I was meant to date the captain of the football team I was going to be on a romantic excursion every Saturday night I was destined to be collecting corsages from every boy in town before prom accepting such floral offerings like competing sacrifices to a Delphic goddess.

Arsenal have won that advantage nobody gave it to them. By playing fantastic football and by winning matches and by winning trophies they won that respect that the opponent has for them.

The importance that our society attaches to sport is incredible. After all is football a game or a religion? The people of this country have allowed sports to get completely out of hand.

After all is football a game or a religion?

Nah I've always had a great relationship with my two brothers I have always had their support in my football and in everything. They've been very close to me and we have a great relationship.

In England it's a rare thing to see a player smoking but all in all I prefer that to an alcoholic. The relationship with alcohol is a real problem in English football and in the short term it's much more harmful to a sportsman. It weakens the body which becomes more susceptible to injury.

Pro football gave me a good sense of perspective to enter politics: I'd already been booed cheered cut sold traded and hung in effigy.

I try not to tune in to politics until it's two or three months before the election. Till then it's like watching preseason football.

Politics is like football if you see daylight go through the hole.

Music is my thing. It's my thing it's what I love. It's what I do. It's football to me it's Christmas to me religion to me poetry to me.

Conventional wisdom notwithstanding there is no reason either in football or in poetry why the two should not meet in a man's life if he has the weight and cares about the words.

Thanks partly to the kind of poets that we now have and partly to funding there's been a gigantic shift in the way poetry is perceived... Poems on the Underground poets in schools football clubs zoos.

Music was important. Football was the easy part.

If you can miss getting up in the morning and running into a wall I miss playing football. I'll never be a frustrated athlete.

In the last year my wife has noticed me struggling to get downstairs on a Sunday morning. I've two young children and football has been so good to me over the years I don't want to spoil it.

I obviously take a lot of pride in what I do on the football field because that has the ability to influence a lot of people. That puts smiles on people's faces. That gives people a pep in their step on Monday morning when they go back to work.

You can spend the money on new housing for poor people and the homeless or you can spend it on a football stadium or a golf course.

Money is not a motivating factor. Money doesn't thrill me or make me play better because there are benefits to being wealthy. I'm just happy with a ball at my feet. My motivation comes from playing the game I love. If I wasn't paid to be a professional footballer I would willingly play for nothing.

For a kid who's lost his mom and all the rage and grief that no one was able to talk out of me football was a very therapeutic sport. Very.

Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many men on the field?

Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end the Germans always win.

There are the medical dangers of football in general caused by head trauma over repetitive hits.

Football is like life - it requires perseverance self-denial hard work sacrifice dedication and respect for authority.

Now learning a bit more about footballers I think what they need to do well is someone who really wants to stay in the background and just be a strong support.