Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

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!

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

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.

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

Yes, I am just a type who likes to watch the cat out of the tree. I want to start quietly, and then always build, always go higher.

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

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.

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

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

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

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.

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

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.

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

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.

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

Players from Holland and Scandinavia aren't divers, but those from Spain and Italy go down far too easily for my liking.

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

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.

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

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.

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

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

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

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

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

Look, when I was working on a project at school, I had the urge to do that well. And if I'm fixing something up at home or whatever, making something, I want to do that well too. If I'm hanging a lamp and it doesn't work, nobody can talk to me for an hour, almost. And with football I have that urge and that will to win. With all sports.

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

It wasn't until I was about 16 that I began to grow and develop as a player.

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

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.

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

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.

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

It sounds strange, maybe, because I have played with a lot of big players but I never thought: 'OK, they're going to go into management.' Maybe there was only one, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, because he was always talking about football but I did not have a feeling with the other players.

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

As a manager, you need to have your own vision and what you want to do with the team.

Jaap Stam
Jaap Stam

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.