Matt Ritchie looked out of his bedroom window above an East London pub and realised that his introduction to life as a professional footballer was not how he had imagined. Sitting on the bonnet of the teenager’s new Vauxhall Astra was a punter from the boozer below.
‘I was far too scared to say anything,’ says Ritchie, who had joined League Two Dagenham & Redbridge on loan from Portsmouth and was just days away from making his senior debut.
‘I was buzzing about that car, my pride and joy, and this geezer is just sitting on it.