Quotes from Gary Lineker

When you're winning games, everyone thinks everything the manager says and does is fantastic. Then it goes the other way, and those earlier criticisms of players can backfire.

I just think to be a manager you've got to live and breathe and have this incredible enthusiasm for football, the whole thing. And while I love the game, and it's been a large part of my life, it's not the only thing in my life.

I was quite good at football once, although other than that my speciality would be maths. I'm great at sudokus and find all the spin-off games pretty easy too.

Being called Gary. It's a crap name. I wish I'd been called by my middle name, Winston.

I've only got a Saturday job so my weekdays are generally pretty free.

I'm in good shape.

It's true: a lot of sportspeople really struggle to find something to do when they finish. It tips them into all sorts of strange things. With ex-footballers, it's really scary. I think 70% of them get divorced within five years. It's hard. You go from being really famous to not that famous. Your salary drops through the floor.

People make mistakes. They say stupid things.

In all sports, people get competitive; things happen that shouldn't happen.

That's what being a footballer is, really: you train at this time, you finish at that time, then you do that, then you go home, then you're not allowed out, then you do this... there comes a point in your career - about thirty, thirty-one - when you get a bit sick of being screamed at.

In terms of the pricing of football tickets, there's no need - given the massive amount of money that's coming in now from television rights, there's no need for them to be greedy. Look after the supporters; make sure they can still afford to go and watch football.

I've loved George Michael for as long as I can remember. He was an absolute inspiration. Always ahead of his time.

I know people think that a lot of sports stars are a little bit up themselves, but they all have their heroes, too.

I think people come and go, 'I'm going to find the real Gary. What is it... the real Gary? I've got to find it.' But the thing is, it's pretty much what you see is what you get. I'm just like this. There's no hidden viciousness.

The World Cup is every four years, so it's going to be a perennial problem.

The whole kiss-and-tell thing is a negative approach that often happens in a World Cup. We will see negative stories about the players and it can affect their confidence and the overall performance of the national team on the pitch, let alone the bid to actually stage the competition.

On TV, if you fluff your lines, nobody gives a toss. But if you fluff a penalty in the World Cup, well - we all know how much that matters.

Looking at the way the game is played, I'm envious of the conditions. We played on some ropey World Cup surfaces. I genuinely never look back and wish I earned the money they do today, but I do think of that element.

Most of my best games were when I felt crap - I could hardly move on the morning of the World Cup semi-final in 1990 - but there's a thing called adrenaline that gets you through.

My eldest son George had acute myeloid leukaemia when he was a tiny baby, he is now 20 and doing very well. He is a mini-miracle in many ways.

This whole 'tired footballers' and three-games-a-week thing is an absolute myth.

You never know how long a player has left, especially with strikers. Once you turn 30, as a striker, you are usually on the way down, and playing from the age of 16, at such a high level, has to take its toll.

I know I could never be in a pop band. I honestly have an appalling voice.

Football is losing its heart and sense of humour.