Other than a few appearances for the U19s as a schoolboy, I was limited to all of one appearance for the Academy during my time at Colney, most of it was spent in the gym trying to rebuild my withered legs. On the upside though, I was lucky enough to receive personal tuition from the club for my A-levels. In that respect, I’m not too dissimilar from Tom Adeyemi – yet my A's in philosophy, English literature and psychology differ very much from Tom’s more scientific orientation and, of course, I never quite broke into the first team.

So here I am now, fresh faced and empty pocketed after graduating from the University of Leeds, trying to make the cross from one-time reasonably successful sportsman to (hopefully) successful sportswriter.

After spending three years writing essays on Shakespearean sonnets and the postmodern condition in literature (don’t ask – I’m not sure I’ll ever really know), I can finally sink my teeth into something juicy and attempt to write about my life’s passion… sport.

Of course, the transition is difficult. After witnessing a dismal performance or a missed chance, the urge to lace up a pair of boots always overpowers the desire to pick up a pen – so I’m currently chaining myself to the chair in order to ensure some sort of adequate lingual output. Hopefully one day this will evolve into some sort of intelligent and objective writing style.

My week so far at Archant has been extremely enlightening. Under the watchful eyes of Michael and Richard I’ve learnt about the ins, outs and typical goings-on behind the scenes of a newpaper's sports desk, as well as writing a few things myself. In a week of momentous sporting incidents including a victorious England team in the Ashes, a highly eventful athletics World Championships and Premier League upsets... I’ve so far covered water-skiers from Wymondham and the Old Catton girl’s football team.

I guess it’s a big ladder to climb.