I never relax on the year before. Every year I want to get more out of myself so I use it as a driving force, rather than a pressure thing.

When you see young players coming into the squad and pushing you, no matter what age you are, you have to react. You have to worry about yourself and perform as well as you can. If you end up looking around at others, wondering whos performing better, you take your eye off the ball.

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 remember being in West Ham's youth team and seeing Jody Morris play for Chelsea at 17 and you scoring for Liverpool on your debut when you were 18. I was watching it on Soccer Saturday and I was like, "I can't believe he's scored!" It's professional jealousy. It's best to be honest about it. It gave me real desire. I was thinking "God I want that to be me".

I'm really happy here. I think anyone who knows me well, and the fans too I hope, they know that I love the area, and the bond that I've had with the fans has been fantastic.

I am a man who likes to play consistently; I always play better when I'm on a run of games.

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