"Here is what I want instead. I want you to keep making history. Not by winning everything, because winning everything is not possible, and pretending it is would be a lie. By being the best version of this football club that has ever existed. By playing football that makes twenty-five thousand people sing on a Saturday afternoon. By developing young players who walk into this building as boys and walk out as professionals. By treating every person in this room, from the manager to the groundsman, as essential. Because you are. Every single one of you."
I looked at the academy kids in the back row. Olise, quiet and watchful. Kirby, composed. Morrison, intense. Webb, focused. Hannam, steady. Semenyo, barely containing his energy.
"The pressure is going to increase. The media will ask if we can sustain it. The pundits will predict a collapse. Other teams will target us because we are the team to beat. That is the reality of being second in the Premier League." I paused.
