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When you are playing for a top club, when the pressure is on, when scrutiny is everywhere, you need some privacy. You need a place away from public view where people can be open, and, at times, difficult conversations need to be had.
Playing against Messi, as I've said before, is as tough a test of your concentration as any in football. At any moment, he can take the mickey out of you. Physically, it is demanding, but mentally even more so. You cannot switch off.
Arsenal needs Arsene Wenger, but also Arsene Wenger needs Arsenal. For me, he will die at Arsenal. He is like Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. After you think about Ferguson and United, you then think about Wenger and Arsenal.
Leo [Messi] is the best player of all time - better than Pele, Maradona or Cruyff. There have been some great teams in history - Pele's Brazil, Cruyff's Ajax, Sacchi's Milan - but in the past 20 years this Barcelona team is the best.
Some of the money from the senior players goes to helping out the younger kids. It is from the players' pool, the fines for being late and so on. Some will go to something like the tsunami appeal and some to helping out young players.
When you start to work out during your holidays, you know you've got the motivation. When I stop working hard during my holidays and getting excited before the beginning of the season, that's when I'll know it's time to call it quits.
Maybe Klopp is the best manager in the world at creating teams who attack the back four with so many players, from almost anywhere on the pitch. They have an intensity with the ball and without the ball, and it is not easy to do that.
I don't think there is any such thing as a song that is completely great or good. A lot of songs becomes massive hits that are just mediocre, and other times there are incredible songs that never get anywhere and you always wonder why.
I remember that, often, Mike Phelan would just nip down to the touchline for a message to one or two players. It was usually just a tactical thing. But when Sir Alex comes to the touchline, all the players know that it's serious stuff.
In Barcelona, Bayern Munich, in Spain and Germany we were able to do it. But people say, 'You only did it because you were in Barcelona and Bayern Munich. You will not be able to do it in England.' So, let's do it. We are going to try.
Well, when I was at Leeds it was the best and worst time of my career, because when I was a kid it was my ambition to play for Middlesbrough, where I was born, and my dream to play for Leeds, and everyone said I couldn't have two teams.
The American flag is an enduring symbol of liberty, democracy, and justice. It is fitting that the House act to protect it as we approach our nation's birthday, and as our men and women in uniform rally behind it in Iraq's battlefields.
Lots of clubs showed an interest in me, but United just felt right; the whole club, the set-up. It wasn't the fact that it was United, it was that I walked in here and met people, the staff and physios et cetera, and it just felt right.
For everyone, the World Cup is important. It doesn't matter if you are 21, going for your first one, or 35 and going for your third one. It's the biggest stage you can play on, and every opportunity to experience it is something special.
Ive had one very bad ankle injury but otherwise Ive been incredibly lucky with my fitness. Ive worked hard at it and Ive always been fit even compared to other players. That sustains you through various parts of your career, but I am 36.
In Spain and Italy I would not have a life among the fans. Everyone wants to touch you, own you and approach you. I try to be as kind as possible to all my fans, but in those countries I could not do it. There they ask too much from you.
Through the 13th century, paintings of Angels exhibit a predominantly masculine appearance. Over the next 300 years, their images become more delicate, gentle, and feminine, until Angels are shown as androgynous or even distinctly female.
I was in two successive European finals early in my career, so initially, you think that sort of thing is going to happen regularly. Then suddenly, it dries up, and before you know it, 13 years have passed before you get your next chance.
If you go into a shopping centre, there are phones and cameras everywhere, and if you're doing the wrong thing, ultimately you're going to get found out. So it's important you're living your life right, and that's hard for a young player.
In the 1990s, we had seven great teams - Milan, Inter, Juventus, Parma, Lazio, Roma, Fiorentina. If you look at the players, they were great players, but there was some crazy investment, and some teams went bankrupt, like Parma and Lazio.
I remember, in 2008, and we won the Champions League and the Premier League, and we were having our photos taken with the trophies, and someone said to me, 'Patrice, you don't look happy.' I said, 'It's because we are missing the FA Cup.'
It's not easy when you lose Flamini, Hleb, Senderos, Gilberto, and Lehmann. When you lose all these players - and Flamini, for me, was the best player last year - it's really difficult to compete against Chelsea, Man United, or Liverpool.
I've always had this crazy thought that I have to win something; otherwise, my career's a complete failure. It's ridiculous. Will a trophy change me as a person? No. Will it make me a better player? No. So what the hell am I worried about?
When I told Arsene Wenger I was leaving, he said to me, 'I have £25m to spend on a few players.' My answer was, 'Obviously, Mr. Wenger, you are not shopping in Harrods. That will only buy you one good player.' Now I have been proved right.
Pirlo is a cool customer who does things in his own time. On the pitch, he just looks so relaxed, no matter what is going on around him. He is one of those greats who looks like he could run a midfield with a glass of red wine in one hand.
