One minute I was with Tottenham, the next came a proposal from China. I took a step back to think about it and decided it was the right time to move.
At Burnley, I'd enjoy myself with my missus and friends, but because at Tottenham we're playing Saturday-Tuesday, even Wednesday-Sunday, and with the intensity we play at, playing in the Champions League, we can't afford to have a night out.
My brother-in-law was a Tottenham fan. He introduced me to football and brought me to Tottenham. At the time I just wanted to play football so I would go anywhere to play.
There is a great deal of concern in the Chinese military that Taiwan's reunification with China is drifting further and further away.
When I decided to move to Chelsea, I got a bit of stick at the time, but I didn't move just because of the money or just because it was a big club. I moved there because I wanted to play for them.
'The Fever' is a one-person play. I decided I would perform it myself, and I decided I would not perform it in theaters, because the character in the play says certain things that I meant.
"The Fever" is a one-person play. I decided I would perform it myself, and I decided I would not perform it in theaters, because the character in the play says certain things that I meant.
I have always had confidence in my ability; I knew I'd get a chance coming here. That's one of the main reasons why I signed for Tottenham.
Deng Xiaoping made a calculation. He bet on demographics. What he knew was that China had this enormous population of young, underemployed people, people who he could move from the farms to the coast and put them to work in factories, and that would be the lifeblood of China's economy.
When I went from Tottenham to China a lot of people said that was it, my career was over. I had a couple of other offers at the time but they were both loans and I would have had to go back at the end. I just wanted to play.
There were a few clubs in the Championship and I spoke to some managers, but I wanted to play for Tottenham. There was always that doubt that if I left I'd end up regretting it, and I would have definitely regretted it.
I decided to come to the U.S. in the mid '90s because the Internet, which I knew was the wave of the future, was red hot here, but hadn't yet taken off in China.
ITV and the production company contacted me and asked if I fancied playing the role [of Maigret]. It took me a long time to decide to do it. In fact, I decided not to. I thought about it for some weeks, and thought 'perhaps not' and it went away for a while, and then it sort of came back. They said 'Are you sure you don't want to play him?', so I thought about it for a lot longer again, and eventually decided that I would.
Chelsea was the most difficult time. In the middle of the season, I already knew that I wouldn't play again, because the club had decided I wouldn't play. It was a frustrating decision because I felt rather good, and I thought that I could contribute something.
I stayed away from mathematics not so much because I knew it would be hard work as because of the amount of time I knew it would take, hours spent in a field where I was not a natural.
I can remember being at Gillingham playing in the fourth division ringing up other people I knew at clubs to see what team they would play, if they had injuries. Or you would ring a press man you knew in that area.