Ryan Mason Quotes

I want to score more than 10 goals and help the team to win games.

When you’re at a club that’s stable and everyone is enjoying it, it’s very hard to consider leaving.

I’ve always felt a massive connection with the fans. I’ve always felt loved.

I have had difficult moments, I had a great network of people around me. But I feel there are people here who genuinely care about me as a human being.

I’d never tell a player not to back his team-mate because it’s part of being together.

Ultimately the specialists that I’ve seen and spoken to, if you do get a whack on the head and there’s a small sort of concussion, and then you go and get another whack on the head within minutes, then that’s when the damage can be done. And I think that’s where we can potentially protect the players a lot more.

I don’t really like singling out players but it’s hard not to.

Between 18 and 21, a lot of people said I needed to put on weight.

It’s important to bring young players through if they’re good enough.

I’m a Tottenham player and am determined to go back into pre-season as fit as possible with the aim of impressing the gaffer to try and establish myself in the team.

Even after I retired I’d get messages about my injury and certain things, and you almost think it’s another message and I’ll just ignore it, but these things shouldn’t be acceptable. They aren’t acceptable but they just seem to be ok to happen.

It’s not easy to win every game.

I don’t think repetitive heading at a young age is doing the kids any good, that’s for sure.

It’s football and anyone involved knows that you have to be prepared.

I think from day one, recovering, it is just try to be as positive as you can.

It’s very difficult in the Premier League to win three, four, five games in a row.

I think when you lose a cup final, it’s disappointing.

No matter how hard it got, I’ve always been fortunate enough, thinking I’m actually lucky to be here.’ I always took that mindset.

There were times when I just couldn’t be around noise, and people talking in the same room would have been too much for me.

Sometimes you have a clash of heads and it feels a bit sore, but I remember the impact was huge. I was touching my head and it felt like it was pouring with blood, but I remember looking and there was nothing on my hand. For me that was a sign it was probably quite serious.

The teams who win things are those who, when the going gets tough, pull together, put their foot in, win tackles and second balls.

We want to play nice football but there are times in games and situations where you can’t do that, and you have to come together and be solid.

Retiring was very tough, it’s tough at the best of times. Nothing can prepare you for it.

Representing my country is an honor that nobody can ever take away from me and something that I am so proud to have achieved.

Tottenham has always been a massive club and we’re getting the mix right.

My main priority was to get my health back. I had my family around me and my partner had just had a baby. It put into perspective some of the things that were most important.

My opinion may be different to many, but I think Oliver Skipp is an incredible talent and one of the most professional guys I have come across in the academy.

Tottenham were great with me.

I loved football, that’s all I knew.

I think City are probably four or five years ahead of us, they’ve had a manager for such a long time, worked a certain way for such a long time. Going forward, my idea and I’m sure everyone’s idea of Tottenham is to be brave and try and dominate games like they do.

There are not many managers in the Premier League willing to put homegrown players in and trust them.

I want to be positive. I want to be happy. I want to work hard and enjoy the moment and have experiences to look back on when I’m older.

What separates the good players from the greats people remember is consistency.

I think every season in pre-season you go into it and everyone is saying, ‘they’ll be strong next season,’ but you never know.

I can confirm that following specialist medical advice I am having to retire from playing professional football.

Obviously it’s my job, a coach’s job to start giving the players a platform and start preparing, start planning.

If you have got a seven- or eight-year-old heading a solid ball, and his brain and his bone in his skull isn’t fully developed, then that could potentially be doing damage.

That’s important as players, we have to be happy to perform to our best.

Dortmund are a top European side.

Of course I’m a Tottenham man.

I was in hospital for eight days and when I came home I probably slept for 18 to 20 hours a day for the first four or five weeks. Breakfast would tire me out. Just getting up to sit at the table would be exhausting. I couldn’t physically do anything.

There are no guarantees in football.

It’s difficult but I’m respecting my body – what I can do I’m doing, and what I can’t do I’m not.

It’s important that we have the right mentality because it’s not easy to win games in the Premier League.

When you’ve played reserve team football in front of 50 people, then you play at White Hart Lane with five or six of the same lads – it’s hard to describe what that feels like.

We live in a world with men wanting to be brave. Not many will stand up and say, ‘I don’t feel right here.’

I don’t think kids should be heading real balls.

I was a luxury player. Having been pampered at Tottenham for so long, I went into League One and had to graft and learn the ugly side of the game. I grew as a player.

When I was in the youth team, I didn’t really see a path into the first team initially because there were managers who didn’t really want to promote youth, they’d rather go out and buy someone.

It wouldn’t surprise me in 10 to 15 years if heading wasn’t involved in the game. The research and the momentum it’s getting, I think it’s probably going to open up a lot more stuff that becomes quite shocking.

I understand there is a lot of pressure on managers to get instant results, but English players know the league, and for them to be given the opportunity and the time as well, there is plenty of talent out there.

You just have to be ready in the moment, and you have to live in the moment.

In England there’s a philosophy that it’s better to be bigger and stronger. I was in the gym doing bench-presses which had no relevance and it wasn’t helping me on the pitch. It was extra weight I didn’t need and I couldn’t carry. A lot of injuries came through that.

Every match I watch will be bittersweet. It will always hurt, I’ll always miss competing. That’s what I’ve done my whole life and that burning desire is not just going to leave me.

Obviously I’ve had some injuries and it’s kept me out of the team for quite a long time and it’s always difficult to have long spells on the sidelines and then try to get back into the team.

It was a big impact. I fractured the skull and it shattered into quite a few pieces. The plates I’ve had inserted will be there permanently, along with the screws.

There’s plenty of points to play for in the Premier League.

I can’t speak highly enough of Petr Cech. He’s set the standards of what it is to be a proper man and a gentleman.

To have had the honor of captaining the team fills me with immense pride.

I want us to be brave and aggressive and play like Tottenham Hotspur.