I was always pretty good at school, but a lot of it was memorising, maybe cheating off your mates, stuff that gets you through.

Scoring goals is the best feeling you can have. I always look up at the stand for my family straight afterwards; it means everything to me that they travel to every game.

Even with the quality of players that we have, they’re an extremely hard side to break down and once they get on top of you, you find it difficult to stem the flow of attacks.

I’ve enjoyed every minute of travelling and playing for my country. What an honour that is.

I’m not silly. I understand that, with age and at different parts of your career, you have different challenges.

If I lose the ball, I lose it trying to do the right thing. That’s the way it is.

I’m a very private person, and you have a lot of people looking into your personal life, away from football. That’s the one thing that I don’t like, but I always remember how lucky we...

Every season will have its dips and hard moments, and the challenge then is to make sure you don’t get too down in those moments and make sure you come back fighting.

There’s that talent thing where I can score goals, and there’s also that want and ambition to keep doing it and doing it and doing it. I’ve seen a lot of players do it for...

If players are performing for you, their age shouldn’t really matter, especially because the older players can bring their experience to the table.

When you take a lot of stick you want to ram it down people’s throats.

I come from a football family which has really helped.

I didn’t want to be the rebel who was bottom of the class, so I worked hard. They wanted me to stay on for A-Levels, but football came calling – that was my real love.

Nobody expects a footballer to have any kind of an IQ, which is a bit of an unfair stereotype.

In international football, you need pace and you need your players up top to create things out of nothing and run at people.

You remember the finals you lose as much as the ones you win.

I fancy our chances at the European Championships.

I don’t know if we’d have been as dominant as we were last season. The new things, the new ideas the manager brought in everyone took them on board so well. He is special.

Of course it is going to be difficult for any player to get in the Chelsea side no matter who they are.

When I was at school, I wanted to be a lawyer.

Being faster would probably make me better at football.

I have never seen a player as driven and determined as me, quietly determined; that’s why I always want to do the best.

I loved reading Roald Dahl when I was young but I had forgotten a lot about the books. I read the ‘BFG’ on the iPad the other day and it was so interesting to see...

I don’t want to be a passenger sitting on the bench not doing much, even in my older years.

Reading and writing is so important, and it’s something I am really keen to promote. It’s something that can be a bit lost these days with so much else going on.

Everyone’s got unfinished business with Barcelona. They’re the greatest team in the world.

I’m like everyone else: I want to play every game, but it’s not possible.

I think it was in Moscow last year and I got changed for training the day before we played Moscow, but the fact is they actually wanted to do John’s, me and John were next...

Goals never come easy. No one gives you goals.

Footballers do get a hard time, and there is a lot of generalization going on. When you get to meet players and know them as lads, it’s always a bit different.

I am certainly not the most talented player in the world; there’s many a more talented player than me.

If I ever have a son, I would call him Frankie, and it’s a family name – it’s my dad and my dad’s dad, so you know, it sticks. I won’t forget it.

People can talk about my age for as long as they like. There is nothing better in football than proving people wrong, and I’ll try to do that for as long as I can.

To be honest, I was Mum’s boy. Always was, always will be.

Reading with my children is incredibly important to me and a wonderful way to spend time together as a family, exploring magical worlds through books and stories.

I like to go to America. That’s where I go for most of my holidays.

Training’s completely different now. It used to be a lot of running and work without the ball. Now it’s all with the ball, which any player loves.

I’m happy here, and why change when you love the club and the club’s in a really good position right now.

I think I work harder on the pitch, I cover more ground and my passing is more accurate.

I always dedicate my goals to my mum. I lost her a couple of years ago. She was my biggest supporter and is always with me.

The advantage does lie with us because we’re at home and if we can’t motivate ourselves for this match then we can’t motivate ourselves for any match. I think the crowd will be up for...

I can’t stress the importance of working hard enough, work on all aspects of your game. If you does that and you have the ability, you’ll come through.

I don’t think Wayne Rooney would be affected if you booed him, that’s just how he is, but others go under. They really suffer with it. I think I’m somewhere in the middle… now. I’ve...

Barcelona are my favourite team in Spain, let’s put it that way.

I’m not the kind of player to see out my time and sit with my bum on the bench too much. I want to be involved. That’s my character.

I think about all my successes and failures, and sometimes the failures stick in your head as much as the wins. But you do move on.

I admit I was somewhat concerned when we started to sign so many players – naturally you are going to worry about whether you can retain your place in the side.

Of course, there will be few people who are sympathetic but you don’t become a great team overnight, no matter how much money you have at your disposal.

I have a lot of good football talk with cabbies, but when you want to get somewhere in a hurry, it can be distracting. I always know they’re going to want to talk football if...

A lot of things happened when I left there, and to be fair they treated me really bad, and now I have to play against them so I don’t have any feelings for them at...