JAAP STAM

I had my own youth. I had fun playing in the amateurs, going out with my friends on the weekend, drinking a beer, that sort of thing.

It's football, you work with humans and humans make mistakes. We will do everything in our power to prepare the players so they know to make the right decision at the right times.

As a defender it can also be more frustrating to play in Italy because referees do not tolerate too much physical contact. I loved the physical nature of the game in England, but in Serie A I only have to look at a player and they sometimes fall to the floor!

I don't regret writing my book at all. I wrote it for the United supporters to give them a proper insight into what it is like inside the club, and what it is like to be a Manchester United player. I think I did that in an honest way.

Yes, I am just a type who likes to watch the cat out of the tree. I want to start quietly, and then always build, always go higher.

I hope to work sometime for an absolute top club. It should be no surprise that Manchester United are a dream club for me.

I have a reputation and name myself, everyone knows that. But I believe in myself as well.

Look, when I was working on a project at school, I had the urge to do that well. And if I'm fixing something up at home or whatever, making something, I want to do that well too. If I'm hanging a lamp and it doesn't work, nobody can talk to me for an hour, almost. And with football I have that urge and that will to win. With all sports.

If I hadn't made it as a footballer I would have been an electrician. I studied to be an electrician even though I was progressing at football because you never know at that stage if you are going to be there for sure.

I always watched professional football and my father played at an amateur level, but I didn't think I wanted to become a pro.

It's not always the player that's talking in the dressing room that becomes a good manager. It's a feeling that you need to develop, it's a feeling that needs to grow on you.

I think that's one of the most important thing for a player to have - to have goals for yourself, that you want to make steps, that you want to improve yourself, that you want to go the highest level.

Far too often English players seem determined to keep running after getting a whack on the leg, even though the chance to get a shot in has gone.

In Holland you go into amateur teams, come up through the ranks and are generally spotted for senior or professional football. At 16, I had made it into a men's amateur team, and was picked up professionally from there.

It sounds strange, maybe, because I have played with a lot of big players but I never thought: 'OK, they're going to go into management.' Maybe there was only one, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, because he was always talking about football but I did not have a feeling with the other players.

I was actually quite small when I was young. No one believes me now, but I have pictures at home.

It was a great time working at Reading, especially the first season getting very close to going to the Premier League.

I want to reach something with a team and go to the highest level.

I just played football from an early age and didn't get involved in any other sports. We had tennis, cycling, ice skating - I'd like to have skated more, because it's so physical. Ten minutes on the ice and you really feel it in your back.

Players from Holland and Scandinavia aren't divers, but those from Spain and Italy go down far too easily for my liking.

I admit to becoming frustrated by the frequency of diving in the Champions League.

Of course, when you play football yourself you can think you want to become a manager but it does not make you a good manager.

For me, a late start was a good thing. A lot of kids who start too early get bored. I'd done all the things I wanted to do, I'd enjoyed myself, having fun and playing as an amateur and that was important.

When you go to school in Holland you learn to speak English and write in English - but English is different from the Scottish language!

It is important for me to believe in a team that has ambition. I want to go up and work towards something. I don't want to work in the grey areas and say it is nice to end up 10th or 11th and keep on doing that every year.