Footballer

It was something I always wanted to do, to own a restaurant, because I love food. But particularly when I first moved to London, because I was on my own - I was single, away from my family, so it seemed very important, to have a place where you could go to meet friends and eat.

Pierluigi Gollini is a highly-rated goalkeeper in Italy, he's young, a good shot-stopper, he comes for crosses, he's good with his feet.

I wouldn't lie and say it's not disappointing to have reached so many semis and a final and not won the Champions League.

Well, I grew up in Switzerland where my parents were immigrant workers, but my whole family are very good cooks - my father also. So I always saw my parents enjoying to cook and prepare the food.

I'm generally an optimistic person.

I still did some things in football, but I needed to get away from the game. I needed closure. And once I felt I'd achieved that, the hunger came back. That fire in your belly, the desire to feel the adrenaline at the weekend. That's when I felt I was able to go again.

But I do love to cook. When I have a dinner party I like to invite loads of people, then I would just do like a salad buffet, with some snacks and cold meat and lots of different salads.

Some of my worst moments in football have been losing semi-finals, the Barcelona game in 2009 probably more than most. But you have to take it and bounce back.

Obviously if there is a Chinese player that has the quality and the ability we will certainly be looking to recruit.

You have to kind of sustain a level of performance in the Championship to be able to come out of it at the end of the season.

In all I had 10 operations, nine within six weeks. Then one to remove the rod I had in my tibia a year later. I still have problems. I can do a little bit on the pitch, but the day after I feel it. And it is not going to get better.

We were under pressure at West Brom to get promoted and to stay up, even if, at a big club like Chelsea, the pressures are more highlighted by the public scrutiny you're under. It's part of our job, that pressure, and I cope with it well.

We want to challenge ourselves against the top teams in the world and are happy to be competing on so many fronts. And, personally, it's great for me to work with the quality of player we have here at Chelsea.

I simply do not know what the future will hold, but I will accept what it brings me.

Pre-season is a lot of hard work and no player really enjoys it, but you look forward to the start of the season when the competitive games start.

I had a great career, to go from a small town in Switzerland to play for the Italian national team was a dream come true. So was playing for Lazio and Chelsea, winning trophies. When I look back I am very grateful for what I had, rather than what I missed.

For most players it's hard to accept you've ended your football career and that you have to go out and do something else. But the way it happened to me, so suddenly... I went into depression and had to deal with that, being depressed, something that had never happened to me in my life before.

I've experienced being a manager and I would love one day to do it again.

It's a daily plan to solve the problems thrown at us and emerge stronger. You pick things up on the way, and you even learn from the players you work with, but your overall philosophy doesn't change.

There was not much money around, but my sister and I were happy. All the sports facilities were 10 minutes' walk from my house and the school system was very good.