Last weekend Forest captain and footballing legend Desmond Walker was at the David Lloyd leisure centre in West Bridgford to answer questions from fans about his career, the current Forest team, and the game in general. LTLF was there, taking notes and posing questions...

There were only about 20 Forest fans at the event, which was a somewhat disappointing turnout for a player as legendary as Des, but this did make for a very relaxed, laid-back atmosphere. Because of this, the whole thing took the form of a meandering chit chat about many different subjects which went on for about an hour.

I've tried to pick out all the best bits and present them here as direct quotes in pretty much the order they came up, rather than trying to organise them into any kind of proper form. There was too much said to do anything else!

Des Walker on... club psychology

"I think at the highest level you try and gain any one percent you can get. I don't think it works for everybody, and some people are mentally strong in themselves. But if you can gain one or two percent than that's the difference between success and failure."

"Brian Clough wouldn't have had a club psychologist."

"The game has changed so much over the past 15 years or so, financially more than anything. To be honest, when I started I don't think a club would have wasted money on it. You did it off your own mental strength and you lived or died by it."

"I don't use him [the club psychologist, Chris Harwood] myself, but being the captain of the team, sometimes you say to him 'What do you think about him?' or 'He looks a bit down' and I get feedback off him about the rest of the players."

Des Walker on... the press

"I don't buy the papers. I don't read them."

"People like my mum and my dad, my brothers and sisters, they get hurt by it. I don't think they want to see me being dragged through the papers."

"It's part of sport and the higher you get, the more you have to accept it. I think it probably drives you on a little bit more as well."

"Some people need that agilation and they need to be built up. But you'll never get it through your whole career, that's impossible. Once you get to a certain height you've got to expect a few drops, and then the people who built you up are waiting to bring you down."

"I don't think you can go by what the papers say - if you're honest with yourself and you know how you played, you can by-pass what the papers say."

"The first couple of years, because I was at centre half and wasn't scoring goals, I didn't get that much attention from the press no matter how well I played, and I was quite happy with that."

"I'm a footballer, not a journalist, and I'd rather get with my own business and play football."

"Also, I've found the questions a lot of them used to ask me were like 'what do you think of that centre forward?' or 'you're playing against Gary Lineker tomorrow...', etc"

"They train you into how to deal with the press now, but they didn't used to. When I started that you to just shove you in there and say 'best of luck' and everything I'd say came out wrong and was all over the papers the next day."

Des Walker on... the role of the captain

Des revealed that he doesn't address the team before the match: "That's the manager's job."

"The captain's got to see the whole picture. Instead of just concentrating on your own game, you've got to see if any other players are struggling and with experience you can usually tell them why."

Does it effect team spirit knowing that some players are on bigger contracts than others?

"In my opinion, no. I think however long you've got a contract for, be it one year or five years, that's your contract and it's up to you to make the most of it. I don't worry about anyone else's wages. I think it's changed in the modern game because money seems to dominate the sport and when I started it didn't."

"When your contract is up for renewel, if you deserves it you'll get more, if you don't then you won't - simple as that. If you think you're worth more then you'll go looking elsewhere. Supply and demand is what the game's always been about."

Des Walker on... loyalty

"People expect the players to be loyal to the same club all their lives, but at the end of the day it's people - it is peoples' livings and you can't expect them to stay in once place all their career."

"Footballer's careers aren't as long as everyone elses, so it is their right is to earn as much money as they can, while they can."

"For more me, it's always about playing football at the highest level. I told myself, you're good enough so you might as well try and play at the highest level you can as long as it's reasonably well-paid. As long as I was comfortable at a club where I wanted to play, I was happy. But for other people it's different and they have different ambitions."

Des Walker on... star players

"You've got to have respect. To be a good team, you've got to respect each other and respect each other's ability."

"Everyone brings different things to a team. Some people bring tremendous talent to the team, others bring hard work. But as long as they both respect each other and appreciate what each other does, they can do well together."

Des Walker on... his career highlights

"My debut, playing for England ... the World Cup's got to be the pinnacle of my career - you can't really go any higher than playing in the World Cup."

"The FA Cup final... until about the last minute!"

Was his ONE goal a highlight?

"It was for the fans, it wasn't for me as such. I think they always wanted me to score and it was nice for them to see me do it. So many people have said to me 'I'm glad you scored while you were at Forest' or even 'I can't believe I left with two minutes to go!' But for me, keeping a clean sheet and playing well is more important than scoring."

