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My favourite chant is 'you're just a fat Eddie Murphy.' When I heard that I could not stop laughing. I would prefer a 'muscular Eddie Murphy.'
You see it all the time, in all divisions, that teams raise themselves and apply themselves that little bit more when they play a 'bigger team.'
It used to get my back up because people would only say 'he does well for his size' and it's like, forget the size, I do well because I do well.
Of course I know I am not the average footballer. But I'd be lying if I said I set out to be different, I didn't set out to go against the grain.
People think that football is all glamour and money but trust me all footballers go through the same boring and annoying things as everybody else.
I'm an eclectic individual when it comes to film. I love my Disney: 'Aladdin,' 'The Lion King.' Also, 'Romeo+Juliet,' the Leonardo DiCaprio version.
I was asked to go in a banana suit once or eat as many doughnuts as possible. I would not do those things. I don't eat doughnuts so why would I eat 20.
I do think there is a responsibility for myself as being a senior professional footballer to be able to pass on my experiences to the younger generation.
As long as I am feeling good I will play football. As long as I am feeling fit, strong and being affective on and off the pitch, I will play the game I love.
Boredom does get you into trouble and we footballers have a lot of time on our hands, and sometimes we fill up that time with stuff that isn't always positive.
I'd always been one of the strongest players in the game, but officially in 'Fifa 14' I was the strongest in the world. If they say so, I must be. I like that.
Gym sessions will always consist of 40 minutes to one-hour cardio. I try to stay off the treadmill because of the pounding, so it's the rower or the cross-trainer.
Training to be a tough tackler isn't easy - you don't want to injure yourself or team-mates so it's crucial that you have self-belief in your abilities and strength.
That's one reason fans take to me. They like the battle side of it. They look at me and think this guy shouldn't be on the pitch, he's just bulldozing his way through.
I'm not one of those players who always gets to games or watches every game on TV. If a game is on and I'm free, I'll watch it but I won't make my schedule around a football match.
If you want to gamble, so be it, but when it gets to the stage where gambling is the only thing you are thinking of and it is affecting your life, that's when you need to put a hold on it.
I was raised on an estate in an inner city school where people had a go about my size, people saying I am too big to play football - which still happens today - and I used that to inspire me.
My career and my stats, they all speak for itself so to say that I've got anything to prove to people, to say 'well, look, I can play, I'm not just a big guy,' that really is not my driving force in life.
A player's mind, body and soul have to be right to get the best out of them, and if a player no longer wants to be at a club then the club should try and get the best deal they can and let the player move on.
It's about sticking to your strengths - I'm not trying to run away from nobody or do any double stopovers or anything like that, have you seen how big these legs are? Though i'm sure people would love to see it.
I've always liked to keep myself busy so I don't get sucked in by temptations and that was part of the reason why I set up my BMO brand - to keep me occupied during my career, but also for when I finish football.
Sometimes I think it would be nice to be in a warm office every day. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining because I know how lucky I am to be playing football for a living. The positives by far outweigh the negatives.
People said: 'You're too big to play football,' but I kept playing and it just happened that people have caught on to me and taken to me. The nicest thing I get from it is that I can be myself and people seem to like it.
People may laugh or whatever, but my strength is something that I have to work on. It's not something that just happens overnight, it takes dedication and hard work and it has a purpose as it helps me every week on the pitch.
There was a long period when I was younger where people always talked about my size and I was going 'but look, I can play, though, I can play' but you look at it, to have a career, 12-13 years, you've got to be more than just a brute.
Players build up friendships with each other, so when a team-mate wants out, part of you understands that he is torn and you know you can't begrudge him a move. But the other part of you wants him to stay because you want to win games.
I know that I don't look like a footballer but I've always enjoyed working out and I've always been bigger than most people out there. I come from big stock. If you see my brothers and me together, we look like a wrestling tag team trio.
People concentrate on 'oh you can't do that,' or 'you're a bit too big for that' or whatever, rather than just concentrating on what you're good at. It's about being comfortable with the skin you're in, being comfortable within your own mind.
As a big man you may struggle to get much height when jumping for a ball - but by training with your defender team-mates you can develop a technique for making strong challenges in the air, making defenders uncomfortable and work on taking the ball down.
I've had three or four Scottish Premier League clubs contact me about going there and doing something. A couple of those clubs couldn't be further away from London so I'd have to seriously think about it, but it's nice to be sought after and nice to be wanted.
I'm a massive fan of Didier Drogba, I love the way he plays. He's not as stacked as me but he's strong and he's still scoring goals. I'm a fan of Diego Costa as well. I think he crosses the line at times but I like the fact he doesn't allow himself to be bullied.
As you get older, you know what you're good at and you know what you're not so good at. Your ego comes out of it, and then you realise you can't play every game, there'll be certain games where you won't be so affected... so you've just got to concentrate on what you are.
Don't try to kid yourself that your game is about pace if it isn't. If you're a big guy like me you need to look at how similarly built players use that physical presence to influence a game. Accept that your build may have some limitations - but plenty of plus points too.
Football was my saving grace so I want to let people know that you can achieve whatever you want. People like to concentrate on what you can't do, so let's preach what you can. Why would I want to talk about not being quick when I'm strong? That's what I want to get across.
As a player on the bench, you become like a fan really. You're sitting there shouting 'why did he do that?' or 'no don't pass it there' and I can see why fans get so frustrated. But then I remember what it is like being out there on the pitch and how players can't see everything that fans can see.
When you hear Beast Mode, you automatically go to my size, but I always say the strongest thing I own is not my chest, my legs, not my arms. It's my mind. It's that mindset that says: Look, you're not always going to succeed but don't take it as a loss, take it as a lesson. That's the mindset of Beast Mode.
During my career I've come back to clubs after the summer break to see one of my team-mates not really at it because he's been denied a move to a bigger club for whatever reason, and you can see in his body language that he doesn't want to be there and that kind of thing is massively disruptive and negative.