[SKEPTICISM]
The Daily Mail (Richard Keys): "It's Only Brøndby! Let's Not Get Carried Away With This Kidology. This is what modern football has become: a 28-year-old with a laptop getting praised for beating a team of Danish part-timers. Unbelievable."
TalkSPORT Radio (Transcribed): "Honestly, Jeff, my old pub team could have given them a better game. Palace were decent, yeah, but let's see them do it against a proper team before we start handing out trophies. It's embarrassing, the hype around this kid."
I read both columns with the same detached, analytical coldness. The praise was pleasant but irrelevant. The skepticism… the skepticism was fuel. I felt the familiar, cold fire ignite in my gut. Kidology. Pub team with part-timers. Hype. I saved the snippets to a file on my desktop. A private collection of receipts to be cashed in later.
