A lot of clubs have lost the perspective of what is a football club.

You want to build your own team for the highest level, and that happens more with teams that stay together.

Diehards know what Ajax is about, but you always need a new following, and if you are not successful, it is difficult.

At certain times, you start to - maybe not lose the faith - but just wonder how long it will take until someone picks me up. I was thinking, 'Is it just me? Do I think I'm better than any manager does?'

You try and learn from clubs where you have been or actions clubs are taking to grow in certain markets, and that, for myself, is also important.

I get great respect from the United fans and the directors and the people who are there still when you go there. It is a very warm club, very comparable to Ajax, only they have grown internationally amazingly.

It's great to have people talking about the club again, to reinvent and get to know Ajax again.

Ajax has always been about homegrown players developed in a small country.

You have to get your motivation from within, and it doesn't matter if you lose in the quarters, the semis, or the final. You must want to have another chance of winning the trophy.

I'm just not very rock n' roll.

As a striker, all you want to do is score.

If you have a love for sport, everybody knows the success of Madrid in the '60s, Ajax in the '70s, Bayern Munich, and so on.

Personally, I don't think about the things I have won but the things I have lost.

A lot of the guys who played in the 1995 final for Ajax had been there since the age of 12 or 13. Patrick Kluivert and Edgar Davids had been there from age seven or eight, so I had a lot of catching up to do.

I share a special bond with Ajax. I think we are a special club. And we're known for our philosophy around the world.

For us at Ajax, it is all about football.

We need a solution for European football. You need to help smaller clubs in European competitions get the right distribution of money so they can invest in coaches and attract talent for the level they can play at.

At Ajax, we have a certain philosophy that is sometimes more important than winning - the development of players.

The Dutch league is not one of the strongest five leagues in the world, or even Europe, and that's why it is difficult to maintain.

If you are in the Premier League or at Barcelona, Real Madrid, or Bayern Munich, you are at an end station.

You don't need only your strikers. You need your defenders to be on top of their game. You need a midfield to work hard and track back, and I suppose you need a goalkeeper who makes saves once in a while.

All things evolve, and European football needs to evolve as well.

As a goalkeeper, I needed good players around me. I needed Nemanja Vidic, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Wayne Rooney. It's the same as a CEO.

If you win, everyone asks what's your secret, when most of the time you did exactly the same in the ones you lost.