Emmanuel Petit quotes:

Tottenham tried to sign me but I held off and came to Arsenal because Arsene Wenger was here.

Footballers nowadays are controlling their image through their own Facebook page so its not the club that controls them anymore, they do what they want at anytime.

I had lots of posters on my bedroom wall of players like Zico, many Brazilian and Italian players, not many players in particular but I loved football so much and I especially loved skilful players.

At Arsenal me and Patrick (Vieira) didn't want to face Scholes. We would avoid him.

France is hypocritical and cowardly. I sometimes think that, having been invaded by the Germans, we'd be run better today.

If you want to be a professional footballer, you have to respect your profession. You have to respect the people that are making you the star you are. You have to protect the passion everyday.

I'd like to be a dog. Dogs are nice. They can sleep any time, they wag their tails and on top of that they can get stroked all the time.

You have to grow the same way that you're seeing your own kids grow.

Being a coach means giving your job 200% all the time and you're family is left on the side so I don't want to risk my family anymore just because I love football. I don't feel this ambition, I'm involved in many businesses and I want to live my own life, to see my daughters grow and want to see my family happy.

This is why the social networks are successful actually, because we are living in a society where people are frustrated with living their own life but in a quiet world so thats why with the internet they are creating a new world and that is why society has changed a lot in the space of 10 years.

It's sometimes difficult living in France. People are more open minded in England, and of course I'm missing England in terms of football and the passion that the fans show, they're really passionate.

I don't play anymore because I can't play anymore and I retired when I was playing for Chelsea because the doctor had to cut my leg in two parts so this is why I retired. I started going to the gym recently and my knee started to hurt again, so you can imagine what it would be like if I tried to play! I play football on the beach with my daughters and my friends but that's it.

Being a footballer is not just about wearing the shirt and playing football on the pitch. You have to be clean, you have to do right things, you have to show courage, you have to show many many things you know. I always say that you play the same way on the pitch as you do in life.

I'm convinced, that when you are a footballer you are a symbol. You have to be a superman in some ways, to send messages to people all the time, to the youth all the time.

If you ask me can you explain the success of Facebook or Twitter, its very simple. People want to have the right to speak, people want the right to say what they feel. They don't want to wait for the question to be asked, they want to say before asking the question, they want to say everything that they feel.

People want to be connected to be everyone at anytime. They want to talk about their passions, they want to talk about their private life, they want to have the right to speak.

I want to keep my own guard, I want to keep my secrets, I want to keep my private life for me.

So many people want to live their lives and their dreams through their own Facebook page or their Twitter page. They want to show every detail of their life to everyone in the world. That scares me because I don't have any Facebook page or Twitter I don't like it, I don't want it.

When you see what is happening with the social network, with Facebook, Twitter and co it is becoming obvious that the reputation of ourselves is becoming more and more important everyday. Image is becoming too much for me, and we are living in a virtual world and sometimes it is very easy to make mistakes. It is more difficult to take responsibility for our mistakes.

A football team is like a company. All of the people working in a company are not supposed to love each other, but they are supposed to be professional.

If you start to focus on your opponent then you see so much quality in your opponents and weaknesses in your own side. You start to put doubts in your mind. You need to respect your opponents but that's it, no more.

If I had the choice I would live in London. There are a few things I don't like about England but its just details, I don't really think about them but I really like England and I really like London.