Tag: Tottenham

Special Aura

Amy O2 Comments

Earlier in the week before we traveled to London, I read a piece in The Athletic about a footballer named Jason Kaminsky, who died at age 31 in 2005. Jason Kaminsky had been a promising youth player for Nottingham Forest who made his professional debut at 18 as a sub against Luton Town in April 1992. He had been nurtured by Manager Brian Clough and, at the time he made his appearance, had been expected by many of his former teammates to have a long and successful career. He’d been a top scorer in the youth league and was physically big and strong, with a big personality to match. He had a decent afternoon that April day, setting up a goal for Teddy Sheringham that was ultimately disallowed for being offside.

Source: The Athletic, 8/19/2025

However, Clough was near the end of his appointment at Nottingham Forest, retiring in the next season, an embattled one in which Nottingham Forest were ultimately relegated from the league. Jason Kaminsky did not play professionally again, that season or ever. A new manager, Frank Clark, brought in an excellent new striker, relegating Kaminsky to fifth choice. His contract was terminated.

For some players, that might be the beginning of seeking new pastures, but if Kaminsky did seek new pastures he was not welcomed to or for other reasons did not graze there. He was mentally crushed. And the partying lifestyle he’d come to know as a player at Nottingham Forest continued until alcohol consumed his very life. At the age of 31, he passed away in the hospital, waiting for a liver transplant that never came.

The day before my husband and I travelled to London, the prevailing transfer gossip for Arsenal was that Eberchi Eze, then a creative player with Crystal Palace, was coming to Arsenal. It was a bit of a shock. Arsenal had pursued Eze earlier in the transfer window and then it suddenly went quiet as Arsenal completed a new contract with 18-year old Ethan Nwaneri. Nwaneri had been with the Arsenal academy since he was 8 years old, breaking into the top team on September 2022 when he was only 15 years old. Over the next couple of seasons he found himself more regularly in the action, possessing obvious talent. And, we hope, a great future with Arsenal. So the question was, had all the links to Eze just been a bargaining chip? It seemed that way. And more recently, gossip had held that Eze would almost certainly be going to our arch rivals, Tottenham. There were just a few wrinkles to work out.

As a youth player, Eze had been in the Arsenal Academy but had been cut from the squad at the age of 13. It was a blow not just to him but to his whole family who had been big Arsenal fans. And the blows didn’t stop there. As a youth player Eze was later cut from Fulham, Reading, and even Millwall. But he didn’t give up. Following a trial with Queens Park Rangers he signed a professional contract with QPR in 2016 when he was 18.

Things started just OK at QPR. He got one start the first season and was promptly injured. The next season he was loaned out to a lower division team where he appeared fairly regularly and did quite well. In his third season with QPR he started featuring regularly and becoming more and more important to the team. In 2020, he was sold to Crystal Palace. The important growth that had started at QPR kicked into high gear and kept leveling up. I remember him being a handful when Arsenal played Crystal Palace.

When early transfer rumors had Eze coming to Arsenal, the Arsenal fan based seemed united behind the value he could offer. (That is not always true. When Arsenal fans learned that Chelsea’s Noni Madueke was coming to Arsenal, many revolted. Madueke had to turn off his social media accounts because people were so evil.) So it was a little depressing to learn mid week before our trip that Eze was probably going to Tottenham. At 27, even though he was arguably a late bloomer, that move would probably be his last big one. Even if he could be acquired from Tottenham at a later date, the Tottenham mark would be upon him.

But Tottenham are notoriously fussy in their negotiations and as they dragged out without being finalized, it seemed that Eze felt he had one last ditch effort to make to try to return to the club that cut him more years ago than he had lived by the time he’d been cut. He called Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta. The day he called happened to have been just after Kai Havertz experienced a new injury. Did the next actions have to do with that or something else? Maybe we will learn someday. But Arsenal’s Board met that day and Arsenal’s sporting director got busy. Rumors started again that he might be coming to Arsenal.

When my husband and I arrived at the Arsenal match against Leeds, we were quickly shooed to our seats for a big announcement. And out of the tunnel came our newest player in jeans and his new #10 jersey, Eberchi Eze. The deal had been done in 48 hours after the phone call to Arteta.

