Be hard to beat. Fight for everything that you earn.

That has always been my mentality. When you come from a working-class household and grow up seeing your parents working two jobs to provide for the family, it gives you that mindset.

Being a youth player at Bolton Wanderers in the early 1990s did that, too. Every day we’d be on our hands and knees scrubbing tiles in the changing rooms. If any of the first-team players found any markings left on the bath the following day… well, I probably can’t write here what would be done to us.

But I was desperate to earn a professional contract. If that was what I had to do to get there, I was more than prepared to do it.

It was the start of my pathway. One that led to a move to Celtic in 1996, when they paid Bolton what was then a club record £4m for me. At the time I didn’t know an awful lot about Celtic, apart from that they were a big club in Scotland.

I didn’t appreciate just how big until I got there.

“He said he was having a few problems at Arsenal and maybe I’d be better off signing for Celtic”

I almost didn’t make it to Glasgow at all, though. On the drive up, my phone rang and it was Bruce Rioch, my old manager at Bolton. He was now the Arsenal manager and wanted me to sign for them instead.

“Wages won’t be a problem. Neither will the fee. I just need to get it passed by the board.”

The journey to Glasgow ended up taking us almost two hours longer than it should have, with Bruce constantly on the phone saying: “Slow down. Don’t get to Glasgow just yet. This could be happening.”

I lost count of how many service stations we stopped at before I decided enough was enough. A fee had been agreed with Celtic and I didn’t want to be disrespectful to the club. One way or the other, we needed to know what was happening.

My agent rang Bruce to press him for an answer. At that point he said he was having a few problems at Arsenal and maybe I’d be better off signing for Celtic.

Two weeks later, Bruce got the sack.