Jamie Vardy Quotes

I signed as an 11-year-old for Everton. I broke into the Under-18s at the age of 14, then the reserves at 15, then I was in the first-team squad at 16.

If we are encouraging kids to go into academies, then presumably we are selling them the dream that they can play first-team football.

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.

If you're happy being at a big club but playing reserve team football, I never really understand that.

I was playing first-team football at Cardiff at 16.

Coaching for tackles? That's something you do with seven-year-olds, when you show them how to stand and when to make a block. It is one of the basics of the game. No Premier League manager needs to coach it.

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

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 began my journey as a 16-year-old boy at the Arsenal's academy, trying to one day become a first team player, going out for evening runs in East Barnet with Jack Wilshere.

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.

For me, going out on loan and playing men's football was crucial, and I was getting bored of playing Under-23 football because I wasn't getting tested.

I always think the same: English players don't generally leave England, which is strange. But of course, the Premier League's got the reputation as one of best leagues going, and one of the most competitive leagues.

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 want to be playing competitive first-team football every week and not reserve team football.

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.

The NFL is a business and I accept it for what it is.

I arrived at Inter when I was very young and I had the chance to play with Giuseppe Bergomi, and I met Giacinto Facchetti too.

There are quite a lot of young players around now with undoubted talent who get stuck in academies at big clubs.

I learnt so much at Coventry - I was playing as a regular at 17, most weeks. And that's something that left me in good stead.

For the top stars, it's just more appealing to go to the Premier League than to Bundesliga.

I actually had the chance to sign for Newcastle before I went to West Ham; I didn't in the end because they had got rid of their reserve team. There were a few clubs interested but I liked what West Ham had to offer and never regretted signing for them, I loved it straight away.

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.

Big clubs with one rich owner have been one of the main changes in football since I started playing.