At half 5 I walked into the canteen and sat down at a table with somebody who does not work here. I have not done that in 14 months.
Ellis Cartwright had eaten a plate of pasta and about half a chicken and he had his hands under the table.
And I did the thing I have not done properly since a wet Sunday in Moscow, because I have not wanted to since a wet Sunday in Moscow.
I looked at him.
Not the way you look at a lad in a canteen. The other way. The way that has been in me since I was 26 and that I have never told one living soul about, not Emma, not my mother, not a doctor.
It takes a second and it costs me nothing and it has never once been wrong.
[ELLIS CARTWRIGHT. CA 91. PA 148.]
I put my coffee down.
91 is a League One footballer. 148 is a Premier League starter, and it is 3 places off what the system gave me for Aaron Wan-Bissaka the first time I looked at him.
A 57 point gap. I have seen 2 of those in 3 years.
