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On a matchday, I like tie-up my right boot on the pitch before kick-off. I ll tie my laces in the changing room, walk out and then untie my right boot and tie it up again. It s one of those things - I ve always done it! I do it before every match.
If you're good enough, you're old enough: that's what everyone says. When a talented young player emerges, his age doesn't matter; people want to see him in the team. So why, when you become older, is the assumption that you are no longer good enough?
The thing you don't realise is that every time you head the ball, your brain shakes. Every single time. Have you ever headed a ball badly and seen stars for a couple of seconds? That's your brain shaking. Let's be honest: that can't be healthy, can it?
I thrive on quick players getting to the byline and sending over crosses. I just have to be quick enough to get on the end of things. In that regard, my job has always been the same, but if we have more wide, quick players, that can only be good for me.
I'll be walking down the street with a mate, and someone will stop and say 'All right Crouchy, how's things?' and so on. Once they're gone, the person I'm with will say 'Do you know them?' and I'll say 'I've never met them before in my life'. Happens all the time.
During the Sir Alex Ferguson years, you would see all those great players - Roy Keane, Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Jaap Stam, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Cristiano Ronaldo, to name just a few - and you'd quickly realise why Old Trafford had an aura like nowhere else.
I'm very aware that you lead a very peculiar existence as a professional footballer, being flown everywhere first-class and never having to queue up for anything. Of course, that's attractive, but if you're not careful, you end up living in a world where nothing is really real.
I once walked out of a nightclub with my team-mates to see our star midfielder reclining across the bonnet of a Ferrari, arms folded, waiting for girls to come out so he could wink at them and then progress it from there. I have no idea how long he'd been waiting. I do know it wasn't even his Ferrari.
I have my boots custom-fitted in Cardiff. Everyone s feet are different, so to get measured up is a great bonus. You stand in a cast and they make moulds of your feet. It takes a couple of hours and then they have my exact size and precise measurements for the boot. That's makes them extra comfortable for me.
I'm confident enough to say I was better than my mates! But with the different competitions I did play with some good players, who didn't make it for whatever reason. I was lucky enough to be able to do what I love, and my mates have continued to play at a lower level and really enjoy it, I know that's exactly what I'd be doing if I wasn't here today.
I was here at Spurs as a kid, too, and I cleaned David Ginola and David Howells boots. I got a nice tip of £60 from each of them at Christmas. Howells was quick to give me this but I had to ask Les Ferdinand to explain to Ginola about our boot etiquette and the tradition of tipping at Christmas. Everyone wanted to clean Les Ferdinand s boots because he was the best tipper. He gave out £100 one year.