How he kept his promise we did not know, and we did not care.

Right from the start of the season Leicester City, our wonderful Foxes, just started winning. The very first match we beat Sunderland 4–2. Easy peasy.

We came back from two goals down to beat Aston Villa 3–2, scoring three goals in the last twenty minutes. Easy peasy.

Soon we were up to fifth place in the league. We were there at every home match, not just Dad and me, but the whole family now. Dad and me came for the football, of course, for the Foxes, but Mum and my sisters came for the easy pickings after the match: the hotdog rolls soaked in tomato sauce, the left-behind pizza slices.

But we were worried. We were letting in too many goals, not beating everyone the way we needed to if we were going to win the league, like he had promised us.

But the Ghost King was not bothered, not one bit. “Don’t you worry, my friends,” he told us. “I had a word with the manager, that Ranieri fellow – I told him in a dream. I said, ‘Use bribery; it’s the only way.’ Kings know these things.”

Next thing we heard that Ranieri had promised the players that whenever they kept a clean sheet, no goals scored against them, then he would give them all a treat and take them out for a pizza.

It worked a treat too! The Foxes chased and chased, tackled and tackled; the goalkeeper saved goal after goal.

We were there at the Crystal Palace match, the whole family of us foxes, cheering them on, and we were there too down the alleyway at the back of the pizzeria after we had beaten them 1–0, not letting in a single goal, and the players were inside scoffing their pizzas.

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We waited until they’d finished, then knocked over the dustbins outside and scoffed the leftovers – theirs and everyone else’s. We were chomping away on our heroes’ pizzas! Best pizzas I ever had!

That was the match when we all began to believe the impossible dream might happen – my little sisters too, Mum as well. They were loving the football now as much as the pizzas.

After that Crystal Palace match, we just went on winning, and Ranieri kept taking the team out for pizzas, because so few sides could ever score against us.