It is not inaccurate to say Ollie Tanner was one of the most sought-after teenagers in England over the last five months. On Tuesday, though, Cardiff City were the club who won the race to his signature.
What a hotly-contested race it was, too. Indeed, just days before he put pen to paper on his Bluebirds deal, another club came in and tried to hijack the move. But for Tanner, Cardiff felt different, it felt right.
Let's rewind a couple of months and the young winger had hit the headlines for turning down a move to Premier League giants Tottenham. A deal had been agreed with his club, Lewes FC, but there was something off. Tanner was never dead set on the move, unsure of the plans that were put in place for him there.
At Cardiff, there was no such hesitation.
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"I knew when he went up to Cardiff, it was different," Lewes FC manager Tony Russell told WalesOnline. "With Spurs, we agreed a deal and he turned it down. He was umming and ahhing. But not this time.
"He went up to Cardiff on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, then we had our presentation on Sunday, he came back for it and I pulled him and asked how it was going, he just said, 'I love it, this just feels right for me. Can we make it happen?' He loves the place.
"He had a three-year Premier League contract on the table (in January). Bear in mind he had nothing else at that stage. He chose to stay (at Lewes). Loads of clubs wanted him to go into training but he kept saying 'No thank you'.
"You name it, we had everyone, League Two, League One, a lot of Championship clubs, three Premier League clubs inviting him in. He kept saying 'No', but for some reason, he just said, 'Cardiff'. It came out of nowhere!
"He went into Cardiff, I'd ring him every day and I could just tell. I don't know what they did with him up there, but he came back and he was asking me to get it done. The club made an offer and it was done pretty quickly."
The sheer volume of interest in the preciously talented youngster, who at the time was playing in the Isthmian Premier Division which is tier seven of the English football pyramid, was incredible towards the back end of the season.
Russell explained the fervour around Tanner and the clubs who were still trying to nick him from Cardiff right up until he finally agreed his two-year deal with the Bluebirds.
"He was in with Spurs and done really well," Russell said. "I did the negotiations on the deal, I spoke with the directors at Spurs and they were loving him. All the coaches were giving great feedback and really wanted him. But when I spoke to Ollie it was just really weird, he didn't know. He had played first-team football and really enjoyed it, if he went there he would be in the under-23s for a year or two, might go out on loan, he didn't know if it was for him.
"We probably had 15 clubs every week watching him. It was ridiculous. Everyone wanted him in. There was a Premier League club driving us mad about him going there. Even when he came back from Cardiff they were ringing me up and saying, 'I've heard he's with Cardiff, we want him in!' A Premier League club!
"I told Ollie a Premier League club had come in and he was like 'No. No.' He had so many options. I don't think people realise, everyone sees his skill and his goals, but he has got an elite mindset for a young person, he was 20 last Friday."
Russell mentioned that last bit due to a particularly unsavoury aspect about Tanner's rise to prominence over the last few months.
Because what we don't see, of course, is the aftermath of Tanner's decision to reject a move to Spurs. The player thought it was in his best interest to stay at Lewes for the rest of the season, waiting for and believing that the right club would come along at the end of the season.
But during that time, a small section of Spurs fans had taken the decision made by Tanner, then a teenager but now 20, very badly. Soon his inbox had swelled with hate messages and even vile death threats.
"He turned Spurs down and the blowback from that was unbelievable. It was carnage," Russell said. "The private messages he was getting, the threats, it was so, so bad. He was getting death threats. It was stupid, saying they were going to come around his house and do this and that to him.
"We have someone at the club who looks after the players' welfare, she emailed me and told me to tell Ollie to contact her. I phoned Ollie and he just said, 'No, it's fine. I'll just stay off social media for a bit and shut the app down'. It never seemed to bother him.
"It's easy to look at him, he wears the Alice band because he's got that hair, you might these arrogant, but he's not. He is just a young man and he loves football.
"Some of the online abuse he got, no matter what age you are, that would affect you. But it didn't affect him one bit. He's very mature."
