I realise that sometimes you have to make tough decisions and football doesn't wait for people.

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

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 my worst critic when I'm playing.

This is what playing football is all about - trying to reach finals and trying to lift trophies.

I don't want to be stale.

You get people criticising people who are happy to sit on the bench, picking up money.

It has always been in my make up to play a high percentage of games.

I realise that sometimes things go well and sometimes they don't. But it is very important for me I feel personally, even selfishly, the need to be playing football matches.

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.

You're not a robot, you're not going to be nine out of 10 every game. But when things aren't going well, you work even harder and look for a reaction.

For sure I want to achieve records.

Players at the highest level have got high football intelligence, so they can adapt, but at the same time you need a structure and an idea of how you've got to play that system.

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

The way that I prepare, the way that I play, the way that I like to speak to the lads or manage situations is the way that I do things.

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

When I was growing up I would always watch the more experienced players to see what they were doing and why they were doing it.

To be captain of such a huge club like Chelsea is a great personal achievement.

Diego Costa is Diego Costa. He scores goals. He is an animated character and he is a big personality.

Every season I think it's right every great team tries to improve the quality of the team.

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

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

When you get a little knockback in your career, it gives you something to strive for.

Martin O'Neill let me go and he obviously felt that was the right thing at the time. But you go on and want to prove people wrong.

Work hard at your game and then you will progress.

It's difficult to play in a new formation and have everyone grasp it straight away.

It's always strange going back to Villa Park for me.

When you think of Bolton you think of the likes of Kevin Davies. He is a captain who leads by example and his qualities got him an England cap.

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

I have been hugely proud in terms of what I have achieved, in terms of over 60 caps, and I have captained my country on a few occasions which has been a huge honour and something I have been really proud of in my career.

I have been hugely honoured to have played for my country and I would never shut the door.

It has been a huge honour and I am hugely grateful to the managers for the caps that I have had.

We won the Europa League in 2013 and it was an amazing night, an amazing feeling. I take those memories and think to myself, 'I want to do that again.'

I'm ambitious in everything I do. That is never going to change.

I've always been hungry to play football.

I'm not a guy who is willing to accept not playing.

It's all about playing. Your career's short enough as it is.

That's what I want to do, to go out and perform back to the levels I know I'm capable of, the levels you can produce with consistent games and to win football matches.

If you are not playing a player, any player, for two, three, four games, then you don't have to give a reason for that. But if it gets to eight or nine games, then you have to explain the situation. What's going on?

I went to the World Cup and didn't play, but I came back with an even higher opinion of Gareth Southgate. It's all about how you treat somebody.

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

Everything gradually comes to an end or there's a new challenge around the corner.

It's tough to be left out. At Chelsea I've probably played 90 per cent of the time. It's not something I handle very well.

My teammates don't see it, but deep down I find it tough to sit there and not influence big games.

You always try to prove yourself.

The most important thing is that the team is doing well.

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.

I don't think you sit there as a young boy thinking you want a full set of medals, you just want to achieve something.

In football you go from hurdle to hurdle, there's always something to motivate you, always something you want to get.

You can go anywhere in the Premier League and it's going to be tough. Every single game is so tough. So I think if you make it, and you're lucky enough to play in the Premier League, I don't think there's a need to go anywhere.