One important role for the city is to conduct studies to document areas of greatest need, and to facilitate coordination between our public and private transportation options to weave it into a dense tapestry of accessible and reliable transportation.

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 don't think I will fully appreciate it until I have retired. My dad will ring me after a game and if we've lost it's the end of the world for me but he will say: 'I don't think you realise - you are captain of West Ham, you grew up supporting the club.'

My personal view is that nobody should stand between an employer and employee when it comes to employment contract negations. Not the government and not meddlesome third parties. This includes the ability for individuals to bargain collectively with their employers.

It is hard if you have got family and kids and you have to leave them on Christmas Day to go and train but listen, we are a small minority of lucky players. We have obviously worked hard for this, but we are lucky enough to have the ability to play in the Premier League.

We're not robots, we're not factory built. We have feelings, we have families and we go through tough times that people don't know about. Sometimes your form isn't good and there's a reason for that. Sometimes the team isn't playing well and you can't quite work out why.

Don't get me wrong, I love training and I love playing but everyday life? People see the money and the material things that footballers have but you get to a Premier League level because you have something inside you and you can play. Ninety per cent of that is self-pride.

I was at Arsenal as an 11-year-old. I really enjoyed it but I was at school and my dad used to drive me there after work. Sometimes we were in traffic for two hours. They wanted to keep me but I wasn't getting home until nearly 11 P. M. I loved it there but it wasn't right, so I came to West Ham and haven't looked back.

Share This Page