"I was in Year 7 when I first went to Villa. I’d been at West Brom a couple of times and I'd been in to Walsall and it just never quite worked.

"I remember my dad, who is a big Villa fan, driving me to Bodymoor the first time and he said ‘We’ll make this your last one so you can enjoy football’ because I was obviously getting upset when I didn’t get signed.

"After that I just went on and on and on and on. It was just one of those surreal things.

"I wasn’t allowed to get ahead of myself. It helped having the knockbacks because I went into it knowing what it’s like to be told 'no', so I was more relaxed.

"I was still playing for the district on a Saturday, and you’d have your matches at Villa on Sundays.

"I was getting that enjoyment, seeing my friends and the school were really supportive.

"My Mum and Dad kept me grounded. My Mum doesn’t drive so it’d be my dad taking me. We’d have a 30, 40-minute conversation and most of the time it wasn’t even on football.

"We'd be cleaning boots, blowing up balls, getting the cones ready.

"I remember once it was snowing and the first-team had their pitch cover on and we were training in the barn.

"Our training session was stopped because the first-team needed us to go and take the covers off and clear their pitch.

"There were bonuses. On matchdays three of us would have to go and help the kitman tidy the changing room after the game.

"At half-time we’d collect all the balls in. It was a good experience being on the pitch with 40,000 fans even though you weren’t playing.

"I quite liked it, it was like a routine. You have to start at the bottom to build your way up, but I know it’s a lot different there now.

"NextGen has got to be right up there but having the opportunity to play for my country was big for me and my family.

"I remember when the letter first came through that I'd been selected. I played at Under-16s, 17s and 18s.

"It’s more since I've come out of Villa that I can reflect on it.

"At the time I didn’t realise I was doing as well as I did. It's probably one of my downfalls that I didn’t realise how good I actually was.

"So I just treated it as ‘I probably won’t get called up to the next one’ type of thing rather than thinking I’m one of the best for my age in the country.

"It’s mental strength and I know Villa do this a lot now, a lot more when I was playing there. They have psychologists.

"It’s not just how good you believe you are. It’s how do you block out the noises? How do you come back from injuries?

"I don’t know any player who’s gone through it without injury or without a setback. It's the mental side of football that people don’t see.

"You’ve got the psychologists, but I don’t think that’s something that you can teach.

"You can practice to be the best technically, you can train to be the fittest, but to have that mindset of saying ‘I’m going to do this, nothing’s going to phase me’ that's something else entirely.

"People who’ve got that mentality will make a career some way in some league just through resilience, but football is a ruthless, ruthless industry.

"Gordon Cowans rang me. We’d just got our kit for the next season and I remember him saying ‘Have you unpacked yours yet?’

"He said: 'You need it because you’re flying out to Germany tomorrow.’

"Lambert had been at the final of the NextGen, so I knew he'd been watching. Me and Graham Burke had to catch the next flight out to Germany - it was a bit of a whirlwind.

"I think I played against Paderborn and Bochum and then we came back and played Wycombe and Luton.

"I knew what was coming at Villa. Sean Kimberley, the Academy Manager, came in and said ‘I know you’ve got that offer so it’s probably the best time for us to do this…’.

"It's hard when you've come up through the ranks, made so many friends and been there so long, but I was okay with it because I knew I had something lined up.

"It was probably the easiest conversation they had even though I’d been there 10 years.

"I definitely lost my love of football. It was one of those things, maybe it was down to me, maybe it was being 20 and going to live five-and-a-half hours away.

"I just wanted to play golf, take my head completely away from football and have nothing to do with it.

"But I was still speaking to Sean Verity and then I slowly started to get that feeling coming back - yeah I want to be involved again.

"I did some of my coaching qualifications and the coaching side of it brought me back to wanting to play again.

"It was good seeing it from another perspective. Now I get to see it from the coach's side and because I’m still playing I see it from the player’s side too.

"When I played football at Villa I was a thinking type of player, reading the game, so coaching has really intrigued me.

"It’s more about your brain as a coach. How do you get the best out of a certain individual, how do you get the team to function? There's lots of different factors to try and work out.

"I’m with the Under-9s at the minute. I’ve only just qualified so it was a good place to go in.

”I spoke a lot to Mark Delaney. He started off in the foundation and built himself up through the age groups that way.

"They're still at that age where football isn’t that serious to them, it’s purely the love of playing. It’s good because you can try new things that they won't have done before.

"It’s about enthusiasm and because they’re enthusiastic that’s helped me get my enthusiasm back as well.

"Before you start any match make sure you have your shirt tucked in, greet the coaches with a handshake and stuff like that.

"It’s the little things. You don’t realise it at the time but it’s building that foundation of having respect for your coaches and respect for your teammates.

"How you look, how you behave, it's important. Now I get it. It makes sense.

"Obviously you're in the moment and it isn’t until you ring your family and your friends and they’re like ‘What’s Old Trafford like?’.

"It’s only because you’re so focused on the game, you don’t really take in what you’ve just done.

"Villa Park is a special place. I don’t think it will ever become just another football pitch. The stadium, the history and stuff.

"I probably didn’t realise until now where I was or what I did. When someone asks me ‘What did you do in football?’ I’m not someone who is going to blurt things out.

"Then when they ask me more they’ll go ‘Ooh you were actually quite good then, weren't you?’ and I’m like 'Yeah, maybe I was!'.

"I'm proud to have done what I've done. If I resented it, it would have taken me longer to get over and I wouldn't have got to where I am now.

"For me, the biggest thing the ones getting released need to do is back themselves.

"They’ve just got to get their heads down and work hard.

"I was always sceptical about going to non-league when I was at Villa, but that was probably my biggest mistake - just go and play men’s football because you’ll learn so much stuff.

"If you can show your potential, show what you’re made of, the opportunities are still there.

"Just look at the Conference Prem (the National League). That’s full-time football, it’s still your job, a full-time footballer.

"Kids playing in Academies think 'Do I want to play non-league? Nope, why would I?’. When, actually, why wouldn’t you want to?

"Go and be the best player week-in, week-out, go and score goals, make loads of assists, get loads of clean sheets.

"Do well and people will come and watch you - and then that’s when you show them what you’re about."

Josh Webb in 2022.