Mark Noble

“I played at White Hart Lane against Michael Carrick and Edgar Davids when I was 18.”

“You can't play man to man against Liverpool and out-pass them. You have to keep your shape and stop them.”

“I've played under Alan Pardew, Gianfranco Zola, Avram Grant, Sam Allardyce, Alan Curbishley and Slaven's made me captain.”

“I think playing for England is the pinnacle of every young English player's career.”

“If you want to pay money for an English talent you pay way over the odds. You get players from abroad really cheap.”

“The way football is, sometimes, everything that could go wrong goes wrong. You have to dig yourselves out of that by simply working hard and sticking together.”

“I hate for people to think that I have only played for West Ham because I am the local lad and people make allowances for me.”

“Players such as Scholes and Gerrard, Ryan Giggs and Jamie Carragher have consistently performed at the top level and played hundreds of games. It's fantastic, I'd love that. But you never know what's round the corner.”

“At the end of the day, West Ham are a Premier League football club and that's all that matters.”

“I never blame the refs as I know how tough it is, how fast the play goes, how difficult it is to keep up with the play.”

“If I'm on my way to play a round of golf there is an anxiety in me, a feeling of 'I can't lose today.'”

“Obviously when you grow up in the area you love playing on the street, and to go from playing on the street with my mates to playing at Upton Park is a bit surreal, and 15 years on to still be in the heart of the West Ham midfield is quite good going!”

“I'm English, I've always wanted to play for England but it's out of my hands.”

“When I was a youngster, my dream was to play in the first team. I was constantly thinking, 'Will I make a career in football? Am I going to have to go out and get a job?'”