What a joyous homecoming that was. We fans were excited and cheering and you could tell Eze felt moved. A prayer by his mother on the day he’d been cut had finally been answered in the affirmative. A week later, our manager Mikel Arteta commented in his press conference that he’s found in the week that Eze’s been practicing that he has “a special aura.” That aura was evident on the night.

The story of Jason Kaminsky and the story of Eberechi Eze came heavily into my consciousness in the same week and I think it’s important to be careful of the lessons of these stories. They are probably related by only a few things. Both young men were gifted footballers. Both probably had a special aura. Both had early setbacks. I reckon both of their mothers prayed over their lives. But only for one is the ending final, not a good one. And only for one is there an upswing in life’s middle.

This is a very weird and unnatural life, to play a sport that captivates fans to the point their week is a little ruined when the team plays badly and made happy when the team plays well. When as a player you are a hero in one moment and a goat (not the good kind) in another. Also, let’s face it: not only sports figures have bad days, lost confidence, fair and unfair challenges. Who turn to artificial means to dull their senses, some of whom may dull them to their very deaths. Whose prayers are not answered or at least not answered in the way they would like.

Cheerful thoughts.

For the Leeds match it was a ridiculously feel-good day. I was sitting in the Club section on the Northeast side facing the penalty area. For Club People, my compatriots were pretty enthusiastic. My sense while at the Emirates and experiencing the match in real time was that we didn’t play all that well, struggling to break down a newly promoted team we should have been able to handle easily. A breakthrough finally came about 35 minutes in when Arsenal had a corner kick.

Yes, another goal scored on a corner kick.

Declan Rice put up a lovely ball and Jurrien Timber got his head to it. After the time the Arsenal fans started to make early to the beer lines in the concourse for halftime, Timber passed a perfect ball to Bukayo Saka, just in the space where Saka can do the most damage. He did do that damage. It was 2-0 at halftime.

It occurs to me that the people who got to the beer early were probably in their seats by the time the game re-started, but those who waited were probably still finishing their beer in the concourse when new guy Viktor Gyokeres managed to score his first Premier League goal. It was the kind of goal he has a history of scoring, where half the work is physical, opening a space where none exists, and half is him placing the ball perfectly in the tiny space available.

The fourth goal was a funny one. Yes, another corner kick, but one that bobbled around in the penalty area with a lot of missed and sloppy kicks by both teams until Jurrien Timber took charge and looped it into the goal. There was nothing pretty about it but it counted.

I know very little about Timber’s narrative. I’m sure he’s faced plenty of challenges that he’s had to overcome. What I know of him is that he performs game in and game out and had a seriously impactful day against Leeds.

The day was capped off by an appearance by our latest 15-year old wunderkind, Max Dowman. Dowman made several appearances in the pre-season and every Arsenal fan is thrilled about what this player may produce in the future for Arsenal. He is a marvelous dribbler and all through the preseason he gave defenders fits. In the Leeds match he managed in added time to dribble dangerously into the box where he was marginally fouled. The referee pointed to the spot and the penalty was taken by Gyokeres. He hit it so hard and so perfectly you didn’t have time to be nervous.

Max Dowman is an obviously talented teenager. So many potential obstacles ahead of him. I hope Arsenal is helping to equip him to handle them.

The game ended 5-0.

The biggest downside of the day was that our terrible injury record of last season has followed us into this season. In the Leeds match, our captain and midfielder Martin Odegaard was injured early in the match and had to be replaced with Ethan Nwaneri. Very worrisome, but Ethan did a fine job stepping in. Early in the second half we lost Bukayo Saka to a hamstring strain. Fortunately, we could shift Noni Madueke from the left to the right, where he plays better anyway. Considering how mad some Arsenal fans were when he was bought this summer, I hope they noticed that Madueke had a perfectly good day.

We left the stadium in good cheer, with the fans chanting the earworm that is the Gyokeres song. Supposedly there is chant for Jurien Timber, but I’ve never heard it. He deserved a good chant on the day.

A very happy home opener for the season. You could say it, too, had a special aura.

(En)chant(ed)

Amy OLeave a comment

So I take back what I said before the Tottenham match. Maybe only the Club People have lost their belief. Maybe they never had it, or needed it. Maybe they all just desperately needed cash that day. Or a good night’s sleep. But what I experienced at the match showed fan hope and fervent love for Arsenal. Yes, some momentary despair was in the air at times. And for sure a thing that was in the air was a lot of disdain for our rivals, Tottenham Hotspur.

