Chapter 1 - 1st July 2016

Chapter 1

1^st July 2016

“Coming out of my cage, and I’ll be doing just fine……………….”

The opening lyrics of The Killers �" Mr Brightside, woke me in my hotel bed, the jet lag still lingering despite one of the best night’s sleep I’d had in a long while. I rolled over the bed to switch the alarm off, and swung out of bed, the ache in my right foot and left knee still there after 13 years. After a quick shower, I put on my suite and headed out of the door to sign my first contract as a football manager in England.

I’d gotten the job off the back of performances by my Sydney FC team back home in Australia. But now it was time for me to come back to the home of football and make a name for myself. When we touched down at Heathrow 2 days prior, it was the first time I had set foot on British soil since September 2003, following the accident that cost me not only my playing career but also the love of my life, Stephanie. After the accident, I slipped in to a deep depression after turning to alcohol to numb the pain of my loss and my injuries. But after a long battle I had beaten those demons, gotten myself back into football through coaching and progressed to become the youngest A League manager to win the league, twice.

And so I was here, scene of my only career goal, Carrow Road. Following the meeting with Jez Moxey the Managing Director, I was given a tour around the changing rooms, nothing had really changed. My be some refurbishing but the club still had the same grounded feel about it, the same sense of family. Jez’s P.A Charlotte left me at the entrance to the tunnel, I looked out over the pitch across at the new South Stand or the EDP stand as it was now named. I walked out the sun light momentarily blinding me, before I refocused and looked around at the ground, the hotel in the corner the aforementioned South Stand the new additions to what could be potentially be a gres=at base for a Premier League Team, and that was my goal, take this club back to the Premier League, back where they deserve to be.

“Ellis Smith, Norwich City manager” I whispered to myself, I liked the sound of that,

“Ellis Smith, Premier League manager”………. I liked that even more!