In 2014 an American man with an Irish name was driving around Ireland. This was just about the time we’d released our book about the Invincibles and our unbeaten season. I was busy at home bubble-wrapping and posting these hardbacks to Arsenal fans all over the world.
This man sent me an email and asked if he might stop by my house to buy one. It was a bit unusual but I said sure, and he arrived. We talked on the doorstep about the supporters group he belonged to in Texas and how, over the years, it had grown from a handful of Arsenal fans meeting to watch games to something much bigger than that. In the end he took his book and I wished him a pleasant time as he set off on his road-trip around the country.
12 years later, this man and his wife decided, on a kind of whim, to travel to London for the weekend to see if they could find a way to get to the final home game of the season. If not, at least they’d be around North London to watch the game in a bar somewhere with other Arsenal fans. They had a drink at the hotel, and chatted about that time he was in Ireland to pick up a book from Arseblog, and then decided to go out for a bite to eat.
Meanwhile, an Irishman in London for the weekend pressed the button to descend to the ground floor of his hotel, one of the many, many hotels in this city. As the lift opened, two women descending from a higher floor thought they’d arrived on the ground floor and stepped out.
“This is 3!”, said the Irishman.
“Ooops!” one them said, and there was that awkward shuffle as they turned back around. The delay allowed another couple to catch the lift before the doors closed. A man stood opposite the Irishman. He looked at him for a moment.
“Arseblog?”, he asked.
“Yes”, said the Irishman.
“Do you remember me?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t!”.
“I called to your house in Ireland to buy a book, it must be … at least 10 years ago now…”
And then the Irishman did remember, because in 2014, after we launched the book in London, there was the small matter of the FA Cup final against Hull. Arsenal, without a trophy since 2005, were desperate for silverware again. I don’t need to go into the details of how difficult we made it to win that final (thanks Aaron Ramsey!), but we did it, and one of the cool things afterwards were the proliferation of videos that emerged of Arsenal fans all over the world, watching in their various bars and clubs, reacting to the goals we scored and the final whistle.
Everyone already knew that the fanbase was global, but some of these videos went ‘viral’, and it really demonstrated how the incredible the support for the club is wherever you happen to live. Which is why when this guy called to my house, the chat about his Arsenal group in Texas, and the way it had grown from inauspicious beginnings, stuck with me. I’ve met a lot of people over the years and it’s always great to chat, but I will say some of those conversations have not stood the test of time. My memory isn’t great the best of times.
I know people say stuff like ‘It’s a small world’ when stuff like this happens, but there’s something more to it. The way everything has to align for that moment to occur, when I decided to go downstairs; when they decided to come to London and then chose the same hotel when normally they stay in a different part of the city; when the woman stepping out meant the doors didn’t close so they could catch the same lift; I don’t know what it all means, whether it’s a good omen or just the biggest kind of coincidence there is.
Maybe we’re all just random NPCs glitching all over the simulation of a universe we live in, and because we had an encounter 12 years ago it was made more likely to cross paths again. I don’t know. I like it though.
I’m not a religious person at all, but things like this sort of inexplicable randomness makes me kinda believe there’s something more. What this is, I can’t say, and I’ll probably never find out, but hey.
It’s a good story for a Saturday morning blog.
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Right, I’ll leave it there for now. If you are coming to the live show at Union Chapel later, doors open at 6.30, show starts at 7.30 with two 45 minute sections separated by an interval.
Hope to see lots of you there, and let’s hope both teams lose the FA Cup final today!