Football has an important place in Russia.

It would be in my interest to have great players around me because, if you're playing with good players, it makes your job a lot easier.

I'd be lying if I said I never had any issues with players but at some point you have to stamp your authority because if you're good at taking free-kicks, for example, they should let you take them.

It's a team sport but every player's ego will kick in at a certain point.

I think it is also the most demanding league; the pace of the game in the EPL is something else and rightly for me is maybe the best league in the world.

Bolton was one of the relegation candidates when I got there but we took the club to another level and even had the opportunity to play for the first time in the Europa League.

I wanted to play in the Premier League and Bolton offered me that opportunity at that time and that was why I signed for Bolton.

I felt like a prisoner. In Qatar, you need a sponsor to get a work permit and you cannot leave the country unless you have an exit permit from your sponsor.

Sometimes money is not everything.

After playing in England, going to a place where you have 40, 50 people at the stadium was no fun.

I have got my pride to defend.

So, we know that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. I still believe that is the good thing about Nigerian players. We can always spring up so many surprises.

I used to say that I got to Germany as a boy but I left as a man.

I am grateful to God for that because people can still identify me with something in Germany.

I know there are millions of football fans who love this game, but can see the world outside it.

Maputo is a difficult place to play.

Football is a show and you have to enjoy what you are doing.

How can you be a giant of the sport when you are not consistent?

My biggest opponent was 'me.'

I knew I was in charge when with the ball. But on the toughest defenders I faced, I would say that my African brothers were the ones. We have the same mentality and thought the same way. Osei Kuffour was the toughest of them all.

There always be rumours. That is also part of the game because it is a global game and a massive business.

I think it's always easier to sit on the outside and act as if you have the best solution.

You can come up with whatever tactics you want as a coach but if you don't have the tools to execute you will struggle, and if you don't have willing players that are ready to commit to the cause than you will struggle.

Well, I think sometimes I am brutally honest.