Quotes from Jaap Stam

I was actually quite small when I was young. No one believes me now, but I have pictures at home.

I'm sure I can work the Premier League, maybe my style of play is better suited to the Premier League than in the Championship.

In Serie A players have to stay in a hotel before a home game to ensure proper preparations without the distractions a wife and family can bring. It's a system which no doubt suits some players, but would not be my choice.

I have always been a Manchester United supporter since I was a child, so that won't change.

I don't regret writing my book at all. I wrote it for the United supporters to give them a proper insight into what it is like inside the club, and what it is like to be a Manchester United player. I think I did that in an honest way.

I hope to work sometime for an absolute top club. It should be no surprise that Manchester United are a dream club for me.

Of course, when you play football yourself you can think you want to become a manager but it does not make you a good manager.

I had my own youth. I had fun playing in the amateurs, going out with my friends on the weekend, drinking a beer, that sort of thing.

It was a great time working at Reading, especially the first season getting very close to going to the Premier League.

It's football, you work with humans and humans make mistakes. We will do everything in our power to prepare the players so they know to make the right decision at the right times.

Far too often English players seem determined to keep running after getting a whack on the leg, even though the chance to get a shot in has gone.

I always watched professional football and my father played at an amateur level, but I didn't think I wanted to become a pro.

I just played football from an early age and didn't get involved in any other sports. We had tennis, cycling, ice skating - I'd like to have skated more, because it's so physical. Ten minutes on the ice and you really feel it in your back.

I admit to becoming frustrated by the frequency of diving in the Champions League.

Because at the end of the day, it's the most important thing that you do well, that you achieve goals that you want to achieve and where you want to go to as a club.

It's not always the player that's talking in the dressing room that becomes a good manager. It's a feeling that you need to develop, it's a feeling that needs to grow on you.

If I hadn't made it as a footballer I would have been an electrician. I studied to be an electrician even though I was progressing at football because you never know at that stage if you are going to be there for sure.

In Holland you go into amateur teams, come up through the ranks and are generally spotted for senior or professional football. At 16, I had made it into a men's amateur team, and was picked up professionally from there.

It is important for me to believe in a team that has ambition. I want to go up and work towards something. I don't want to work in the grey areas and say it is nice to end up 10th or 11th and keep on doing that every year.

For me, a late start was a good thing. A lot of kids who start too early get bored. I'd done all the things I wanted to do, I'd enjoyed myself, having fun and playing as an amateur and that was important.

I want to reach something with a team and go to the highest level.

As a defender it can also be more frustrating to play in Italy because referees do not tolerate too much physical contact. I loved the physical nature of the game in England, but in Serie A I only have to look at a player and they sometimes fall to the floor!

When you go to school in Holland you learn to speak English and write in English - but English is different from the Scottish language!

I've been with clubs who won the league championships in Holland and England, which was brilliant, and to win the Champions League with Manchester United was an amazing experience.