I’ve been the the North London Derby only once before and, like that experience, this one did not disappoint.

The route to the stadium was unbelievably straightforward. Trains not too crowded, gates running smoothly. We stopped at the Armoury again because we had so much time on our hands after we got to the stadium even though we got a late start. It was almost empty.

All of these things made me double down on my worries about what the atmosphere might be like in the stadium in the so-called-by-me post-belief Arsenal world. The only sign that this was a match a lot of people might care about was the massive police presence outside of the stadium near where the Tottenham fans would come in. We saw what looked like a well-protected group of Tottenham fans being held over one of the bridges into the stadium to guarantee safety as we arrived at our gate on the East side of the stadium.

And then. And then. We got into the stadium. So many people standing in the concourse singing with great passion and energy. It was raucous, so loud. The stadium was full. Even the Club part where all those tickets had been up for sale filled in nicely.

The singing is one of the things that brings me the feeling I understand as collective effervescence that brings me back to the stadium again and again. You just feel like you are being swept up in this crowd of people and becoming one with them. I know it’s over a sport, maybe nothing that will change the world, but when I’m in it I feel goosebumps right into even my brain. Listening to a crowd of 60,000 people singing “North London Forever” gets me. Tears sometimes. But this time, oh my goodness, it was so LOUD I think you could hear it on the moon.

I think both of my visits to the stadium this week reminded me that even though I’ve been a devoted Arsenal supporter for more than 15 years I can never fully understand the history that is in the bodies of these fans. At an FA Cup match there were FA-specific songs, many of them I had never heard before. But huge numbers of fans in the stadium can pick them up and sing them easily just because someone got the inspiration and let the song in their heart OUT of their heart. Each song was just waiting for someone to start it.

And with the Tottenham match, that history came out in a different way. Now, singing is used to inspire the team. “We love you Arsenal, we do,” is an example. It’s also used to reward the team. After a player does something particularly impressive, the fans often reflect that back with a chant. It might be that player’s special song bestowed on them by the fans, like Gabriel Magalhaes song or might be a tune everyone knows that inserts the player’s name. When Ethan Nwaneri, a homegrown 18-year old, does something well, the fans sing, “He’s one of our own, he’s one of our own, Ethan Nwaneri, he’s one of our own,” just inserting his name into a familiar construct everyone knows.

Big Gabi is sung a lot because, lately, he scores a lot. On a corner kick, which Arsenal is recently quite good at, his is the head that usually produces the goal. But it’s more than that. He just delivers a complete performance, like he deeply cares about doing his best. Fans appreciate and notice that.

But chanting is also used to put an opponent in its place. And although I would say the chanting at the Emirates is typically 80% for our team and 20% against the other team, when Arsenal plays Tottenham that balance is substantially changed. Probably 50% of the chants were for Arsenal and 50% were against Tottenham. And let’s face it, don’t we all get more creative when our brains are doing the devil’s work? Some of the anti-Tottenham songs were as choice as could be. And largely unknown by me. It’s not yet in my DNA the way it is for my fellow supporters. I am just a new visitor to the history of this great rivalry.

We were close again to the Tottenham supporters and the job of an Arsenal fan close to the enemy is to make sure they are drowned out. It was a tough challenge. Although Tottenham was abject, they still managed to score first and that really energized their fans and demoralized ours. But even when we could not muster a real song to drown them out, we perfected our booing to cover them up as best as we could.

But Arsenal came good, scoring 2 goals. One from a corner and by Gabriel (although they later gave it as an own goal against a Tottenham player) and a bit later by a shot taken at distance by Leo Trossard. He had kind of a terrible match but he took a shot and the keeper did not stop it.

Then Arsenal managed to keep Tottenham at bay until the full 90 minutes + 5 added were up. I was a wreck for the last 30 minutes along with my compatriots. And so, apparently, was our captain Martin Odegaard, who collapsed on the field when the final whistle blew. So much soccer in so few days. And probably so much relief to ultimately hold on to the win.

And then “North London Forever” once more. Twice as loud as the loudest I’d ever heard it, at the beginning of the match, which was already twice as loud as the loudest I’d ever heard it before Wednesday.

