Leighton Baines ambles down a scruffy cobbled alleyway in Liverpool city centre. Pretty it isn't. Old buildings, corrugated iron. Round the back are abandoned cars.

'I haven't been here before,' he says, head swivelling. 'It's interesting.'

On his back is a rucksack and inside is a camera. A new hobby. More of that later. First some football talk ahead of Sunday's game at home against Manchester United. This is Baines' tenth season at his boyhood club. Last weekend SKY TV described him as a veteran.

Everton defender Leighton Baines is currently playing his tenth season with his boyhood club

The Toffees left back spoke to Sportsmail ahead of Everton's clash with Manchester United

'It feels really good,' Baines said with a smile. 'But who would have thought it? I wouldn't have. Certainly not when I was playing footie on the streets of Liverpool. You think: 'Can I make this my job'. But you never think it will happen.

'To spend ten years at Everton is brilliant and you are always striving for more. But you never lose sight of what you have got and where you have come from.'

Baines has an erudite reputation. He is undoubtedly bright, a quick fire conversationalist who can, paradoxically, also be a little shy. We know about his hobbies, his love of books and the guitar.

But Baines is a footballer at heart, a kid from Kirkby who would wait outside Goodison Park for the exit gates to open. Ten precious minutes for free.

As such he feels protective of his profession and his colleagues. Even when it's his mum on the phone.

'People asked if I would rather have been a musician, just because I am in to music,' he smiled. 'No chance. I played footy until I could hear my mum screaming my name to get in. I wouldn' t swap it. But people do have a view of footballers these days and that's a shame.

'My mum mentioned she had seen Wayne Bridge on 'I'm a Celebrity' and that he seems like a nice fella. Why should my mum sound so surprised?

It is well-known Baines is a big music fan and often took his guitar away on England duty

The Everton star loves football but says it's a shame how some footballers are viewed today

'In a dressing room about one in every fifteen actually fits the [bad boy] stereotype. Everyone else is very normal. That's honestly the way. But I think many players are very guarded now as they worry what people may think.

'I am older so I am not bothered about how I am perceived. I can't live my life trying to make everybody happy. So I do what I do. But there is a constant cycle of news around football now and as such I can understand that some players won't want to put their real selves out there and open up.

'You are in a multi-cultural dressing room where people have come from all over the world. More often than not they are working class, have had tough upbringings.

'So everyone does have their story. Sometimes it comes out in different ways. But they all appreciate where they are and the privileges. Well I hope they do anyway.'

Baines says the majority of footballers are normal but some do fit the bad-boy stereotype

Baines met to talk at the HQ of Zap Graffiti in the heart of Liverpool. Here he met youngsters taking part in a graffiti workshop organised by Everton in the Community's Breathing Space programme.

Everton's community work is widespread and Baines is a regular figurehead. This weekend Everton's club shop and website will sell a collection of T-shirts he has designed with team-mates Gerard Deulofeu and Mo Besic.

The Baines T-shirt shows the 31-year-old applauding the Gladwys Street End. The font he chose himself and is inspired by a Beatles album.

The project seems appropriate, given his inquisitive mind has now led him to design and photography. According to Everton's club photographer Tony McArdle, he is good, too.

Baines sat down with Sportsmail's Ian Ladyman after taking part in a graffiti workshop

Everton are selling a collection of T-shirts Baines has designed with some of his team-mates

The event was organised by Everton in the Community's Breathing Space programme

'It's all about intrigue,' he said. 'How does that work? Could I do that?

'The guys who are doing it professionally. What are they seeing there? How does their mind work? It's complex, a little battle to get it right.

'I chuck it in my bag if we are travelling. Sometimes it's just bus, hotel, stadium and so it never comes out.

'But we all find our interests don't we? It's the next step of learning. Isn't that the way the brain works? It was the same with music really.

'Tony has said I have an eye but I think he is just trying to keep my spirits up and make sure I don't chuck the camera in the bin too soon. I am already a bit self-conscious about it, to be honest.'

Baines is friends with singer Miles Kane - here he's posing with Alex Turner at Glastonbury

Baines has talked about confidence issues before, in terms of his football. For years he didn't feel good enough.

He does now, with 30 England caps and more than 500 appearances for Everton and Wigan, but moments of self-doubt, of acute self-awareness, remain common.