The player's mental fortitude seems to bely his 20 years. Russell even made a comparison to one of his childhood friends, Rio Ferdinand, when it came to discussing that aspect of his make-up.
"When I was a kid, I grew up playing in the district and the county with Rio Ferdinand, he's a friend of mine," Russell continued. "I remember we got into a County Cup final at Millwall's ground and I was so nervous. We were in the tunnel and I said to Rio, 'Are you nervous?' He was just looking up at the ceiling, so he turned to me and just said, 'About what?'
"He wasn't nervous, he was just going to do him. Ollie has got that same mindset."
While Russell believes Tanner's mindset is arguably his best asset, there is no getting away from the player's exciting ability with the ball at his feet. His highlights reel is special and the Lewes FC boss said it is no wonder so many scouts and clubs were clamouring for his signature.
In fact, Russell even thinks there is an air of the Gareth Bales about him.
"I've been fortunate enough to work with a few boys who have gone on to be professionals. Alfie May at Cheltenham, Mo Eisa [MK Dons], they were great players, but this boy is on another level. I've never seen anything like it," Russell said.
"I'll be shocked, absolutely shocked, if he doesn't go right to the very top, because of his mindset. You tell me a winger who is 6ft 1in, quick as anything, strong, genuinely two-footed, he'll go and win a header for you, run through a brick wall for you. Walking out in front of 15,000 people won't bother him. This guy is different.
"He has got a lot of belief in himself without being arrogant. I don't think Cardiff quite believe what they've actually got yet.
"I don't want to put too much pressure on him, because I know he's been linked to Cardiff, but he is very similar to the way Gareth Bale plays. He is so fast with the ball, he is so technically good, he just straightens up and runs, before you know it he's past you. He is such a powerful runner with the ball.
"He's not going to thank me for this, because I'm half building him up too much, honestly, managers at our level of football just come up to me and say, 'What is this?' speaking about Ollie.
"We played Margate away and they changed their right-back three times in the game! I swear. And they are a top team. He tore every right-back up. He scored two goals, people won't have seen them, but they were unbelievable.
"At Lewes, they averaged a 300 crowd, by the end of Ollie's time here they were averaging 1,000. The chairman said he'd never seen so many youngsters there, they were waiting for him to come off the pitch for photos and autographs. He just catches everyone's imagination.
"We are all football fans. There is nothing better than seeing someone with raw ability just ripping someone to shreds. There is something so special about it. Just like Gareth Bale when he came to life at Spurs, getting the ball, going inside, straightening up and just running at people. It's obviously a much lower level, but that's what he was doing that for us."
Granted, this all comes with the caveat that the Championship is five tiers above the division in which Tanner has thrived. There is clearly going to be some scepticism over the impact he will be able to make and patience will likely be needed from fans.
But Russell is bullish in his prediction for Tanner, believing he has the ability to put an immediate stamp on proceedings in the Welsh capital next term.
"I'd bet my mortgage on him making a huge impact at Cardiff," he said. "I think the fans will love him. When he gets the ball, he's going at you. He isn't squaring it or anything, he's going at you. I think as a fan, in the last 15 minutes of the game, you'll all be on the edge of your seats. He's going to do stuff.
"He doesn't score tap-ins, by the way. He scores the most ridiculous goals you've ever seen. I asked him if he had scored any in training for Cardiff and he said, 'Yeah, I scored a few, stuck a few in the stanchion.' That's what he does, he just rifles them in! He has got a hammer of a shot on him."
And, as an added bonus, Cardiff now have a new fan base down in Sussex owing to Tanner's move.
Russell explained: "About half an hour before [the announcement], I put it into the players' WhatsApp group. 'Lads, we've accepted an offer from Cardiff, Ollie's going, just want to give you a heads up.'
"Obviously Ollie is in the group as well and all the boys were all asking for signed Cardiff shirts! He's getting all the requests straight away.
"I've got a gym at the back of my garden and have one of those lights which changes colour with a remote, now I've changed it to blue - because we are all Cardiff fans now!"
