Rickie Lambert

“I'm desperate to enjoy my football again and play until I retire. Obviously I'm 34 so I don't want to be sitting on the bench, I don't want to be remembering my last few years of my career like that.”

“I know how big Liverpool are - and it means everything to me - but I know what is important; I know it's what I do on the pitch and the minutes I play. I know that's what matters, and that's what I'll be focused on.”

“I was getting well paid but I never started playing football for the money.”

“Even though I'm 32 I feel like a kid again. I've got so much enthusiasm for the game. The fact that I'm playing under Brendan Rodgers and for Liverpool, I just can't wait.”

“I could have stayed at West Brom but I want to be constantly involved, I want to be relied upon like I have been all my career. It's been horrible not to feel that.”

“The main reason I quit was my lower back. I've had problems for a few years. It was affecting my movement and power. I had to have various injections and procedures.”

“It was so disappointing the way it ended but, to play for England in the World Cup, was still the highlight of my career.”

“But when I joined up with England I felt lucky to be there, and it was the same at Liverpool. And when I look back now I realise I lost something mentally as a player, by allowing that to happen.”

“I never really got taught to be a striker in the first place and then I never got taught how to be a lone striker.”

“If I'd got to the top too early, I would not have been a success. I was physically and mentally ready.”

“I thought I was decent at table tennis, but when I saw Ross Barkley and Raheem Sterling, I thought, 'maybe not'.”

“Luckily I was financially okay, so I had a choice, I didn't have to stay in the game. A lot of players have to play as long as they can. I didn't.”

“I went to West Brom, and I couldn't do what I wanted to do, and Tony Pulis was a very physically-demanding manager, and I couldn't get around the pitch like he wanted, so I moved on.”

“You've got to dream. You've got to believe, that's what I've done all my life. I'm rolling with it at the minute. It seems like it's not stopping. Who knows where it will end?”

“That feeling you had in the lower leagues, the hunger you need to win and even earn wages, has never left me.”

“The amount of pressure the guys are under from the English media is fierce.”

“You have to adapt to each level and it improves you when you're in better teams. That's what's happened to me over the years. Every team I've played in has just got better and better. It's become a lot easier.”

“And I probably had three seasons when I was on the slide, and I kind of fell out of love with football, and that was it, so I retired.”

“I'm a striker and any chance I get I want to score.”

“It's the best feeling in the world to score for your country.”