You never forget your first love.
Football was mine, more specifically Crystal Palace. Like my dad, and his dad before him, a hypnotherapist for the promotion-winning squad of 1978-79 under Terry Venables, all of us born and raised in South Norwood, a stone's throw from the stadium.
Former England manager Sir Bobby Robson wonderfully described falling under football's spell as: 'It's the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city.
'It's a small boy clambering up the stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father's hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.