Quotes from Per Mertesacker

Every footballer has his ups and downs.

First and foremost, Wenger saw us as human beings and he had a lot of faith in us, which is why he stood by us.

When I played for Hannover I had several offers, also - as I have been told - from Hamburg, Bremen and Bayern. Back then I already was a German international and Bayern would have loved to have the complete German national team.

I loved the Olympics.

Moving abroad brings you on both as a player and a person.

You know what you have achieved and what you have been through.

I wasn't that good at football aged 14 or 15. I didn't take it too seriously.

At Arsenal you are replaceable so quickly as a player, I don't want to stand in someone's way.

Arsenal has always been special for me.

It is a lot of fun here in England and at Arsenal.

It is an important duty at Arsenal for the experienced players to show the younger ones that there is a chance to make it into the first team.

You learn a lot from defeats. As well, you need to learn from victories.

The main thing for me was that I wanted to be able to decide when my international career would end after 10 years myself.