Gareth Bale

Whenever I get days off, I go home, or friends and family come up. I'm in contact with them every day, so it's like we live next door, but obviously we live in two different countries. Football is my job, and everyone around me has given me the opportunity to purely concentrate on football, and everyone else worries about everything else.

Even though I am very tied to and close to my heritage, I learned Spanish in college; I didn't grow up with it. Growing up in South Texas is different from Miami or L.A. where it is a necessity to speak Spanish.

As England manager I always felt we needed an extra man in midfield to retain the ball, but that was more as an attacking ploy to help create opportunities. It came from my experience playing international football in a 4-4-2 and spending half my time chasing the ball.