We were happy, relieved, joyful. But we celebrated en masse on our way back to the train with the not-lofty but so familiar call and response:

“What do you think of Tottenham?” (Every Arsenal fan knows the correct answer is “Shit.”)

“What do you think of shit?” (Every Arsenal fan knows the correct answer is “Tottenham.”)

The day they stopped believing

Amy O1 Comment

Every time I’m watching TV and Arsenal has had a goal scored against it or a poor result, I’ve opened the ticketing app to see if the setback has had an impact on people selling their tickets on the ticketing exchange. It never has. This has given me a picture of resilience among the fans. Their tickets, by and large, have been precious and their belief in the team has been firm. True, at least, if ticket retention can be understood as a leading indicator.

That said, fans have been more vocally upset about how Arsenal has been doing. Which is to say, basically not really challenging Liverpool for the title. Arsenal sits in 3rd place with a game in hand on the second place team. Hardly a terrible season but after narrowly missing out on the Premier League title last year and a little less narrowly the year before that, and Man City falling apart spectacularly, yeah, you feel like why can’t this be our year? It can’t because Liverpool is much revived after losing its beloved manager Jurgen Klopp for a new guy, Arne Slot, and striker Mo Salah having an amazing year. As well positioned as Arsenal are in the results table, Arsenal’s point total is technically as close to 8th place as it is to 1st. Every rare time Liverpool falters, so too does Arsenal.

Now there are plenty of extenuating circumstances. Most importantly, there has been one important injury after another. Although Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has shown he will happily rely on a team sheet that is working for him match after match, he has had significantly more limited options for much of this season that preclude putting his best/favorite team on the field. I’ve rarely been disappointed by the lineup he puts up but there is a lot shifting around. And the results are not ideal.

My husband and I realized there were three home matches within one week this week, so we endeavored to get tickets for one of them so we could justify going to London and try to get the others. We had failed to put in a ballot for the Manchester United FA cup match and our ballots were rejected for the Tottenham and Aston Villa matches. We had a reasonably easy time getting tickets on the ticket exchange for the Aston Villa match (club seats, so not ideal, but at least in the stadium). We bought plane tickets and organized a hotel. We had no further luck in getting tickets for the other matches before Friday, when we would leave Chicago.

I guess you could say our luck got worse on Friday because my husband slipped on ice on his morning walk and was concussed. He showed up at my bedside in the morning with a head wound and his hands experiencing burning pain. We drove through a snow storm to the emergency room where he had a CT scan, two staples, and got prescriptions for pain relief and muscle relaxants. The doctor said it was technically ok to go to London, but given the pain he was in, we decided not to. We got home and I started working. We hadn’t cancelled anything because it was already too late for some of the arrangements and didn’t matter when we cancelled some of the others.

Late in the afternoon, I detected some strange activity. “Uh, what are you doing?” I asked my spouse. He said “I’m packing for London.”

OK, then! I had not packed or, really, even showered that day due to the early morning excitement. But I can be flexible, too. So I did those things and we flew to London that night. I knew by the time we were at the airport there’s no way we should have gone to London, but my husband would not hear of turning around.

He’s not seen much of London so far this week, but he’s finally off the muscle relaxants and more alert. He is keenly hoping to have a London Pride before we leave London.

I’ve also not seen much, because I’ve been working. But I do get a lovely walk each morning and to work in a cozy hotel lobby facing a pretty courtyard next to St Olave’s church where supposedly is buried, uh, “Mother Goose” and diarist Samuel Pepys.

That brings us to the first match on Sunday where we were fervently hoping the Arsenal ticket exchange would be opened to people who had not balloted for Manchester United FA Cup tickets. That never happened given high demand from people who had unsuccessfully balloted. Instead I arranged to have roast at The Marksman at noon after which we would supposedly attend the match. The exchange had closed and, while we had a yummy lunch, with regard to tickets for the match, we had nothing.

In any case, Arsenal had a match to contend with. Although I thought Arsenal played great in the first half, we continued to have trouble scoring and the tide changed again in the second half. Manchester United was pretty dire, but they still managed enough action to score first. We scored not too long after that, with nice work from Gabriel. Meanwhile, it seems our injuries just kept piling up. Gabriel Jesus left in a stretcher. Jurien Timber had to be subbed out. Manchester United did a lot of fouling and had a man sent off with a red card. But even so, we could not break them down. And it didn’t look like we would be able to. We had a chance for Martin Odegaard to score a penalty. He has never missed a penalty. But his kick was saved by the keeper that day. The match went into overtime and then into penalties to settle it.

