Ross Barkley Quotes

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.

I was 17 when Arsene Wenger gave me my first Premier League start for Arsenal against Southampton and I was very immature when I was playing.

I started as a winger and played there for about six years but when I came to Arsenal they told me 'now you have to play me at the back' and everything just changed.

To be honest, from England Under-16s, through the 17s and 18s, really all the way through my youth career, I played at centre-half. For some reason, when I made my debut at Everton, I just played in central midfield, and it went from there.

If you're lucky enough to get into a Premier League or Championship team straight away, well done to you, but I feel really grateful for the experience that I had at the lower end.

Once you have had 10 seasons at this level, the next season is not going to be so different. For a young player with only 20 appearances in the Premier League there is an opportunity to improve.

It's true, when I was at Barcelona I played as a winger.

At Under-11/12, I was playing as a right-back. The manager then was Cyril Helstone, and he said to me, 'No, you're not a defender. You should be in midfield.' That was the big change in my career because from that moment until I made my debut in the first-team at Feyenoord, that was the position I played.

I just want to thank Everton for the opportunity and Watford for having opened the doors for me in England.

I've been promoted, relegated, won big trophies, gone months without scoring, played for my country at World Cups, been bought, sold, loaned, and called 'a freak.'

I sat down with my agent and went through my youth-team video footage. I saw that when I started, I'd get on the ball and within two touches would turn straight away and look to attack my opponent, but when I got into the first team, I would go for the safer option.

I was never a super sub before I came to City. I used to play always from the beginning, and I scored a lot of goals not as a sub.

I've played for Liverpool's first-team pretty much every week for 16 years.

I'm very fortunate to have worked at two unbelievable clubs, Manchester City and Barcelona, and I feel like I've really changed the way I look at football from being around and in those environments, so I feel really privileged.

My feelings towards Manchester City will never change; I'm eternally grateful to them as a football club. They took me as a 19-year-old boy from Shrewsbury Town, took somewhat of a punt on me, and I've had some fantastic times.

A lot of the guys who played in the 1995 final for Ajax had been there since the age of 12 or 13. Patrick Kluivert and Edgar Davids had been there from age seven or eight, so I had a lot of catching up to do.

My defensive side was something I wanted to work on, especially coming into the Premier League.

Arsene Wenger's style of play is the sort of style the Chilean national team has. Therefore, I am used to it.

I was a young manager at Everton and had 11 great years there.

At Inter Milan, I agreed to play on the wing and didn't like it.

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've spoken with Raheem Sterling and Jordan Henderson, and they say the Premier League's the place to be. It's where I want to get to, and getting there with Palace would be nice.

I've been a professional since I was a 17-year-old, over 200 league games from Conference all the way up to the Premier League now, so I think that's experience in itself.

I always said in my career as a footballer, I owe everything to Newell's. But as a coach, I owe everything to Paraguay.

I played behind the main striker at Dortmund, but I usually play on the left with Japan.