear I was going be a target man, so I had to start working on my technique.

Growing up, my uncle used to always have dogs, and we always had a dog growing up. I couldn't remember a time when I never had a dog. It was part of the family. So once I actually got old enough, I got a dog in college, then I felt he needed a friend, so I got another dog. They just started adding up from there.

Family lore says I was named after the song 'Timothy' by The Buoys, a lovely little ditty about three guys who get trapped in a cave-in and resort to cannibalism; they eat Timothy.

It's a good harsh reality, because my family keeps me very grounded.

The child is father of the man.