Ross Barkley Quotes

As soon as you have an average game, everyone is quick to criticise and say, 'You suck; you shouldn't be playing rugby.'

I went from being one of the best players, batting .550, to not being able to do it mentally, hitting .200. I thought I was mentally tough. But I couldn't hit the ball.

Before my last year at Arsenal, when we won the FA Cup, I was really up and down, never really consistent, and never really put my mark on the team. I understand that then there were question marks over my name.

I'd be lying if I said there weren't times when I hadn't lost a little bit of confidence. But the people around me, close to me, were the ones to tell me I'd been playing slightly differently, not as confidently as I had been.

In college, a loss is pretty devastating. That feeling kind of goes away in an 82-game season. You hate to lose, but you also have a lot more games to make up for it.

I was 'Little Ty,' 'Little Tyrone.' I always got this negative feedback from the game of basketball.

The most difficult thing with a new shot is if you go two or three games without making it, or you struggle, and people start saying, 'You can't shoot 3s,' or, 'Why do you shoot 3s?'

I believe that some athletes have fear, but you have to work on that. Athletes can't have fear. Fear of what? Fear of losing? Everybody loses one day.

It is a player's league until you lose.

I have always been a player whose form goes up and down but at the moment I feel my batting confidence is at its lowest. Negative comments can affect you and they probably have.

After I joined the Indian cricket team, MS Dhoni advised me that I need to avoid reading the newspapers and should try to stay away from social media as much as possible.

It's taken me a long, long time to figure out how to deal with negativity, because it used to really upset me. I was always that girl that, if I was performing in the club and there was one person not paying attention or not liking me, the whole club could be packed with people loving me, but I'd be obsessed with that one person.

Every player goes through streaks where they're just not making their shots. It may last two games, it may last ten games, and a lot of times, it's something off the court that is bothering you, or coach might cut your minutes for some unknown reason.

Every professional athlete has fear, doubts and negative thoughts. But people expect you to just ignore them and move forward.

It's not easy for a player who considers him or herself to be a proper batter to then adjust down the order. Put anyone there and the scores won't necessarily come. You can lose a bit of love for it, too.

I played football because I loved the game - but I didn't enjoy the focus on not making mistakes and the culture being essentially one of blame and a little fear.

That's what international football is all about - be able to bounce after a bad performance.

It is difficult for me to accept that I only sit on the bench in the league.

If you start badly, and the crowd get on your case, there is no way back. But if you start well and your confidence is high all that booing becomes music to your ears.

I'm not saying there's no pressure at Evergrande, there's pressure at Evergrande all the time. But I am myself and, no matter if I'm playing for Real Madrid or at the World Cup, I've never felt pressure.

Being an instinctive player is great but there's time in the past where I've let how I'm playing at the time affect me, thinking I can play some big shots and I'd be alright.

When I left Arsenal I never said I didn't like England. I was very young and my problems were all in my head.

We're not robots, we're not factory built. We have feelings, we have families and we go through tough times that people don't know about. Sometimes your form isn't good and there's a reason for that. Sometimes the team isn't playing well and you can't quite work out why.

Teams go on runs. We have to be able to withstand a run and not get down on ourselves.

After I failed in my first two games, I did not expect to be picked. But on the eve of our match against Uttar Pradesh in Kanpur, Pravin Amre sir came to my room and gave me the confidence that I was playing.