Bouknadel is 1,400 miles from that pitch. 41 boys, 60 beds, 11 of them who had never slept in a room on their own, and it opened on the 11th of August and 2 went home inside 9 days because they were 11 years old and they wanted their mothers.
I got Michael Cooke on the way in.
"Does Ellis know about Bouknadel?"
"He gets the photograph."
"What photograph?"
Tk. Cooke turned his cap over in his hands.
"Rachid sends one every Friday. Me and Gary have had it since August." He put the cap back on. "I put it in the under 23s group about 8 weeks ago, because Connor asked me what the Morocco thing was, and 14 lads have had a picture of 41 Moroccan boys land every Friday since, and I did not think it needed mentioning to you."
"It did not."
"No." He looked down the pitch at the 2 of them. "But he has been looking at it for 7 weeks, and tonight he is stood in front of the biggest terrace in Europe and the number in his head is 41."
