Will we ever get there? It's a question Frank Lampard and I would ask each other when we were starting out. We were room-mates when we played together for England's Under 21s - he was the captain and I was his deputy.
We were partners in midfield and that meant spending a lot of time together at our base in Hertfordshire at Sopwell House.
Both of us loved playing for the Under 21s and relished our responsibilities. But, each time we joined up, there would be a sense of longing. Back then, the Under 21s would travel around with the seniors to games. We would see all the household names and were desperate to play alongside them.
I have to admit, my overwhelming ambition at the time was to get established with Liverpool and win honours. If I did that, I was sure England recognition would follow. Frank, though, was anxious to represent England and that was evident in the conversations we used to have in our room.
After all, a number of young players had been fast-tracked. Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen and Rio Ferdinand all quickly progressed through the Under 21s but Frank and I served our time - I won 27 caps, he got 19 - and did it the hard way. It is why I have great admiration for him for becoming England's latest centurion.
This latest achievement puts the gloss on his glittering career. I regard him as the greatest player in Chelsea's history; better than Drogba, Osgood, Hudson and the rest.
Yet when I first met Frank, he wasn't even the best player at West Ham! At the national school trials in 1992, we all knew who Frank was because he was the son of a footballer but the boy at his club who was supposed to be destined for stardom was a tricky attacking player called Lee Hodges.
As it turned out, neither of them won a place at Lilleshall - Hodges, for the record, ended up spending his career largely in non-League - so our next meeting was when Liverpool beat West Ham in the FA Youth Cup final in 1996.
We won the first leg at Upton Park 2-0 and eventually completed the job at Anfield but Frank caused us to panic in the return leg when he scored a first-minute goal in front of the Kop.
It was the type of strike that became his trademark, a thumping drive into the roof of the net from the edge of the box. Why has he become so good at it? Practice has made him perfect.
After every training session with England he would religiously strike five or 10 penalties. He would do extra running and spend time on his technique.
Those good habits remain. He is one of only a few players to perfect the Cristiano Ronaldo free-kick, striking the ball with his laces. He has only perfected that in the last couple of years, so it shows that even at 35 you can keep on improving.
I have always said Steven Gerrard was born world class, whereas Frank became world class. That is not a slight. It should serve as an inspiration. He has had to contend with some knocks down the years but he kept bettering himself. His mental strength is one of his greatest assets.
Frank has a catalogue of golden moments and, for that reason, I have him behind Steven but ahead of Paul Scholes in my list of the Premier League's top three English midfielders.
I know Barcelona's Xavi described Scholes as the best midfielder of the last 20 years but Frank has influenced more big games - his goals clinched Chelsea's first title in 2005, he has won them an FA Cup final and scored in a Champions League final.
He has also played more and scored more for England, and his tally of 166 Premier League goals - the highest by a midfielder - outstrips the 107 Scholes scored.
Mentioning Scholes brings us back to England. When we became regulars under Sven Goran Eriksson, the rapport Frank and I enjoyed with the Under 21s had diluted - a consequence of the rivalry that had escalated between Liverpool and Chelsea. We were not as close.
My respect for him, however, remained and I was adamant he merited playing alongside Gerrard. If anything, Eriksson made a mess of whether Gerrard and Lampard could be a partnership. Of course they could have. A strong manager would have told Steven to play the holding role - that is more in his make-up - and to let Frank go forward.
But he didn't. He fudged it. That's why Scholes ended up out on the left and eventually in international retirement.
This is not an attack on Scholes - it is anything but. It is just important to illustrate what Lampard has achieved as I don't believe he has had the credit he deserves.
Great talent, single-mindedness and outstanding numbers: four FA Cups, three league titles, a Champions League and Europa League winner, 100 caps and, to the envy of many strikers, a ratio of a goal every three appearances for England.
When I look back at my career, I feel great pride but Frank achieved much more. Without doubt, he did what he set out to do at Sopwell House. He got there.
The game of the week in the Champions League, for me, has to be Barcelona against Ajax. These are two of the most special clubs in the world, whose achievements will stand the test of time.
What makes Barcelona and Ajax stand out is that they have their own beliefs in how football should be played and stick to their principles without fail.
They are also united by a messiah in Johan Cruyff.
It should never be forgotten what an impact Cruyff has had on football as we know it. Rinus Michels, the legendary Dutch coach, may have been behind the idea of 'Total Football' but where would it have been without a player such as Cruyff to execute such a vision?
Cruyff is the main reason we have such admiration for Dutch football and revere the name of Ajax, but his impact at Barcelona was arguably even greater. Earlier this week I watched a documentary on Cruyff's Barcelona years and he remains a god-like figure.
The trophies he won over a five-year spell were remarkable but, more than that, he helped shape the way Spain now play.
He, after all, was the one who whisked Pep Guardiola from the reserves and put him straight into Barcelona's team. From there you can see a progression.
Without Cruyff, does Guardiola fulfil his potential? Without Guardiola, do Barcelona go on to become one of the greatest club sides of all time? Without Barcelona, do Spain go on to become the dominant nation in world football? That is how far Cruyff's influence stretches.
Source: Daily Mail
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