Jermain Defoe has spoken about his 'honest' conversations with Giovanni van Bronckhorst, and vows to keep playing into his 40s...
HISTORY
"I remember watching Ally McCoist and Gazza’s goals and all that sort of stuff. It’s not until you get there you realise the magnitude of the club, the history and what I used to do is I used to ask a lot of questions. I would go and sit in the kit room with Jimmy Bell and ask him to tell me stories about the club, Souness and Gazza and all of that."
CANTEEN
"Then I would speak to the ladies in the canteen, who have been there for 30 years, to tell me their favourite games and ask how he was like as a player and things like that. I really bought into the culture and really enjoyed it."
EMOTIONAL
"Waking up, it's emotional seeing all the messages from the fans. My phone has gone mad. I wish I could message every single person back on Instagram but I can't. It was a special time."
GVB
"Coming at it from a different culture he probably just thought: 'What do you want to do? Do you want to play or do you want to coach?' And I said, gaffer I want to play, because that was always my plan from the beginning, while doing my coaching badges."
READY TO PLAY
"I said I finished the season strong and I feel sharp, and he said yeah I saw that I did a full pre-season so I am ready to play to be honest. I have had loads of phone calls, but, like I said from the start of my season, my plan is to continue playing until the end of the season and see what happens then."
TRAINING
"No disrespect to anyone else up there, but every day in training I felt I was playing with the best players in this league. So there’s no need to stop just because I am 39, you stop when the body tells you to stop."
