Saturday afternoon, our academy stadium was transformed. It was no longer a quiet, sterile development ground. It was a fortress. A cauldron of noise and passion. The official attendance was just over a thousand, a number that was unheard of for a youth game, but it felt like ten thousand.
The stands were a sea of red and blue, the air thick with the smell of hot dogs and the sound of singing. The fans had come with banners, huge, homemade creations with the faces of their heroes painted on them.
There was a banner for Eze, his smiling face beaming down on the pitch. There was a banner for Olise, his tricky feet immortalized in paint. There was even a banner for me, a slightly unflattering but well-intentioned portrait with the words "In Danny We Trust" written underneath.
