Coming through Manchester City’s youth system with Kasper Schmeichel, Micah Richards and Stephen Ireland, who did you have the highest hopes for?
Stevie was one of the best players a lot of us ever played with. He was a bit too skinny, so he worked on that, and technically he was amazing. After the takeover, when Robinho signed, Stevie still won player of the season. As the quality increased, he stepped up. We just wish we’d seen it over a longer period.
You represented England Under-21s, but never the senior side. How seriously did you consider playing for Nigeria instead?
I considered it more as I grew older. When I was younger, I was probably naive to focus just on club football. Nigeria
