I suppose I am writing this to reminisce on the memories I will to have gained on my journey. Let's hope they'll be good ones.
July 5th, 2014
Dear Diary,
I was born on June 7th, 1971 to my parents, William Michaels and Laura Michaels, at Westminster Hospital in London. Our family lived in Westminster, as we owned a small flat about 5 minutes from Queens Park. We were a poor family, and my parents worked long, hard, hours for little pay. As a result, they wouldn't make it home until late at night, and I had the whole afternoon to play after returning from school. Of course, the customary thing to do on such an afternoon would be to walk over to Queens Park and play football with some of the other young lads that were my age. We were football addicts back then, playing for hours on end. Of course, along with playing the game, my mates and I all had our favorite teams to watch. Being in London, we were spoiled for choice when It came to clubs to support. The vast majority of my friends then supported West Ham, who were approaching the final years of their golden era as we were growing up. When I was 8, the club won the F.A. cup and just 6 years later, finished third in the league. Due to this, many of my mates would pretend to be Hammers legends Geoff Hurst or Bobby Moore during our many pickup games. However, my loyalty resided with locals Queens Park Rangers, or Q.P.R. Despite the fact that money was tight in the Michaels household, my dad still mustered enough money to pay for his season ticket to Loftus Road for himself, and starting at the tender age of 7, I. My father had been a supporter of the The Hoops as a boy as well, and he went to all the home games during the year we missed out on the title by a point, in 75-76, when Liverpool piqued us by a point. I was only 4 then, and by the time I was old enough to understand the passion in the game, our heyday had already passed. When I was 7, we were relegated from the First division and into the second. My mates never passed on a chance to remind me of West Ham's superiority to us Hoops, but I'd just laugh at their jokes and tell them, "You won't be teasing me when we win the Title." We never did. Instead, the club went through season after season of financial turmoil and multiple takeovers, but even in the 21st century, we could never establish ourselves in the new Premier League. As for me, I gave up on my dream of becoming the next Les Ferdinand, but my interest in football never waned. After receiving my degree, I became one of the founders of Prozone in 1998. The vast majority of fans will probably have never heard of Prozone, but we were one of the pioneers in the statistical revolution that has changed modern-day football. We've supplied information and statistics to Manchester United, the England national team, the U.S. national team, and Barcelona. Along the way, we also merged with Amisco, who helped us achieve our goal of providing information to all Premiership and Championship clubs, including my beloved Q.P.R. The Hoops were promoted back to the Premier League in May, but Harry Redknapp seems to have repeated past mistakes and has practically bought a new first 11 for the side. Eduardo Vargas, Steven Caulker, Sandro, Leroy Fer, and Alex McCarthy were all brought in, while Loic Remy was sold to recoup some of the funds lost. However, 'Arry resigned 3 days ago, citing an upcoming knee surgery as an excuse to leave what looks to be already be a sunken ship, and the season hasn't even started. Michael Laudrup was touted by the media to be the replacement for Harry, but it wasn't big news around the London prozone office. The summer window was the busiest time for us, as many of the top sides contacted us for a statistical overview on some of their top targets. Due to this, when Tony Fernandes rang a few hours ago, I expected it to be about some information about the sides new signings. What I got was completely different.
Since I haven't written a story since November, I thought now might be the right time to give writing another try. The story will be written in first person, considering that's what I've had the most past success with. Thanks for reading!
