He explained: "Other clubs came in for me but once I got a chance to speak to Alan Curbishley, I knew I wanted to come here. I just felt it was a club going forward. He just reiterated everything that I knew in my own head, that I needed to go out and play regularly and that Charlton was the place to do it. I've discovered that you learn a lot about yourself when you play 30, 35 games a season."
The defender was named in the England squad that toured America last summer, and then featured in four World Cup qualifiers and one friendly.
"When I first got in the squad. Sven said to me, 'Don't try showing me everything you've got in one training session'. He said, 'Just relax. The World Cup's a year away. Try and enjoy yourself'. It was good advice. Since then, I've grown into the squad, enjoyed it, and hopefully done enough to get on the plane to Germany."
Curbishley has also touted his club captain as possible cover for the left back role for England, a position he often found himself filling in for while at his previous club Tottenham.
"When I was coming through the ranks at Spurs, they had a few problems at left-back, so I used to get put there. In the end, I was in that position so much that I got used to it."
Source: The Independent on Sunday