Football Struggles Quotes

People think because I was at City that I've only won leagues and cups, but I was there when we were struggling.

I had many ups and downs at Atletico, achieving the best and the worst.

It was frustrating at Arsenal, obviously. For a year and a half, it went from bad to worse. I could no longer continue like that. I could not bring myself to spend another year at Arsenal and remain a reserve, even a second reserve.

We never seem to make things easy for ourselves at Everton, and at City, it was the same, having to come from behind to get ahead in the big games.

It was very hard for me as a kid to get through as a footballer in Uruguay.

I cried when I was drafted by Buffalo... You can't be a great quarterback in snow and 30 mile-an-hour wind.

Unfortunately, football's hard and you're going to have bad games sometimes.

You're out there on an island. It's just you and the best receiver, man-to-man, in one-on-one coverage a lot of the time. And you don't really get any help. If you get beat, everyone can see. If you get scored on, everyone knows. That's the difficulty of playing corner.

Football is cruel at times; it's difficult. When things go well, you're very good, and when they go badly, well, it's awful.

Obviously my last two years in the NFL were not much fun at all.

During that year with Madrid, I learned many things; I matured a lot. It was a difficult year because many non-sporting things were happening.

When I came here, Bayern had just won the treble. I was injured, then I played two games, and was injured again for the following three matches. I spent three or four months living in a hotel. All of this, combined with adjusting from life at Dortmund, made it very difficult for me.

I had a lot of tough experiences at Bristol City. I came there for a few quid and was getting booed off by fans, got injured. I was out of the team due to injury but also because I was having an awful time playing wise. But they were amazing experiences.

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.

Football wears you out, and when things are not going well, it's not enjoyable.

It was tough, mentally, at Chelsea not getting the game time, but I had to be really patient and have the mentality to still train right and do all the right things.

To me, it's always bumpy, and to me, that's the joy of it. That's this game. That's how hard it is in the NFL. Really, what you did last year or 2010, as we know, doesn't factor.

When I started playing, there were no teams and no structure, so I had to play with the boys. I get very emotional when I think about the humiliation that I've suffered playing football.

There was only a little spell at Wigan, when I first signed there, when I wasn't in the team every week.

Until I went to Aston Villa I was scoring 'X' amount. It just did not happen there. That is it. I have seen it happen with loads of players.

There are a lot of reasons why people quit international football. Some struggle off the field. Some struggle with injuries.

There have been times in my football career where I've thought: 'Is this it? Is this as far as I'm going to go?'

There are things players go through on an everyday basis in the business of football. You don't see it all with the glitz and glamour of game day.