The president understood and said he would try to help me achieve this, … If the transfer cannot be finalized in time I have agreed to go to Newcastle United, but only on a one-year...

David Beckham and Jonathan Woodgate were trying to persuade me to stay at Real, but in the end I had to come home.

No-one sees me as captain of the team.

My recovery is going well.

I would not settle for getting knocked out in the last four,

There’s been a lot written in the press over the last week, and I’ve been as honest as possible for everyone, but also actions speak louder than words. I’m here and I’ve signed a four-year...

I have to admit that I was a bit down when the surgeon rang last week to say that he was advising me to go back into hospital.

With a muscle I suppose you can go at half-pace to protect it but with a bone it’s either not healed or it’s okay, so on the first day I was doing sliding tackles and...

It bothers me when I don’t score,

The one thing I can guarantee is goals. I have never seen anything like this, even at Real Madrid. I hope the fans will be watching me for four years. I want to win a...

It has been a long 41/2 months, so far, since I last played, so I’m very keen to get back into the thick of the action. I have trained for quite a while now and...

Alfie [Thomas] will be captain, he’s a brilliant captain, but it was great standing in for him.

Unfortunately we didn’t win today, but I’m sure there’s going to be far more wins than losses and I’m looking forward to getting that first win. There’s a little bit of tension from not winning,...

When it came down to Real Madrid or Newcastle there was no question in my mind, … I want to play football. I love the Premiership – I’ve missed it while I’ve been away.

We all had that in common and that was one of the main things we’d talk about out there.

The manager, the players and the staff are all in it together,

I’m happy here, as I’ve always said, I made the decision last summer to come here and I’ve loved every minute since.

It was always going to be a difficult game away from home,

I’ve been honest from the start,

He’s gone to Liverpool and he’s a good player, … You can see in training how good a player he is.

Half the teams going to the World Cup are going to have a different manager for the next competition.

Well, in an ideal world I want to succeed here, play as much as I can and score many goals.

wanted to play for a club who really wanted me.

During my four days off there have been two big signings confirmed by the club and I can understand why this has resulted in speculation about my future,

He [Hansen] developed a lot of young guys like myself. He blooded us and gave us our chance,

You never expect to,

The Spanish league is fantastic, but it has not got the passion the English Premiership has got.

It was a poor performance and it wasn’t good enough,

We were behind Mike, definitely. Training has been as good as I can remember it, and we have all been happy. It is unfortunate Mike has decided to leave.

I think everyone would say they want an English manager. I’m no different. As long as he is the best man for the job. But the main criteria is obviously ‘is he good enough?’ If...

It’s a great feeling to finally score, … I couldn’t have picked a better time.

The bottom line is that I wanted to come back and play in the Premier League again and wake up on a Saturday morning and really fancy getting out there and playing in front of...

We were all in a foreign country playing our football and some things are great and at some times some things are more difficult.

The World Cup is six weeks away so I have no doubts I will be fit.

In the second half it started to come together a little bit better,

On the journey home from those talks, my mind was spinning,

I’ve watched as much as I can, and it has given everyone in Britain a big lift.

We’re very confident ahead of Germany, I wouldn’t swap our squad for anyone else’s,

We played together quite a bit for England , and you never expect to play with him again, especially when he announced that this was going to be his last season.

I wanted to get back to the Premiership,

Yeah, it was frustrating,

It will be an honor to play for him,

It is a simple process and should ensure that I’m back playing for Newcastle before the end of the season.

There are so many emotions – exhaustion, relief. It’s probably not going to sink in for a couple of weeks.

I’ve had a bit of a head-spinning couple of days,

He’s fantastic on the ground but he’s obviously really tall

I don’t have any. I was sent to bed before the matches started

We didn’t fire in our first game out against South Africa last autumn, and it was the same story against England in the first game of the 2005 Six Nations,

What would happen to me if I stayed at Madrid? How much would I miss European football if I signed for Newcastle?

I spoke to Liverpool and unfortunately that deal could not come off,