By the time the coach got us into MetLife Stadium the sheet had already gone in, and I gave it to them at 25 past 7 in a dressing room built for men who wear helmets, under a strip light that buzzes.
Bzzz.
"Right. Listen."
30 men. 11 names.
Nick Pope.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka. James Tarkowski. Ibrahima Konaté. Ben Chilwell.
Rúben Neves. Pierre-Emile Højbjerg. James McArthur.
Michael Olise. Christian Benteke. James Rodríguez.
I read it out and I got to the 9th name and the room did a thing.
Not a noise. A movement. 30 men turning about 4 inches to look at 1 chair.
Michael Olise is 16 years old.
He was 15 when he played 40 minutes of a Youth Cup quarter-final at Stamford Bridge and got kicked from one end of it to the other and never asked to come off.
He is 4 stone heavier now and 5 inches taller, and he did 18 sessions in 21 days on a Spanish island in June because nobody had told him not to.
