When I was five, I joined a club, 'Excelsior', the club of Kralingen, in the first division. I was always training. On a free afternoon, I did individual work with Aad Putters, my youth trainer. Not with the idea growing to be a star, but for fun.

Playing for a Champions League place is not enough. It is not my target, but it is a target we have to take.

I always want to win, and it was time to win some club prizes, some titles. I never would have gone for the money, but wanted the chance to get a bit further in my career. And it turned out to be the right decision.

I've always said that I want to win as many trophies as possible in my career, but not at any price.

Do not give back to his master a servant who has gone in flight from his master and come to you: let him go on living among you in whatever place is most pleasing to him.

Arsenal is a team that, even if they score two or three, people believe that at the end of the day, they might lose or draw. They have to learn to seal off games so that the opposition can't come back when they're one or two-nil up.

I'm not possessive, I'm caring... Once you realize a person doesn't want that much care, you automatically back off.

Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.