Every football writer will have a different first experience with Premier League footballers. Mine came as a news reporter on my local paper 15 years ago when I received a call from a private number and heard the unmistakable tones of Jamie Carragher. At the time, I didn’t know the Liverpool defender and he didn’t know me but he had read a story I’d written about a boy with cancer whose family were raising money to send him to the USA for potentially life-saving treatment.

Carragher had gone out of his way to get my number from a mutual acquaintance and wanted to help. Summoned to Melwood, Liverpool’s training ground, I was handed a bag full of boots that had been autographed by members of