Life: what happens while you were making other plans

You might not have been reading CCN in 2007, but if you were, you may recall this:

Cruel, cruel, cruel.

A beautiful, freezing December evening. A sleepy first half, an engaging second, and then disaster. Injury time: some bother as Newcastle attack, by the penalty spot, Omozusi – otherwise excellent – late on a tackle, over tumbles the forward. A huge, horrible pause, then we see that a penalty has been given, and that we aren’t going to win today, we aren’t even going to draw. Joey Barton’s kick confirms a defeat. Heartbreaking.

(Newcastle at home, of course, the straw that broke our camel’s back)

I remember after the game texting Mark Maunders, and part of his reply was about how Omozusi was gutted, and a really good kid.  Mark would know.

David Pleat thought he looked a good prospect:

DP Elliott Omozusi. Very early days but my instincts when I first saw the Fulham right-back told me he could be an Englishman to emerge. Full of composure and easy movement.

And he did.  Composure was what stood out to me, too. Also that quickness, and yes, supposedly a good kid.

So all of this just goes to show how you never really know.   Omozusi slipped from the fringes of a Premier League club down to League One, having failed to stick at Norwich and Charlton.  Who knows what was going on in his life, but the fall was intriguing, the latest developments unfathomable.  I’m not trying to moralise – these things are always too complicated for that – it’s just crazy to think what might have been for Omozusi, and now what is for Omozusi.  I’d say it’s sad, but what he and his friends did doesn’t warrant sympathy.  Still, whew…. bad news all round.