During the break, Graham, a former Wolves coach, sidled up to me with a coffee. "You look lost, mate," he said, not unkindly.
"I am a bit," I admitted. "I've never heard half of these terms before."
He laughed. "Don't worry about it. Half of this stuff is just fancy words for common sense. It's designed to make football sound like rocket science so these academics can justify their jobs. You know how to coach. I heard that you've won a league title. You've just got to learn the language. Once you do that, you'll be fine."
It was a small kindness, but it meant the world. I wasn't alone. I wasn't the only one who felt out of their depth.
But then, something strange happened. As the days went on, I started to realize that I wasn't as far behind as I thought.
The complex theories they were discussing… I understood them. Not because I'd been taught them, but because I'd lived them.