And from there, our keeper David Raya saved none of the penalties and Manchester United missed none of their kicks. Meanwhile, the Manchester United keeper saved one from our Kai Havertz. Very disappointed to already be out of the FA cup competition.

Once we were back to our hotel after watching the match I noticed something I’d never seen before in the age of watching the ticket exchange. Tickets for the Tottenham match were in bigger supply than anything I’ve ever seen before. There have been days I’ve clicked for a ticket probably hundreds of times and not seen a single ticket. On Sunday, I was seeing an available ticket on almost every click. I couldn’t access any of them, but they were there. Keeping in mind this Tottenham match is on a weekday night and therefore a bit less desirable, probably, for many people, this is a match against our biggest rival by far.

The next day, the number of available tickets was even bigger and not just for club seats. My husband and I managed to find and buy non-club seats together. All day Monday and Tuesday the number of seats available was at unprecedented levels. Just this afternoon, a few hours before the match, more than 30 seats were listed and available. It’s true they were mostly club seats and as I previously stated, when sitting at the club level, you just kind of feel like people aren’t quite into it. Still you would expect some interest and excitement in this match.

I know it’s just behavior on a ticket exchange, but this marks the first time in a long time that Arsenal fans seem to have lost hope and belief. I am sad for sure and yes, here we are probably knowing this year is not the year.

I’m leaving for the match soon. I know a lot of things can happen. It’s hard to imagine they will be positive things.

But I do believe in this team. If not today, or this year, some day and some year.

Wish us luck.

At the end, Spurs went over to thank their fan. . .

Amy O5 Comments

. . . for by the time the whistle blew, there was approximately one Tottenham fan remaining in the stands. 

What. A. Day.

We left the Somerset house and made our way over to the Covent Garden tube station. We had a bit of time so we walked through Covent Garden, enjoying the sun and the market. Not much was going on by this time, it was far too early, but it was still fun to look at the shops and restaurants and market. 

Normally, we take the Piccadilly line all the way to the Arsenal stop. The other option, sometimes, is Holloway Road, which allows you to enter the stadium complex from the opposite side. We always think of the Arsenal Tube stop as part of the required game day experience, but in reality, the Holloway Road stop is often closed on match days and not really an option. It was an option yesterday, maybe because we arrived with more than 90 minutes to spare. There were plenty of people who had the same idea. 

We used part of our time to stop into the Armoury and look at the merch. In the interim since our last visit I had decided that the pink jersey was not for me; rather, the black one was. However, the lingering Pandemic/Russia invasion supply chain crisis had a few things to say about that; there were actually no jerseys available in any color but red, anywhere near my size. Probably for the best. We departed merch-less.

We left the shop and wandered over to Highbury, which is just a few blocks away. The old Arsenal stadium has been turned into townhomes and the pitch is a park in the middle. The entrances were well guarded on Saturday. There have been times when we were able to sneak in, but that was not going to happen without a fight this time.

We took a few pictures and went over to Gillespie Road to pick up some barbecue for lunch. Then we went back and circled the stadium, picking up as much good luck as possible. By the time we went inside, I had chased down Gunnersaurus, the ridiculous Arsenal mascot, and got a photo bomb-like picture with “him,” posed with Statue Tony Adams, rubbed Statue Thierry Henry’s head, and touched Statue Dennis Bergkamp’s right knee before entering the stadium. 

The fans were up for the match; it was a party atmosphere, even more than what we experienced for the past few matches. I suppose this was not surprising considering we were playing our arch rivals, Tottenham. I’ve never been to a match against Tottenham. It happens to be the favorite match of the person who shares the season tickets that allows us to attend. When we were here for the last set of matches, we asked him why he wasn’t attending the Tottenham game this year. He admitted that we had his daughter to thank. She was getting married in Greece right at about kickoff. He told us it was a hard match to miss; whatever the atmosphere was normally like, for the North London Derby, it was 20% more.

I’d say that was about so.

