Gary Cahill

“I'm my worst critic when I'm playing.”

“I know what I'm capable of over many years.”

“For myself it's about winning competitions.”

“There's opportunities you get that you want to grasp with both hands and you have to cherish them.”

“When Chelsea came calling for me, it was an opportunity, it was a chance and looking from the outset you may not be sure how it's going to go. But it's one you can't turn down, you have to grab it with both hands. Then you have to work as hard as you can to make it work.”

“It's always difficult not playing games and that match fitness and sharpness is something you always lack when you don't get that opportunity.”

“As players we are in control of what we do and the way we prepare for the games.”

“The scary thing about blood clots is where they can lead.”

“Every experience, good or bad, is a learning process.”

“I have been my own man. I feel like I can be me but I have obviously learned from the best.”

“Not every single minute of your career will go well, individually and collectively, and not every season will go how you want it to, but it's how you react to that.”

“Paul Gascoigne was one who I watched as a young boy. He was a hero to all of us really. Chris Waddle was one for me too, just because of where I grew up. Where I'm from, he was somebody who was representing England and playing in the Premier League, and as a young boy I always wanted to do both.”

“I was always confident that if someone took the chance to play me week in and week out that I would fulfil my potential.”

“It is difficult to click your fingers and say, 'Right, go and play that formation now.'”

“I want to play football out on the pitch. I am not different to anyone else and the ambition never changes.”

“Every time you come out of the team I know you don't just disappear, you don't just become a bad player overnight.”

“I'm human. I want to play, I want to perform well.”

“I've got the utmost respect for Azpilicueta as a player and a person.”

“Hopefully, I've got rid of the question marks over whether I can play at the top level.”

“You want to achieve the most you can in the short period you have in your career as a professional footballer.”