If you go from being a kid at school to being on £60,000 a week, that can be hard to deal with. I didn't have that, and maybe that's kept me a bit more grounded than some players.

I've played for England; I've been lucky enough to do this for a long time. So why can't you do it with a smile on your face?

I think it's helped me that I've always been very grounded, very down to earth. Lots of my friends are people I've known from school, and when I'm away from football, they're the ones who I knock about with.

I'm very aware that you lead a very peculiar existence as a professional footballer, being flown everywhere first-class and never having to queue up for anything. Of course, that's attractive, but if you're not careful, you end up living in a world where nothing is really real.

People tend to assume I was terribly self-conscious about my height. In fact, I've always been perfectly comfortable with the way I am. And if anyone gave me any stick, they soon found I was quite capable of giving it back.

I didn't come from a council estate like a lot of the lads do.

If you're different in any way at school,then you're going to get a bit of abuse. You learn to deal with it in a way where people don't come back at you again.

Because of how I looked, there was definitely a prejudice against me. People didn't think I could play. I could see why: I weighed about eight stone and was six foot bleeding seven.

I once walked out of a nightclub with my team-mates to see our star midfielder reclining across the bonnet of a Ferrari, arms folded, waiting for girls to come out so he could wink at them and then progress it from there. I have no idea how long he'd been waiting. I do know it wasn't even his Ferrari.

You should never get ahead of yourself car-wise; no Merc when you're still in the youth team, no Porsche unless you're a Premier League regular.

I've been promoted, relegated, won big trophies, gone months without scoring, played for my country at World Cups, been bought, sold, loaned, and called 'a freak.'

The jokes about how I look have actually made me stronger.

I made so many mistakes when I was younger.

I have really got into watching the unsigned bands. They play mad venues like the Sugarmill in Stoke and all sorts of underground, grimy places.

I am not the sort of character to get carried away.

I was always quite technical as a player, but when you are the size I am, if you are crap in the air, it is going to look bad.

I didn't think too much about people who didn't believe in me. It hasn't really affected me.

So many kids want to be football players, and to still feel like I'm living the dream at 37 is amazing.

I'm 6ft 7in, so I have a massive bed.

I'm lucky: whatever I eat, I've never wavered from just under 14 stone.

A little voice keeps telling me an Aston Martin really isn't me, but a louder voice is telling me that, as an England international playing for Liverpool, the old rules no longer apply.

I've got a good record, but maybe, for whatever reason, it's not built up by people. I wouldn't say I'm hard done by. But it's true that I sometimes don't get the praise.

There is one thing you must know about Marko Arnautovic if you want to understand what makes him tick: he believes he's the best player in the world.

I used to pretend I was into speed garage when I hated it.