One evening, after a particularly intense session on defensive organisation, one of the course instructors, a man with a quiet, unassuming, but fiercely intelligent demeanor, pulled me aside.
"You're a long way from home, Danny," he said, his voice a low, calm, authoritative whisper.
"Don't forget what got you here. Don't forget who you are." I looked at him, a little surprised, a little confused.
"What do you mean?" I asked. He smiled, a slow, knowing smile.
"This place," he said, gesturing at the sprawling, futuristic campus around us, "it can be a bit of a bubble. It can make you forget that football is a simple game. It's about passion. It's about desire. It's about the heart. Don't let all this theory, all this methodology, all this noise, drown out your own voice. Your voice is the one that matters. Your voice is the one that your players are listening to."