There have been a few beer-related changes at the Emirates recently. One of the changes: Arsenal no longer has a contract with Carlsberg for beer. Instead, it’s with the much preferred Camden Town brewery. Second: there is a beer-only concession line to more quickly serve the fans who want only that. (Many.) And finally, the beer is served in “London is Red” themed reusable glasses. Signs all over the Emirates, including in the restrooms, remind us that these cups can be reused up to 100 times if deposited in the correct bins.

We learned this week from this article that the Emirates has the Premier League’s most expensive beer. We didn’t think twice about it and had the Camden Hells Lager in the upper concourse while watching fans arrive across the Ken Friar bridge and listening to a live brass band of fans, with the other fans joining in to sing. There were so many people crammed into the area I could only reliably see the top of the tuba. But it was gloriously loud.

At last we piled into Block 98, for the newly obligatory and much-loved singing of “North London Forever” and kickoff. Although Tottenham is near the top of the league, Arsenal looked great from the time the whistle blew. Dynamic, tricky, beautiful and fast. Meanwhile, Tottenham had parked a big bus in front of its goal, waiting for a counterattack. They did get a few balls off to a waiting Tottenham player and there were some nervy moments, but the first goal was to the Arsenal. Thomas Partey took a beautiful shot from distance. I’ve seen him take a lot shots far from the goal before, but never have I see him take a shot from distance that I knew was going in from the moment he struck it. It curved perfectly to the top right corner where Hugo Loris, Spur’s keeper, was never going to save it. “One nil to the Arsenal” was ringing out all over the stadium.

Before the half was over, Spurs managed to move the ball into the box and our Gabriel fouled Spur’s newly-acquired player, Richarlison. I was so sure Harry Kane’s penalty kick was going in that I considered making better use of my time by visiting the ladies’ room. However, there were so few women in the stands, I had no doubt I would be the first one in after half time. I visited in nearly complete privacy only a bit later with things level at 1 apiece. 

Arsenal continued dominating after half time and Jesus scored a scrappy, ugly goal that nonetheless put us at 2-1, when Loris spilled a shot from Saka. Shortly after that, Spur’s Emerson Royal put in a bad foul on our Gabi Martinelli. Referee Anthony Taylor took his time walking over to the site of the crime, and when he arrived, reached for his back pocket. The red card he produced stood up to VAR scrutiny, and Tottenham was down to 10 players for the remaining 30 minutes. Now I know Tottenham is probably capable of producing a moment to make us sweat and you probably know that, too, but apparently no one ever told Tottenham’s manager, Antonio Conte. He pretty much capitulated by replacing 4 starting players. Only Harry Kane remained among players likely to score. And yes, he probably could still have done some damage. 

Except he did not.

Instead, our Granit Xhaka was fed a ball inside the box and he put up a beauty of a shot away from anywhere Loris was going to be able to get. 3-1 with 20 minutes to go and very little to worry about. In the stadium we enjoyed the last few minutes with songs, which if I am being honest were more focused on taunting Tottenham than celebrating our win. We sang “You’ll always be shit” to the team that has finished above us for at least the past five years. The Tottenham section became a ghost town as their fans dribbled out of the stadium.

We remain at the top of the league.

After hanging around cheering our boys, we spilled out of the stadium into the beautiful Fall day and marched with our compatriots, singing and chanting, to Holloway Road. My husband and I got on a bus and headed toward Hampstead Heath, the beautiful, big park not far from Islington. 

We enjoyed walking past ponds and through fields and groves of trees, and taking in the famous, beautiful sight of the city from the highest point. 

On our way to the tube station on the other side of the park we passed a lovely pub with outdoor seating called The Garden Gate, where we made an impromptu visit for beer and dinner while enjoying being outside. A lovely ending to a successful North London Derby.

My first, but hopefully not my only.

In the airport this morning I read an article on ESPN.com that provided updated statistics from FiveThirtyEight about the chances of any one team winning the Premier League. According to them, Arsenal’s chances to win the Premier League are only 10%. Manchester City, last year’s winner and, let’s face it, the winner for at least half of the last 10 years is credited with a 71% chance.

These are not the kind of statistics that make you feel confident of a big, happy ending to come. And, statistics or no, I can see with my own eyes that we have a ways to go to catch a team as good as Manchester City. Except for a couple of tied matches, they are destroying everything in their path.

However, that hasn’t stopped me from signing on for the last match of the season. No matter how unlikely the chances, if we get the trophy on the final day, I will be there.