He is due a testimonial soon but doesn't know if he could cope with the attention.

'It's just the way I am wired,' he said. 'I am just not a fan of fuss. No fuss seems to be the easiest way to do most things in life, wouldn't you say?'

With that in mind, Baines' photography excursions tend to be low key episodes. A bus in to town from the family home in Formby – he has three children now – and an hour poking around Liverpool with his collar up.

'It's hard to know when the best time is but I try to get away with it,' he laughed. 'I have never been around here before. I will be back, though.

'You walk round town and people know who you are and then you get a bit embarrassed.

'Part of the embarrassment is that they don't know the picture you are taking is a load of crap but I do! I have no confidence in that.

'There is no feeling that I am good at it because I am really not. In the past I wouldn't have even wanted to talk about this. So maybe that's progress…'

Besides football and music, has taken up another hobby and is a keen photographer

You wouldn't know it from his demeanour but this hasn't actually been the best year of Baines' professional life.

Injuries – a rarity for him – have interrupted the start of this campaign while last season saw him caught up in an unfortunate episode with manager Roberto Martinez.

The left-back's innocent comments about Everton lacking 'chemistry' as they struggled for results upset Martinez so much that his player was forced to apologise. Frankly, it seemed ridiculous.

'I knew what I was trying to say but it was taken a bit too far really,' said Baines, his eyes now on the floor. 'I would rather not touch on it too much.'

Baines was caught up in an unfortunate episode involving former boss Roberto Martinez

Much sadder was the passing of respected Everton scout Sid Benson who was responsible for the unearthing of players like Francis Jeffers and Ross Barkley.

'He is the reason I am playing,' said Baines. 'I was never ever picked up by a scout. I was playing for school, county, Sunday League but when all the boys were picked up and taken to Tranmere and other clubs, I was always in the group left standing there.

'But Sid was my grandad's mate and he knew people in the game. It was because of him that I ended up at Wigan. So my whole career is down to him.

'I went to see him near the end. We thought he had more time but we were wrong. So many people went. Me, Franny, Dunc [Ferguson]. That showed how everybody felt about him.'

Baines and Ross Barkley unveiled a plaque for Sid Benson, the man who helped his career most

Barkley pays tribute to former scout Sid Benson after scoring against Yeovil in the EFL Cup

On the field, Everton have already improved under new manager Ronald Koeman, even if results have dipped recently.

Baines hinted on TV recently that Everton last season lost a little of what once made them so formidable. Sunday's game against United should indicate the levels of recovery under Koeman.

'Was I too frank?' asked Baines. 'I hope not. Sometimes I get told that. My point is that I loved it when people said they hated coming to Goodison.

'But then oppo players started to say to me: 'It is not too bad now' and that used to eat away at me. You don't want people looking forward to coming to look at your back yard do you?

'I loved it when it was a case of: "We are going to get after you. We won't let you do the things you want to do. Then let's see what you can figure out from there…"

'It's important to have the quality but just to have the pride about where we are. All the big teams hated coming. It was a nightmare for them as they knew they wouldn't be able to breathe.

'That should be part of playing here. This is Goodison, you know.'

Baines is desperate to make Goodison Park a fortress again after two seasons of struggle

Having once said he would not stay in football, Baines has reconsidered. Good enough to be courted by both Sunday's opponents and Bayern Munich in the past, the spare time afforded him by injury has made him think.

For now he hopes to sign a new contract – his current expires next summer – and hasn't given up on something tangible to take home when his career does finally end.

I ask him if he has regrets and he says: 'Yeah, just for the club really. I would like to have won a trophy or have got in the Champions League. Something to hold on to, you know.

'There is still time and that is what we are working towards now.

'I used to feel I definitely wanted to walk away but the spell out and getting older made me begin to understand the field in which I feel more comfortable and that I understand.

'I have other interests but this is what I have been doing for so long. But have I something to offer? Can I help people along at some level? I don't know. Maybe.

Baines is hoping to win a trophy or qualify for the Champions League with Everton one day

'I will do my badges and at least explore it. At the very least it will be interesting to see life on the other side.

'It's like the photography. I hate having my picture taken but now I am the one holding the camera.

'It's weird how life sometimes makes you feel isn't it?'