Imagine this: You have grown up supporting your local club, been a ballboy there, joined their Academy, graduated to the first team and played more than a century of games for them.
Now, finally, comes the glorious day when they will dethrone their derby rivals and win a first League title since 1968.
The catch? You have since moved clubs and to save your own skin you need to deny the team you love their crowning glory.
Welcome to Nedum Onuoha’s world. Having come through the system at Manchester City this should be the best weekend of his sporting life.
But he swapped City for Queens Park Rangers in January and the targets of the two clubs could not be more different this weekend.
Rangers need a point at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday to guarantee survival while City just need to match Manchester United’s result to be crowned champions — but Onuoha still believes it could turn out be the perfect day for him.
“If City could finish it off and win the title without finishing us off then I couldn’t be happier,” he admits with a broad smile.
That he might be in a quandary is understandable. In one moment, the defender talks with genuine excitement about what winning the Premier League would mean to City.
The next, he ponders the devastating impact relegation would have on QPR.
Whisper it quietly but Onuoha will still win even if QPR lose providing Bolton don’t triumph at Stoke.
And the 25-year-old leaves no room for doubt: his loyalties are firmly with his new employers.
He says: “QPR staying up is the biggest thing for me, no question. As long as we experience that emotion [of having secured their Premier League status] then everything else is a bonus.
“The Etihad Stadium could be the best place in the world this weekend if they win and we stay up but unfortunately that is only one of many scenarios.
“But if it happens then there will be hugs for the QPR players and fans first and then I will give City the credit they deserve.
“I don’t think I’d be invited to their party if they win the League as I only played five minutes for them this season.
“However, it’s all about QPR. It’s in our own hands. We know we can’t rely on anyone.
“On a personal level it will be emotional, though, going back to where I spent so many years. But to think they could win the League and we could stay up — it would be one of the best days of my career.”
In addition, though there are scores to settle, particularly in the case of the QPR manager, Mark Hughes, who was unceremoniously sacked by City in December 2009.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has already voiced an opinion that Hughes’s bid for revenge could spur Rangers on.
Is the same true of Onuoha? After all, his treatment at the hands of City boss Roberto Mancini, who told him not to bother coming in for training with the first team, would leave lesser men bearing a sizeable grudge.
It also cannot be forgotten that his mother, Dr Anthonia Onuoha, was mocked for suffering from cancer in an email sent by former chief executive Garry Cook. Onuoha broke his silence over that issue in an exclusive interview with Standard Sport back in March but he is adamant that revenge is not on the agenda.
He adds: “I don’t think the way it ended clouds my memories at City because I have so many good ones and most of the people I looked up to and respected are still there. It was a shame things ended the way they did but it allowed me to come here and play every week.
“I’m normally in contact with the likes of Joe Hart and Joleon Lescott most weeks but we haven’t spoken for a fortnight now — I think we are waiting to see who will go first!
“Being a City fan I have spent many years getting all sorts of grief from United fans so it would be really good if they took a step towards being as successful as United.”
Whether Hughes feels the same is another matter. But to Onuoha, mind-games are between managers and cannot affect him or his team-mates.
“Anything managers say you can’t take too seriously,” he says. “I can see where he [Ferguson] is coming from as he maybe wants to bring an extra ten per cent from our players.
“Obviously the manager [Hughes] is probably not happy with how things were done at City. But he is a proud man and he just wants to make sure his team win on Sunday to guarantee that we stay in the Premier League.”
With two former City men playing such prominent roles at Loftus Road — as well as midfielders Joey Barton and Shaun Wright-Phillips — the parallels between the two clubs are clear.
Rangers are ferociously ambitious. Their owner Tony Fernandes, the chief executive of Air Asia, was in a bar on Shepherd’s Bush Green last Sunday hours after Djibril Cisse’s last-gasp goal beat Stoke and ensured Rangers have the upper hand going into this weekend.
A fan asked him when his flight was the next morning. Fernandes’s answer was pure Hollywood: “The best thing about owning an airline is that it really doesn’t matter,” he said.
So, if Rangers survive on Sunday what does the future hold for the club?
Onuoha adds: “If we stay up then everyone will celebrate but the real work is to come next season as a relegation battle isn’t what most of us came here for and it’s not what the owner invested in the club for.
“They want success and as much of it as possible. There is a lot of potential at QPR but great potential doesn’t always lead to great success. We have to do things the right way. You would like to think if we survive the lessons will be learned to ensure we aren’t in this position again.”
First, there is Sunday, with the immediate future on the agenda. So, Onuoha, do City deserve to win the League? “Yes, they’ve been the most consistent team all season.”
Do QPR deserve to stay up? A pause. “We deserve the chance to do so because we have won the big games when we have had to.”
For Onuoha, it’s a trip to heaven or hell this weekend.
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