Monday. Training in the morning, Milan preparation. In the afternoon, the official Carabao Cup final media day at Beckenham. The EFL's broadcast team was arriving with cameras and lighting rigs to film the promotional content for the final.
Photographs of the squad in the cup final kit, which Macron (our kit sponsor) had designed specifically for the occasion: a bespoke Palace strip with gold trim on the collar and the EFL Cup final patch and the ball on the right sleeve. Individual portraits. Group shots.
The captain holding a replica trophy for the poster graphic that would be displayed on every screen at Wembley. Dann would hold the trophy. Dann would look at the trophy with the expression of a man who had been at the club for seven years and who was imagining what it would feel like to hold the real one.
"That sounds exhausting," Emma said.
