Harry Marsh and Dominic Asare came through the same academy together as boys, inseparable, each certain the other would make it before he did. Harry was released at seventeen. Dominic wasn't.
A decade on, Dominic is a fringe squad player at one of the country's biggest clubs, rarely involved on matchdays, earning several times what Harry does as an established first-team regular three divisions down at Torquay Gulls.
They still speak most weeks, and the warmth is real on both sides — Dominic was one of the first to message Harry after a Man of the Match display last month. He sent it the same week his own squad number had quietly been handed to a new signing.
Neither has ever said the gap out loud. Both, by all accounts, think about it more than they let on.