Whenever a young English player moves over to Germany, it’s always the same. My phone goes off with the same notifications from Twitter: he’s the next Dale Jennings. He’s going to flop. But honestly? When I think about what I managed in a short career, and how most people will never get to do any of it, I see it as a big achievement.
It’s not nice to get that sort of negative attention, but everyone is entitled to their opinion. It’s just that nobody knows what goes on behind closed doors, what it takes, and the struggles people have. It does affect you, but the older I get, the more I think that I must be playing on people’s minds for them to still be tweeting about it. At least people remember me. Things might have been different if I’d been 100 per cent all the time – unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
I was at Liverpool’s academy from the age of eight, and played in it until I was 15. Back then, though, I’m not sure I really appreciated the opportunity – it’s only after you leave that you look back and realise how hard it is to get into a top club’s youth system.
