Jordan Pickford Quotes

Most of the youngsters I grew up playing with do not have a career in the game now. Sometimes people think it is easy to be a footballer, but it is hard work that never stops.

I got my first taste of real professional football on loan at Northampton. I was 18 at the time, and I played only nine games, but it was a massive opportunity for me.

I started lower down the leagues with Coventry, so I'd had that taste of first-team action at a young age. I'd already played 40 or 50 games before moving on, and when I got to Norwich, I had to bide my time at the start.

I started in League One and went up into the Championship and then into the Premier League, so I've played a lot of games from quite a young age.

Dele Alli is probably the perfect example. He played loads of games for MK Dons at a young age. He got a move and kicked on from there because he had that experience behind him.

You look at a club like Chelsea, and you know it won't be easy to get into that team. Sometimes you have to go away, play regular first team football, and show Chelsea that you are ready to play for them.

Going with England and the Under-21s was great for me.

When I first arrived at Napoli, I was the ball boy, which meant that I got to watch as the legends trained. Then, once I joined the youth team as a young teenager, I was a midfielder just like Tardelli.

Little details about young footballers catch your eye when you have been around a big club for a long time. At first, it can be minor things, like the way certain young players stand out from the group when the academy lads cross paths with the senior team on their way to training in the morning.

The Champions League is massive. I've had so much experience. I'm only 23, and yet I've played so much in the Champions League, and not many players my age would have had that experience.

Me being at Coventry, instead of a big Premier League club, probably helped me develop. You don't get put in the academy system, playing Under-18s and Under-23s.

Hopefully, now there are kids, both male and female, even senior players, who open themselves up now and are more open to going abroad and playing their football. I've learnt so much, and they can, too.

The quality of our academy system is very high, as good as anything in the world. Around the country, lots of people in youth development are keen to get together and find a solution to that 17-to-21 age bracket and how we get those players playing.

I was a promising keeper as a kid and, at 15 and 16, was on the books of Crewe Alexandra.

I'm a great believer in the lower leagues, the pyramid system, but there is mileage in having B-teams in England with young players playing competitively.

For the fans, for the club, for the young players, I want to show there is a pathway at Fulham for young players to go through in the first team.

Liverpool give young players a good opportunity.

When I went to Japan, I was with Kashima Antlers. Very good results were produced with that team as I aimed to develop Japanese football.

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.

I hope I can fulfill all my ambitions at Everton. But you never know in this game.

I think for every young player of my age, they have to go out on loan. I know there's an U21 league and the Europa League for the youth teams, but it's not the same as playing men's football, when there's a lot more riding on it.

I can see that the UAE is growing a lot as a football country, and there is plenty of opportunity to keep going and improve.

I'm going to have to get used to the pace of the Premier League and the technical side of it. I had a little taste of it at Hull before they were relegated in 2017, but I've developed a lot as a player since then.

I got scouted at six by Everton. My parents said it was maybe a bit too young. A year later, I went down to trials at Everton and have been there ever since.

Leipzig made me a better player.