Tuesday 30 August 2016 23:44, UK
England newcomer Michail Antonio accepts he is "ragged" and "raw" but believes he can follow in the footsteps of other rough diamonds such as Jamie Vardy and Ian Wright.
The West Ham winger is the only uncapped player in Sam Allardyce's first squad, completing a remarkable rise from non-league Tooting and Mitcham to the international arena.
Antonio, 26, might have been in the professional system since signing for Reading eight years ago, and in the Premier League for the past 12 months, but it is not just his football that is delightfully unreconstructed.
In his first media appearance in Three Lions colours he spoke unguardedly about having posters of "fat Ronaldo" as a child and smiled when he talked about avoiding "crazy touch and go" moments during his upbringing.
But mostly he talks about football, and his passion for it.
Like Wright and Vardy before him, Antonio knows what it is like to plug away at the bottom of the ladder, having to fight for his place in Tooting's first team as a teenager and working part-time as a lifeguard before progressing through the divisions.
"I'm not that academy player who's going to pick it up, pass it and be neat and tidy all the time. I'm a player who's going to get it and I'm going to run at the full-back," he said.
"I'm going to be running in behind. I'm quite ragged. People say raw and some people don't like raw.
"I see academy players who pick it up and they like to pop it off and they make more movements. They do more work off the ball, where I do more work on it.
"The way I play, some managers are going to like me, some managers are not going to like me."
