NOW IT’S OUR TURN

The support staff at Cobham are not only workers in football, but football lovers as well, as is shown in a weekly ritual. Old Blue Eyes has been known to be among them.

Walking through a park on a Sunday morning, or along the beach on a summer's afternoon, there can be few football fans who can see a game of football going on and not want to be at least in some way involved.

The sights and sounds of that ball flying back and forth make it very hard to resist, so spare a thought for the staff at Cobham, who have to endure day after endless day of witnessing some of the finest footballers of their generation strutting their stuff merely yards away.

It all breeds just a little bit of envy in the various offices, corridors and groundsmen's sheds of the training ground, so every now and then when the pros have departed, everybody else dons a pair of boots and gathers together what kit they can to try and replicate what they see on the training field.

Of course the coaching staff like to be involved too, and while Carlo Ancelotti is yet to be seen in action, his assistants Ray Wilkins and Paul Clement are often keen to show that their years of studying the game have not gone to waste.

There is talent too in the lesser-known participants. Reserve coach Steve Holland has a bag of tricks you would pay to watch, while video analysts James Melbourne and Christy Fenwick were YTS players at Grimsby and Cheltenham respectively, not forgetting chief scout Michael Emenalo played in a World Cup for Nigeria.

Not everyone has such impressive credentials, but as in any group, there are declarations of trials here or there among other staff, while others claim serious injury robbed them of a real shot at the pro game. Said injuries appear to have healed by the time the weekly staff match comes around.

Clement, who never actually played professionally, often takes the role of player-ref, allowing him to rein in the competitive edge of some individuals, while also bending the rules for his own side's benefit, gaining advantage wherever it can be harnessed.

As with all impromptu matches, numbers vary from game to game, but the will to win never wavers.

There are of course odd flashes of brilliance and occasional interest from players who are still hanging around, yet youngster Fabio Borini perhaps best summed up the all-round appeal of the spectacle on offer.

Sat at the side one day after treatment on an injury and offered the whistle-blowing opportunity of a lifetime, he simply said: 'I am not sitting through this!' and promptly left.

As anyone in the game, professional or otherwise will tell you though, it's not the performances but the three points that count.