Per Mertesacker

The main thing for me was that I wanted to be able to decide when my international career would end after 10 years myself.

We cannot take responsibility for every goal we concede, we all need to do our part across the field to ensure we win as a team.

Goals often come from a mistake much further up the field, yet the analysis and blame will always be on the defence.

I want players to think: 'OK, this has happened now, what is next for me?' That's a very big target because what are academies about nowadays? Is it really just to find one or two players? But what happened to the others? I'm very, very interested in that.

If Messi has the ball, he is fantastic to watch and difficult to stop. You have to double up on him, triple up on him even, stay with him constantly to block his way to the goal.

For almost 15 years, professional football is about yourself: How can I improve? How can I make myself better? Before winning a game was the short-term reward that meant everything. Now, I can look at the bigger picture.

As long as you are winning it is a good day.

Doing something for others helped to not put that focus too much on football and to put things into perspective of how fortunate we are.

Even at the age of 33 I was one of the most flexible at Arsenal when it came to my back muscles.

When I played for Hannover I had several offers, also - as I have been told - from Hamburg, Bremen and Bayern. Back then I already was a German international and Bayern would have loved to have the complete German national team.

When I was young and visited England with my auntie, as somebody who was football crazy, I simply had to come back with a shirt. I can't remember why, but I came back with an Arsenal shirt and my brother had a Manchester United one.

The interaction between the goalkeeper and the back four has to be top to compete in the Premier League.