PER MERTESACKER

There are not a lot of German players out there who are successful in a foreign country.

We have all the money in the world but do not realise how important the body is. A player on average has a seven year professional career, 10-15 if everything goes right. You have to do everything possible to be at your maximum.

At Arsenal you are replaceable so quickly as a player, I don't want to stand in someone's way.

Sometimes I get the feeling that some parents really think their son can pay for their pension, especially being in London.

I want players to think: 'OK, this has happened now, what is next for me?' That's a very big target because what are academies about nowadays? Is it really just to find one or two players? But what happened to the others? I'm very, very interested in that.

It is an important duty at Arsenal for the experienced players to show the younger ones that there is a chance to make it into the first team.

The main thing for me was that I wanted to be able to decide when my international career would end after 10 years myself.

The best players in the world play in the Premier League and therefore it is the best league.

We cannot take responsibility for every goal we concede, we all need to do our part across the field to ensure we win as a team.

I never heard anything about 'potatoes' or 'kanaken' during my time in the national team. However I have been called 'potato,' too.

I've never had that dream in my head: 'I want to play Bundesliga or Premier League.' I was a fan, but it was never the dream that one day I was going to make it, because a lot of people had told me already that I wouldn't.

You know what you have achieved and what you have been through.

After you have won a game, you can maybe smile for a minute and then you have to think: 'How can I recover as quickly as possible.'

There's always that mental battle, who's going to have that confidence to be on the front foot.

I've played for 15 years and played in five major tournaments. I know what it gives me in terms of the joy, in terms of the love for the game. But I'm done with it.

Goals often come from a mistake much further up the field, yet the analysis and blame will always be on the defence.

Suarez is like a cheeky boy, he looks like a cheeky boy who can really switch on and off how he wants to be, so that is really something. When he is on the pitch, what is going on around him doesn't bother him.

You spend some time with kids, you always take something with you.

I don't see myself coaching because the intensity of that is massive, and the intensity as a manager, for example Arsene Wenger, is even more.

Moving to London enables me to fulfil a dream and a further step in my career. The Premier League has always represented a great challenge for me.

I wasn't that good at football aged 14 or 15. I didn't take it too seriously.

In Germany I already know everything, I know every stadium.

I want to show on the training pitch that I am ready whenever the manager needs me.

Moving abroad brings you on both as a player and a person.

Arsene Wenger was always the kind of manager whose belief in his team's qualities was steady as a rock and who approached matters with never-ending patience.