The players who tend to make the difference are often great dribblers. Some are very fast; others have a repertoire of moves and feints. These players need to have great technique in order to be good dribblers. But I'm not a good dribbler.
Matthijs is very mature for his age: he has the physique of a 24-year-old. He is also strong with both feet, has an extremely good range of passing, can head the ball, scores goals, and is a real leader at the back already at the age of 18.
Mike [Mann], can you delete an e-mails you may have had with Keith [Trenberth] re AR4? Keith will do likewise...Can you also e-mail Gene and get him to do the same? I don't have his e-mail address...We will be getting Caspar to do likewise.
José Mourinho is a big star. He's nice. The first time he met Helena [Ibrahimovic's partner] he whispered to her: 'Helena, you have only one mission - feed Zlatan, let him sleep, keep him happy.' That guy says whatever he wants. I like him.
When you're told you're going to miss out, initially, that first hour after the manager's named the team, you're really disappointed. You can't imagine anything worse. But you can't show that. You've got to go out there and support the lads.
I've had one very bad ankle injury but otherwise I've been incredibly lucky with my fitness. I've worked hard at it and I've always been fit even compared to other players. That sustains you through various parts of your career, but I am 36.
When United play at home, they get some advantage that other teams don't get. I think when you go to United, Madrid, Barcelona, or Milan, when the referees referee these kind of games, it's always difficult to go against these kind of teams.
If you have been brought up with attacking and trying to get to number two, number three, number four goal, not getting one goal and defend, if that's sort of the mentality that's engraved in you, it's really difficult to do the other thing.
The problem for me is that I've never actually studied photography, so it's quite a steep learning curve. Cameras these days do so much for you automatically but I still think there's a point where you should actually know the technical side.
You look at players who are off form and there's a general disappointment, their confidence goes low and their whole demeanour can change. I've seen it hundreds of times but it's difficult to know what's really going on inside someone's mind.
When it comes to losing with United, I feel solely responsible for it. I can't help it. My brain will work like mad after a defeat. I want to know where I have made the wrong decisions, how I could have changed things for this fantastic club.
Sometimes I'll go by and there are a couple of swans, the next day it's a few ducks. I'd like to stop there every day for a year and capture how it changes, then put it all together to create an incredible image of a traditional English scene.
At Barca, players were banned from driving their sports cars to training. I thought this was ridiculous - it was no one's business what car I drive - so in April, before a match with Almeria, I drove my Ferrari Enzo to work. It caused a scene.
I think there are always a lot of rumours about players from Ajax. We develop great players, not only in Amsterdam but hopefully also in Cape Town, and there is interest in a lot of our players, but we like to keep them for as long as possible.
Off the field, Ronaldo was also focusing on everything extensively, such as resting up properly and strengthening his body. After training sessions, he would often work on his free-kicks and then come to me and say, 'Edwin, can you go in goal?'
Outside you get credit and praise and it makes you feel good, puts a spring in your step, but really the ceiling was the manager. If I was playing at Old Trafford and felt as though I was contributing and winning things, that was enough for me.
I think players maybe now want to look more pretty than anything else. What I feel disappointed about when I watch games is too many players think of themselves. Still good players, maybe better than we were, but looking too much at themselves.
Sometimes a little kid will come up to me and ask me to show him some tricks. I always have to say: 'I can't do any tricks.' They want to see some sort of magic: keepie-uppies, around-the-worlds, that sort of thing. It's not really my strength.
It doesn't change the way I am, but I do totally understand how you're looked at as a footballer, especially by children. I don't claim I can shape their lives, but there's no harm in having good manners and being seen to play the game properly.
I had my father on the Under-21 team and during the World Cup in France in 1998 - and also in AC Milan for four months. So it was a weird experience, because having your father as a coach is pretty weird, and I was the captain. But he was great.
Leo Messi is a spectacular player, there is nobody else like him. I should not because I have suffered so much in training. I think he is the best forward at the moment and I think he will be so for many more years. He has his feet on the ground.
Running a marathon is unlike anything I have done. You can recall all those bad weights sessions or the work you had to do in pre-season, but marathon running is worse than any of it, probably the hardest thing I have had to do in my entire life.
I sit down and watch videos. I take notes. That's when that inspiration comes - the moment that makes sense of my profession. The instant I know, for sure, that I've got it. I know how to win. It's the moment that my job becomes truly meaningful.
I grew up playing war. We threw dirt and rocks at each other. We'd lead attacks. We'd break up into squads. It became a neighborhood thing for a while, our neighborhood against the other neighborhood. There was always a war breaking out somewhere.
It was Martin O'Neill who said, 'You're a central midfielder.' He put faith into players. He was very clever at getting into players' heads, leaving little remarks to make me believe more. The players at Villa all moved up another level under him.