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My parents were very strict and had rules for me and, if ever I was playing outside, I always had a set time to come back in.
It is clear I have enough qualities to be in the starting XI of Liverpool. But when you never get a real chance, it's difficult.
I know Robin van Persie very well and he is a great person and I have a lot of contact with him over the phone and text messages.
England is of course a great country to play in, and I'll always be open for a return. But it has to be a club I feel good about.
I have enough confidence at the moment to say that I have the potential to play at the same level as Arjen Robben or Franck Ribery.
Rafa Benitez promised me a certain development, but very quickly he took away that promise and it was a totally different situation.
As far as I can judge, English football is not for everybody. You need to have the lungs for it, you need to have the strength for it.
I enjoyed my time in Germany, I definitely rate the league as it develops well and you have quite a lot of teams that play good football.
For a player to really be at his best you have to give him a certain confidence, but I did not feel appreciated by some people at Liverpool.
In Holland, you can step into the manager's office and ask him for clarity if you don't know why you're not playing and they are open with you.
Not everybody is following every league in the world so the Champions League is a platform where everybody can see what you're still able to do.
When I left Liverpool, I could have stayed in England but that would have meant joining clubs that didn't play football - just a long-ball game.
Nobody likes me. I know that the Holland boss, Ronald Koeman, appreciates me. But for pundits, TV commentators and in the media, I don't even exist.
I definitely made the wrong choices. I left Holland too early, I probably should've stayed one more year for my development, but these things happen.
If it fits in with my career, it will be a challenge for me to play for a MLS team. If that would be Steven Gerrard's club, that would be very special.
From every little territory I've been, I've picked something up, things that I could use to better my game, to take with me, and the rest I left behind.
If you are young and you don't get rewarded with game-time, or don't come into games, it is difficult to try to still be hungry in the training sessions.
Moving to Liverpool was a new world for me. I had been living with my parents in Holland, and all of a sudden I was living in a foreign country on my own.
England is the biggest league in the world. Of course, you have Barcelona and Real Madrid but, as a league, England is in my opinion the best in the world.
Every footballer plays with the hope that people love to watch you. But, for me, there is no sympathy or interest. I don't seem to have any charm for fans.
During your career, you have to make decisions. Sometimes maybe you don't make such a good decision and at the end you have to try and recreate a position.
There were situations in my career where I played much better than another player in my position, but that player had a better name in terms of commercial appeal.
Yes, there is a lot of competition for places at Liverpool but that's the same at every top club. It was like that when I was at Ajax and that isn't a problem for me.
My career's been a bumpy road, but at the same time I think I am living proof that if you put enough work into things you decide more or less where you want to end up.
I liked mostly to play football on the ground and have a little bit of playing tactics rather than just up and down, long balls and second balls. That's not really my game.
I was 20 years old went I went to the Premier League. When you are 20, you need from other people, you need people to talk to you. But when I went over there, nobody helped me.
If you misuse the things you have been given, God has the ability to take your talent away. That's the way it is for me and that is why a lot of religious people are grateful to their God.
For a 20 year old the gap from Holland to England is massive. That's a fact. Not all players are able to settle in directly from day one. I remember even Van Persie needed two, three years but he became Van Persie.
I was only used to 4-3-3. For me as a left-winger you have also a left midfielder and a left-back behind you. But in a 4-4-2 you are basically also the left midfielder so you have to help more in defence and I wasn't used to that.
I suppose people lost interest in me when I left Liverpool; but it wasn't me who left, it was other people who left me. If people had continued to follow me, they would have seen my two good seasons in Turkey which caught the attention of Besiktas and Galatasaray.
If you see the kids now they have attitude and a strong character. They play one or two games and demand they are involved. I didn't have that. I was too polite. It is not maybe always good to have fight, but gives a stamp - it shows directly that 'I am here. I mean business.'
They used to have selection days for all the local kids and I went to these trials three times and got turned down every time. On the third time I was so upset because I thought I was not good enough. I was eight years old and I had the feeling, 'That's it, I don't want to play for Ajax any more!'