When you're seventeen or eighteen, you bomb on in pre-season immediately, try to impress. But then at the end of pre-season because you were so fast at the beginning, your times aren't getting any better and it looks like you actually aren't getting fitter.

The game [football] has moved on a lot but still, ask most players and they will tell you that pre-season isn't their favourite time of the year.

Pre-season isn't just about conditioning but also getting used to each other as a team and a group of men. You spend more time with these people than you do your own family. Pre-season is the time we get used to each other and work out how people work. It can be a lot of fun. Hard but fun.

If you are exercising to that point it is not doing you any good in terms of fitness, as it is all lactic acid and you can get injured but I think coaches were seeing how far you'd go for the team.

When you are 18, 19 or 20 you can get away with more, but as you get into your twenties you realise that it is harder and harder to lose what you put on. Look at Ricky Hatton. That isn't good for you and so you know not to come back overweight or out of shape. Why? Because you'll get stick from fellow players and you'll struggle.

I'm English, without a doubt. I will never ever say I'm not English. English born and bred. I'm Turkish, though

Everyone thinks footballers have it easy and at this time of year see loads of pictures of players relaxing on beaches and in bars but what they don't see is most of them will be doing their own fitness regimes. If you don't you will get back and you will be off the pace, might get injured and won't play football matches.