"I was glad I scored in a game like that. I'd rather score to get a point than to get one when we're five-nil up and someone let's me take a penalty."

"I don't go up for corners and I'm hardly going to score from seventy-five yards. It's difficult - you want to score but you're never close enough so you have to accept that."

Des Walker on... Brian Clough

"The biggest influence he had on you was that if you didn't play well you didn't play in the next game. I started off as a 16-year-old like that and that's the way I think now. I don't think any differently now and I didn't think any differently when I was in the England team."

"You could do whatever you wanted, you could go out on Friday night or whatever and he wasn't very much bothered about what you did. But, he would drop anyone if they didn't perform."

"These days managers are under a little bit more pressure, so there's more emphasis on what seems to be right than what actually is right."

"I haven't seen him since the day I left in 1992."

Des Walker on... Stuart Pearce

"He was the best captain I've ever played under and he had the most moral corage (him and Brian Robson) of any player I've played with. He never left anything behind, he took everything he had on that pitch."

Des Walker on... striking up friendships with players

"We go to work and it isn't about frienships, it's about respect."

"Pearcy is the only player who I still see on a regular basis. We roomed together about 300, 400 times and we've got a lot of respect for each other and we were always good friends."

Des Walker on... Italian football

"For me it's not as exciting as football in England. When you get a good game, it's a great game, when you get that passion and the ability put together it's a fantastic game. But there isn't the amount of good games as there are in England."

"It's slower. You could lose three-nil and not break out in a sweat."

"I wouldn't have wanted to play for another club in England."

Des Walker on... winning championships

Des says he isn't disappointed about not winning a championship medal in his career: "I was speaking to Rio Ferdinand the other day and he says he went to Manchester United to win medals - he hasn't won one yet."

"I thought we were one or two players short of winning the championship [in the early nineties]."

"But I have no regrets. My only regret is not being good enough to play as a striker. I play up front all the time in training. Any good? Yeah, I'm brilliant!"

Who was the best striker he played against?

"I get asked that all the time. I think Marco van Basten is probably the best, Maradona as well - I played against him a few times. And Mark Hughes as well - he was a terrific player. He held the ball up very well and scored some great goals. I always admired him and we had some great battles."

Has he thought about what he will do at the end of his career?

"Well it aint gonna be long (laughs)... not concrete, no. I've got two young kids as well so they've got to come into consideration. I haven't really decided what I want to do yet."

"Being a manager isn't forefront in my mind."

Since we spoke to him, we have learned that Des has been offered a new contract for next season by the club, and also been given the option of taking up a coaching role when he retires from playing.

Des Walker on... 'going through the motions'

"I've never felt like I was going through the motions, but there have been times when I've got disillusioned, like the last season at Sheffield Wednesday through bad management."

"When you've got eight players who are running their balls off, and another three just going through the motions, you can't win a game."

Des Walker on... the crowd singing his name

"It's always nice because in my career I've always known I've had 30,000 people behind me, and that's a lot better than knowing you've got 30,000 people against you."

"Having the fans getting on your back has got to be the worst thing in the world. I've been lucky that it's never really happened to me. I've made mistakes over the years, but it's always nice to know people judge you over the span of your career than just that one game."

"Forest have been spoilt with success. For a reletively small club, to win two european cups, the league and various other things is incredible, and I think they [the fans] set a standard and they expect anyone who plays for the club to live and die by that standard."

"When I was at Sheffield, the fans didn't expect anything from the team. But at Forest, because they've been spoilt by that sucess, that's the yardstick and your always judged by it."

"If your a centre forward, as long as your at Forest, they judge you by Garry Birtles, Nigel Clough, Trevor Francis and all the other top players who have played for the club, and if you can't do what they did, they boo you!"

Des Walker on... coming back

"Make no mistake, the fans expected to see the same player who left. That was a virtual impossibility, but they knew that whenever I went on that park I gave everything I had and that gave me consistency, and I think that is what they admired about me and that's what I knew I could always give. It's all about will to win - on my debut I had it and on my last game I'll have it, and that's me and that's what I have to offer."

"First and foremost I wanted to play football and I wanted to get myself fit, and I didn't have any time to think about whether or not I wanted to get into the team, that was down to the manager. But I expected to [get in the team], otherwise I wouldn't have come back to play."

