A monumental man

It's a Shoot style question: "Who is the biggest influence on your life/career?"

But it suddenly dawned on me while watching Inside Sport on BBC1 last night what a difference Martin O'Neill has made to my own life and career.

Why has someone I have never met had such an impact I hear you ask? Let me explain.

I was a young nine-year-old in 1993, and when I was not at school I was out shopping with my parents or occasionally round at friends' houses as you do. But other than that led a fairly sheltered and in a way naive young life. Still years away from taking an interest in girls, I had little drive and nothing in my young mind to live for me.

That changed in February 1993. I finally persuaded my dad to take me to watch Martin O'Neill's Wycombe - and never looked back. O'Neill had Wycombe playing in a certain way - exciting, entertaining and it was all winning football. Like most of my local town, I was obsessed as Wycombe capped a wonderful season by winning the Conference and FA Trophy double.

It was not just the football with Wycombe, it was the complete package as O'Neill ran that club from top to bottom. He really had a presence about him, he was that good. I was interested in reading what the great M O'N had to say in the programme - and his Absolutely Martin column remains one of the best I've ever read. Even at a young age, it taught me the values of honesty and respect.

I could not get enough football and especially Wycombe Wanderers' related literature - and Pete Lansley, now at the Times, wrote an excellent book "Out of the Blue," which talked about O'Neill's impact at the club and his character traits. O'Neill was probably the first man I ever looked up to.

It was O'Neill who indirectly developed my interest in sports writing which would lead to a future career. Not long after 1993, I first started writing football reports as a hobby.

But it was also in the summers of 1993 and 1994 that I learned two other important values from the great man: those of loyalty and commitment. O'Neill turned down jobs at Nottingham Forest, Bristol Rovers and Norwich City - teams in higher leagues than Wycombe - until he eventually moved to Carrow Road in 1995.

I owe Martin O'Neill so much.