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  It also affirmed, three years into his career, where Mahomes wanted to be. “Loves the city, loves the community, and has the understanding like, Look, I trust the ownership. I trust the coaches. I trust player personnel. And if I’m gonna do this, I have to have trust that they’re always gonna provide me with talent and have a plan,” Veach says. “And, Yeah, there’s gonna be some years where we may have to move on from or trade really good players, but I understand that these guys are gonna be able to have different plans as my career goes on. I believe that this is the place that will have the best plan in place for me. “I think that’s why it’s so unique, it’s because you have to have the stars aligned. If you have one of the players in this thing—whether it be the owner, the coach, player personnel, player, agent—with a different take, this thing doesn’t work.” They were (and still are) aligned in Kansas City, so the next step was moving to Phase 2 of the Mahomes era.

  Take, for example, the number of Met officers accused of racism  and the epidemic of sexual violence perpetuated by male officers towards women, both in their private lives and at work. Rampant homophobia in the police, meanwhile, is leading to the tragic loss of young lives. Troubled forces, the Met included, could learn a lot from programmes such as Happy Valley. I was told 40 years ago, working for the Met, that I was naive and did not understand how the world worked when I wanted to see senior officers of colour. Well, I do not apologise for criticising the glacial pace of change in the police. If the writer of Happy Valley and the BBC can see clearly what the next generation of the police and its leaders should look like, why can’t forces such as the Met do the same? Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.