Things can change quickly in football.
I’ve seen that probably more than most people over the past couple of years and I know now that the way things are today, they’re not always going to be that way.
It’s been a frustrating few years for me, but I believe you just have to work hard and good things will come to you down the line.
The first thing I want to say, is that I’m over the moon to be back with England.
It’s been a while since I’ve been called up and this is the first time I’ve been selected since I’ve been with Chelsea.
But I feel like I deserve it this time. I’ve worked hard over the last few months and it was important for me to make a strong start to the season and kick-on with a run in the team.
I’m back into the routine of training and playing games, getting prepared mentally and physically for games and I’ve played a part in almost all the matches this season so I’m feeling really good and confident and I want to keep that going all season.
Thinking back to the summer and the World Cup, of course I would’ve preferred to have been in Russia with the lads, but sometimes you just have to accept where you’re at.
I’m still only 24 though, so hopefully I have a lot of years ahead of me and I can be involved for all of them.
You can see over the past couple of years that England have produced some unbelievable players in the youth system and have won trophies, and I was a part of that with the U17s way back in 2010.
We won the European Championship that year and there’s no better feeling than winning something with your country.
After being a part of success like that and seeing what we’ve done recently, I feel we’re going in the right direction. We have a lot of young talent, and even though I wasn’t part of the World Cup squad, I can see everyone is developing really well now and if we can keep progressing over the years, there will be more success down the line.
On a personal level, I’m really enjoying my time with Chelsea. It was a big change for me, moving down to London because I’m a Liverpool lad through and through.
But it’s football and I’ve been working to do this ever since I was a young kid and making the move away, it was never an issue for me and I feel like I’ve already been there for a long time now.
It’s all helped me mature as a person and a player too. I moved down to London on my own and I live just off the King’s Road, so I can even walk to Stamford Bridge, which I used to do last season before we stay overnight for the games at the moment.
It’s great living there, I haven’t got any kids or anything yet, so I just wanted to experience living in west London. I like to get out when I can, I go out for food with my team-mates, sometimes my mates will come down and stay with me and I have my family to visit a couple of times a month.
It’s so multi-cultural in London, there’s people from all over the world, so it’s just easy to go out and walk around and if I ever want to get back to Liverpool for a day or two, it doesn’t take long to get to Euston for the train.
The training ground is only half an hour away too and we often train late in the afternoon so I’m usually one of the first ones at the training ground and one of the last to leave, because I just love football.
Usually, by the time we’ve trained and I’ve had treatment and eaten at the training ground, it might be six or seven o’clock so when I’m back home around eight, I’ll just put my feet up and be ready for the next day.
So yes, it’s great to be back again with England and I just want to keep improving and keep it going, starting with this week’s games.
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