“If two smart, intelligent, clever guys sit together on a table, and you both want the same, where can be the problem? We all want to be successful.”

When I left Dortmund, I said it’s not important what people think when you come in but what they think when you leave.

I don’t feel too much pressure. I only see an opportunity.

That’s what you live for as a sportsman. You have to put up a fight.

Anyone can have a good day, but you have to be able to perform on a bad day.

Perhaps there are a few more sprints. But there is a different style of football here, partially due to the weather.

I’m an absolutely normal guy.

In London, you’ll be walking around and, ‘Oh, there’s the ground.’ Every area of the city has a Premier League club. They all survive; they all exist with enough money, and that’s good.

I’m pretty positive, optimistic, so I always expect the best.

I was a very average player and became a trainer in Germany with a special club.

In England, football is a big thing to talk about, but Liverpool, it’s a special place. You feel it when you make your first step.

In England, you have stadiums in the middle of the city.

Derbies are always difficult to play because you have to handle the pressure. There’s no advantage or disadvantage for either side.

If you watch me during the game, I celebrate when we press the ball and it goes out.

The English game is not faster than the German game.

For me, it’s enough that I have the first and last word.

I don’t think I’m an unlucky person.

I gasp, pressing both palms to my chest. Now the monstrous thing has its claws around my throat, squeezing my airway. I twist and put my head between my knees, breathing until the strangled feeling leaves me.

In France you get freedom of action: you can do what you like and nobody bothers, but you must think like everybody else. In Germany you must do what everybody else does, but you may think as you choose. They’re both very good things.

We have known the bitterness of defeat and the exultation of triumph, and from both we have learned there can be no turning back. We must go forward to preserve in peace what we won in war. A new era is upon us.

I guess we’ll see how it turns out and which one overpowers the other… but I couldn’t really see my life without them, both of them.

I feel like myself, strong and weak at once – allowed, at least for a little while, to be both.

I guess we’ll see how it turns out and which one overpowers the other… but I couldn’t really see my life without them, both of them.

Shh,” I say. “Arms around me.” Obediently, he slips both arms around my waist. I smile at the wall. I am not enjoying this. I am not, not even a little bit, no.

Writing is both mask and unveiling.