Obviously results are what count in senior football, but performing the right way as well is important.
Eric Dier
Coaches like Alan Stubbs were quite hard on me but that helped a lot. It was the best thing that could have happened. It really hardened me up physically and mentally.
I had become a bit spoiled or complacent at Sporting and I needed a kick up the backside, which is what Everton gave me. It was quite tough going to an unfamiliar place where I didn't know anyone at first.
My PE teacher used to scout for Sporting and, when I was nine, he recommended me for a trial. From there, I just went up through the age groups and was always kept on while others were dropping out.
When I first came to England to play I saw coaches having a go at players when they made mistakes and they would literally be talking them through the game.
I'm English. I've never said the opposite. I'm 100 per cent English. In Portugal it happens that a lot of Brazilians play for Portugal and they're not Portuguese.
My immune system just really struggled with the medicine after the appendix and I kept on getting ill. People said I was injured but I was never injured.
It's a very relaxed approach at Sporting in terms of football. They pride themselves on bringing you up as a polite and respectful person. They would never get angry with you if you missed a pass but they would do if you were disrespectful to someone. There was no shouting.
In Portugal the coach would sit on the bench and not say a word. We'd just play. It was a matter of us making mistakes and learning from them by ourselves. You understand the game a lot better that way.
For me, the sign of a bad player is someone who makes the same mistake twice.
I know I did not play an 11-a-side match until I was 12; even beyond that, we tended to play smaller-sized matches on smaller pitches.
It's not nice, not playing, but you have to try and be ready and try to help the team in different ways.
The main objective for me personally is to create something where kids can come and take advantage of all the good things that football can give you, in every way, not just from a technical point of view, but all the social values that come with it as well.
At the end off the day we're all the same, we're normal human beings with a gift we've been given so it's very difficult to handle all of those situations that happy in football with money and fame.
When I grew up, I always had the idea that I would play for England.
I'm fully English, but Portugal is my home.
