Introduction - Meet Israel Walsh

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(A shorter, not as in depth, prologue not to give much away.)



Israel, or should I say Izzy since he despises his full name, since birth, has always had a dying need for approval. but that's never really been possible till Izzy was 12, see he was adopted by the Walsh family after being put back in the system for a year after his first adoption.

 **CIRCUMSTANCES CLASSIFIED**

But still with urge for approval, Izzy sought out his new older sister, Keira, and not in the way you think someone might ask for help, no Israel snuck into her room once when Keira wasn't in and saw trophies.

Trophies upon trophies, all for one thing. Football. With that he gathered if he played football his new Parents would approve him, so bravely stepping up to his new adoptive father, Peter, he asked if he could play football as well.

Peter smiled warmly at the new member of the family, as up until that point Izzy had barely uttered 3 words to all of them. Peter said yes glad to find something Izzy had in common with his new family.

Little did Peter know, it would be Izzy's first time ever playing football.

Izzy loved it, he reveled in it, again not for the reasons you'd suspect, not because he loved football or his team, or scoring a goal or even winning, which he did quite a lot.

The reason Izzy loved it was purely because it allowed him to be free for that time period, free of his past and it allowed him to focus on something else.

It was clear pretty early to everyone watching that Izzy was a lot more gifted than someone should be when they only just start a sport. He played at centre back and was able to read people during the game like no-one had ever seen before

That was proven further when not even a year in to his football career, when Izzy played in a big cup final for his Saturday side. There were over 100 people on the sideline and what he'd find out later, that included scouts.

After the game, which they won, he was talking with his Parents, Izzy still hadn't called them Mum and Dad yet but he was getting there.

When a guy came up to him and the Walsh family and asked if he would be interested coming for a trial at Man City, Izzy didn't know what to do, so he looked to Keira who was the person he was closest to.

Keira was already playing for both Blackburn and England's youth setup, so he thought she'd know best. All she did was nod her head, so Izzy accepted the trial and a few weeks later was a City acadamy player.

The Walsh family always seemed to have friends over, mostly Izzy's adoptive Mother, Tracey's, friends, but Keira often brought her friends by as well and sometimes that'd include Leah Williamson.

Leah was always curious about the boy in the house, his bedroom door would always be locked and when the family had meals, Izzy would barely say anything then go right back to his room.

The curiousity grew exponentially when during one of her stays in the house, Leah found she couldn't sleep so left Keira's room to go and get a drink, and passing by Izzy's room was shocked when a bang rang out.

Izzy had woken up in a cold sweat from another nightmare, and tossed and turned but couldn't get back to sleep, tears in his eyes as he got out of bed and punched his door in frustration 

"Damn you, let me go, even now, you've cursed me for the rest of my life."

Leah was in shock when she heard his pleas and sobs, who was he talking to or about, she knew it wasn't Peter and Tracey. Leah scampered down the stairs to get a drink and lay awake a while once she returned to Keira's room, thoughts plagued about what she heard until she fell asleep.

Time passed and both the Walsh kids grew in success and when Israel turned 19, he and Keira got their own place as now they both played for Man City so they thought it would just be easier on both of them.

All their parents had asked was they stay in touch which they both promised they would. That same year Izzy got his proffesional debut in a 4-0 win against Bournemouth. 

It wasn't an eventful debut but he wasn't complaining, sadly though first team games were few and far between and he was getting a bit tired of it and consulted his family expressing his frustrations.

Especially Keira, Izzy talked like he never had before because his freedom was being taken away when he wasn't playing, that break from reality that he craved wasn't there and he didnt like it.

Getting the odd game for 3 years had Izzy very frustrated and during the summer of Covid 19 and the break between the 19/20 and 20/21 season he reached his breaking point and Izzy asked Pep Guardiola if he could leave the club.

The meeting they had went on for a bit more than Izzy thought it would and it ended with a firm handshake between the two and the City manager saying it had been a pleasure watching Izzy's development and he hopes they stay in touch.

That Summer/Autumn period was very stressful for Izzy with a few calls from his agent saying he had a few options abaroad but that didn't appeal to him at the moment he wanted to stay home.

So when he got the phone call that Man City had accepted a £7.5 million bid from Fulham for his services, Izzy was excited, this intrigued him as it was a different type of challenge than he faced at City.

Izzy took a pay cut to join the East London side, but he didn't mind that because to Izzy there was no price on peace of mind.

That season was good for Izzy but bad for his side as they ended up getting relegated, but Izzy as well as a few others stood out a mile and now with the constant game time, he had given himself the exposure to some top clubs.

With Fulham in the Championship, the £35 million price tag they were hearing for Israel Walsh were amazing and would help the club financially and since Izzy wanted the move back to the Premier League, it was win-win.

Izzy wanted to stay in London, he liked the capitol because it felt like he could fade in to the background on the busy streets.

The phone calls he had with agent told him he had a few options of either West Ham, Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea. Now to Izzy the choice was easy.

Especially when he got a personal phone call from Mikel Arteta asking how he had been since they both left City and explaining what he was building at Arsenal and why he would be a good fit for the Gunners.

It was a very good phone call and in the next few days after sorting out contract details that put him on a 4 year deal with room for extension a long the way.

The lockdown for Covid 19 seriously affected Izzy as there was no distractions to take his mind away, but thankfully for him it seems to have passed and now Izzy can keep his mind busy once again.

But that doesn't take away from the fact that Izzy is on his own in a big city at a new club where he doesn't know anyone properly.

Maybe that might change when he finds out who lives in the same apartment complex as him.

And maybe Leah might be able to get some answers to those questions at the back of her mind about her best friend's brother.

Maybe they could get to know each other more, I mean what could happen.






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Comments and Feed back is always appreciated as I'm always looking to improve and give me your thoughts, BYEEEEE

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