To make my plan foolproof, to make it so that the board would not dare to sell them, we needed more than just a famous victory. We needed silverware. We needed to win the FA Youth Cup.
And we needed to secure our place in the top tier of the U18 league, to prove that we were not just a cup team, but a genuine force to be reckoned with. The final at Wembley was one part of the equation.
The other was the league. We had to finish in the top four to qualify for the elite 'Group 1' in the second phase of the season. We were close, but we weren't there yet.
A couple of bad results, a slip in focus, and we could find ourselves in the lower-tier group, our league season effectively over. Only then, with a trophy in the cabinet and a place among the academy elite, would my players be truly untouchable. The pressure was immense, but for the first time, I felt like we were in control of our own destiny.
