I DON'T know about you, but we seem to have been involved in some massive fixtures over the last few weeks.

And matches don't come much bigger than Liverpool at home, especially with the likes of Michael Owen in their ranks.

But when you dream about becoming a professional footballer, these are the contests you imagine yourself playing in.

And it's another great opportunity for us to show how far we've come under Graeme Souness in the last 12 months.

I'm personally looking forward to it because it's a good chance for me to renew acquaintances with my old friend Steven Gerrard.

Me and Steve go back a long way, from our days together at an FA training camp at Warrington.

We'd only be about 11 or 12 at the time and every club was allowed to send a couple of players.

Apart from us, the likes of Danny Cadamarteri, Michael Ball, Jason Koumas and Steven Wright also attended.

But you could tell even then that Steve in particular was always going to have a bright future in the game.

I was made up when he first broke into the England team and I'm really chuffed for him that's he receiving so many plaudits now because he really deserves it.

He's probably the nearest thing we've got to the complete midfielder in England.

And I rate him in the same kind of bracket as Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira.

So let's just hope Flitty keeps him quiet tomorrow because if he's allowed to get on top of his game he has the ability to cause us some serious damage.

As for me, it's been a whirlwind week.

Qualifying for the finals of the European Championships with the Under 21s on Tuesday night felt brilliant, especially against a side as good as Holland.

I thought they were better than us on the night but we've shown we are still capable of getting results even when we're not playing well which is a good sign.

I was disappointed with my own performance, though, especially after what had happened on the previous Friday.

With hindsight, I was perhaps trying too hard to impress people and maybe I was guilty of overdoing it on a couple of occasions.

But after everything that's been written in the press about me, it's sometimes difficult to keep your feet on the ground.

Luckily, I've got people like Graeme Souness and my granddad to bring me straight back down to earth if I'm ever in danger of getting too big for my boots.

The gaffer in particular has been brilliant with me because he not only gives me the confidence to try things, but he's quick to pull me up if I do something wrong.

I'm thinking of getting him to have a word with my granddad now because he's in danger of letting all this talk of England call-ups go to his head!

He's been inundated with requests for interviews over the last couple of weeks and I think he's enjoying life a little too much in the media spotlight!

Only joking.

Throughout my career, my granddad has always been right behind me.

And if I ever fulfil my dreams of an England call-up then I'll owe so much to him.

No-one has been more influential in my development than him and it's great to see him getting the credit he deserves.