Des Walker on... Roy Keane

"He's been lucky to get away with some things, in all fairness. But the thing with Keaney is you won't ever change him and if you try there's only going to be one winner, and he will make sure there's only one winner - him."

Des Walker on... training and fitness

"I'm lucky I've never really been injured in my career, and until now, I don't think I've ever missed more than one or two games at a time."

"These days we train at a really high tempo - a very similar pace to matches, but it isn't like that at most clubs. But that's part of our success.When Darren Huckerby came a few weeks ago, he was amazed that we wore shin pads in training!"

"I'm not rushing to come back. I tried to come back before, and it cost me eight weeks. I can't afford to come back early and lose eight weeks again."

Des Walker on... team spirit

Des talked up the team spirit currently at the club, laughing off the rumour that he was the worst dressed player in the squad according to David Prutton. "That's a bit rich coming from Prutts."

Does he ever get nervous?

"No, never."

Not even in the World Cup?

"First 15 minutes, and that was probably because we'd just spent five weeks abroad waiting and waiting, and then one day you were there. I was thinking 'Don't make a mistake in the first 15 minutes', and I put that down to nerves, but after 15 minutes I got in the game and that was it."

"If you're nervous you won't play to your best."

Des Walker on... club or country

"Club or country has never been an issue for me. I just wanted to play for both. I had a couple of occasions where we were playing in a cup final and an international the during the week before, and the manager asked if I wanted to drop out of the game on the Wednesday. I thought, if I can get a cap now, I might not be able to get one later so I don't want to give one away now."

"I was an international player and a Forest player, so why not play them both?"

"Right now I'd love a cap, but I'm not going to get one for love nor money, so why give one away then?"

Does he want to carry on playing?

"I just try and enjoy the time I've had. I've had 21 years and if any of the young ones get 21 years of football, they'll have had a good run, you can't really look back and whinge at that. At the end of the day, I look back and think I could have had ten years playing for Scunthorpe, but I've had 21 years playing at the highest level."

Des Walker on... vice captains, Gareth Williams and David Prutton

"They've done fine.They need experience and they'll learn from that, but they'll be the captains of the future and they've come along well."

Des Walker on... Andy Reid

"He's quality. His ability to get balls into the box is phenominal, he sometimes reminds me of Robertson - maybe a little bit bigger!"

"He got a bit of stick from the fans and stick from the manger, but he's come back and he's answered everyone questions and that's what it's all about."

Des Walker on... Michael Dawson

"He's got enough ability to be in the England team, I don't think he's got enough experience yet, but that makes all the difference."

Des Walker on... Derby!

"I grew up under a manager who absolutely hated Derby because he got sacked by them. When you're playing against Derby youth team and the manager's on the touchline going absolutely mad, I grew up under that hatred. For me it's always there and always will be. If I became manager that hatred would still be there."

"The players don't think about finishing above Derby like the fans do, they think about going up. For me, I'd rather they finished first and we finished second than finishing ahead of them but neither of us going up. You can't judge a season on whether you finish above Derby - if they finish bottom and we finish second-to-bottom then we both go down!"

"I'd rather Derby were in the same division as us - you must look forward to the games? Some of the fans want them to go down to Division Two, but I'd rather them go up with us so we could play them next season."

Did he follow Forest after leaving in 1992?

"I look for the results of all the teams I've played for. But I try not to go back too often. I only came back to Forest to take my son to the football."

"I'm not one to look back like that. I had a great period of my career here and I'll always hold that as my memory. I don't want to keep worrying about a former club thinking they should do this or they should do that - I just wanted to get on with my career."

"All my clubs have added something to my life and my career."

Does he have any idea who Forest's mystery new signing is?

"I haven't the faintest idea. Poeple ask me these kind of things all the time, and because I don't read the papers I never know what's happening, so fans probably know what's going on before I do. Believe it or not, the manager doesn't discuss who he's inquiring about, and it happens so quickly that players just turn up with no warning."

"If I looked back on how many players have come and gone through my career, there's thousands. In a few years, look at the squad and look at it a few years back and there's only a handful of the same players."

Des Walker on... heroes

"My mum and dad are my heroes."

"The player I admired the most Paul McGrath. When he was playing for Manchester United I thought he was phenomenal, I watched his whole career and he's the player I admire the most. He made defending look easy."

With thanks to Fraser Nicholson for acting as host and all the other people who turned up and asked questions.

Des Walker - the first coming