Good morning from Dublin 🇮🇪.
It feels like I’ve been away a long time, but it was only last Thursday when I flew to Budapest. A lot has happened in that time, I guess. Thankfully my trip back was pretty uncomplicated. I saw many stories of people who experienced delays and cancellations, losing lots of time and money (and probably little pieces of their mind too). I hope you’re all back safe and sound now though.
I arrived to the airport, jumped in a cab to go into town to meet Mrs Blogs for a bite to eat, and on the way I read Andrew Allen’s piece about the parade. I think I was already a bit tired and emotional, but it’s such an incredible piece of writing, that captures so much of what was brilliant about yet another congregation of Arsenal fans, that I cried. Not for the first time in the last few weeks either. And this was not my eyes getting a bit watery, much more like big cartoon raindrops plopping down my face.
The taxi driver looked at me in the rear view mirror. I think he was going to ask if I was ok then decided we’d just drive into the city centre and I thank him for that. I wouldn’t even know how to begin to explain it all.
‘Well, you see, it started back in August when 11 men took to a football pitch in Manchester …’
It’s absurd really. Except it isn’t. It’s wonderful and painful and enjoyable and miserable and I wouldn’t want to be without it. I’ve said this before, but we live in a world where so much is about hatred and division and greed. All the very worst traits of humanity inflicted upon us by hateful, greedy people in positions of power. I try and avoid it as much as possible because it actively hurts my heart.
Then the last two weeks that we’ve experienced, in all kinds of different ways all over the world, have shown the very best of what people are about. Unity, love, friendship, caring for others, helping each other, celebration and joy that crosses every constructed division that could possibly exist. It’s all there. That’s why I’ve essentially blocked out any external noise around this team, around what happened on Saturday in the final, around analysis of how we play or what we do.
Too much of it is bad faith. People who quite literally want to spoil a party. If only there was a word for them. This can’t last forever, it shouldn’t last forever, but while it’s here we have to embrace it. Idiots online, whether it’s some rival fan prick on social media, an ex-player with a newspaper column, journalists and broadcasters and podcasters who are so ‘edgy’ with their ‘I’m too cool for Arsenal’ schtick, none of them are worth your time above and beyond what we actually have to enjoy.
Of course some of it is bitter-sweet, we were all desperate to win the Champions League final and not doing so hurts, but it’s far more about the sweet. Life, and football in particular, doesn’t give you stuff like this with great frequency, so we need to focus on that. Keep the rest of it at arm’s length, it really isn’t important.
So I have to a lot to do now. A lot of admin to take care of. A lot of words to speak and write still. A lot of water to drink. A lot of beer not to drink. A lot of healthy living to try and undo some of the damage that I did to myself (and others, sorry about all those whiskeys fellas).
To everyone I met in Budapest, thank you for enriching my weekend and my Arsenal support. Thank you for the reassurance that good people are out there doing good things with other good people. We shared something really special, as did the million plus people who were part of the parade. If others don’t understand that, or choose not to understand that, I would feel sorry for them if I didn’t think they were such wankers.
Right, I’m gonna try get myself back on an even-keel. We’ll have an Arsecast Extra for you later this afternoon – and as James is in a much different time zone for much of the summer, we’ll have to adapt the schedule a little bit. The few extra hours might be good for my voice too.
Thanks for being here as always. Till tomorrow.
❤️