I’m not saying that in an egotistical way, I just was, because I’d come through the national football school at Lilleshall. At my age, I was one of the best quartet of young strikers in the country.
Other lads from Lilleshall, like Joe Cole at West Ham, they’d go straight back to their clubs and train with their first team every day when they were 16. At United, there were so many players, so much quality to get past, that I didn’t have that option.
This was around 1998. Going into the Cliff every morning, I knew I’d be competing with people like David Healy, Alex Notman, Paul Wheatcroft, Ian Fitzpatrick and Erik Nevland.