Champion League Revisited - Part One

Inter Milan away 25th November 2003

This was a special one for me, I had been on many away trips to Europe and beyond before, but this time I was more or less a sole traveller. I had offered all my mates in the supporters club in the Channel Islands a chance to go to this match; but they opted to go to Fulham at home a few days later, how wrong were they!

If you remember Inter rolled up at Highbury a few weeks previous and gave us a lesson in football by spanking us 3 nil, even the most optimistic fan was fearing the worst as we headed to the San Siro. This match was critical it was shit or bust for Arsenal and even then 2 weeks later they might still have it all to do against Moscow, even if they beat Inter.

My day was long, a flight from Jersey to Gatwick, a world record bid transferring from Gatwick to Heathrow and then onto Milan. Flight to Gatwick was uneventful and landed on time at 8:15 am but my next flight was leaving Heathrow at 11 am by some magical reason I made it to Heathrow by 9:30 am; don’t ask me how even I don’t know how that was possible, I even managed a pint at Heathrow!

A lot of messing about seen me eventually arrive in central Milan at about 5 pm, I knew a lad who was also going and arranged to meet him in a certain “English bar” but when I rolled up it was packed and they were letting nobody in, I banged furiously on the window to my mate who had his back to the window but this was like bullet proof glass; alas he couldn’t hear me, so no entry for me.

Fending for myself I roamed the streets to find a watering hole. I eventually found one amidst the pissing rain (the game was nearly called off due to this 5 day down pour). I sat down and ordered some beer; I was the only gooner in site and stood out like a sore thumb. I got chatting to a couple of Italians about the same age as me, this was one of the most bizarre conversations I have ever had; I can’t speak Italian and one of the lads couldn’t speak English so we chatted in Spanish! They were AC Milan fans and the beer flowed despite me being a little cautious. Eventually I had to make my way to the ground and being completely lost didn’t help so one of the lads said he would take me to a taxi rank! Alarm bells rang but I had no choice, Arsenal were playing. I took the chance on measured calculations; I was bigger than him and if he tried it on he was brown bread. Bu no he was great, taking me to a taxi rank via many a dark alley way where he could have stuck a knife into me. That’s real football fans helping each other out.

I arrived at San Siro just in time to witness the champions league anthem, what followed was the first British club to win their in over 30 years, and boy did they win! A 5-1 drubbing! A master class by Thierry Henry and composure by Ljunberg and Pires and edu and Aliadere and the whole fucking team! Class!

But it just kept getting better; we were held back in the ground for over 90 minutes, we even had STATO (remember him from Frank Skinner and David Badiels fantasy football show?) appear on the touch line during our wait; we duly sung “Stato give us a wave” and he did!

We eventually got out the ground and all 3000 gooners marched towards the underground only to find it was closed, but the Italians had no choice an eventually opened it up and put a train on for us, or was that a sardine tin?

Back in the centre I got chatting to a couple of gooners who invited me to join them for a celebratory beer back at the Hilton Hotel they were staying in.

In the Hilton I met the late Jeremy Beadle who would have thought he was a gooner! I also got to meet the great Smudger - Alan Smith, what a night! The beer flowed and I ended up leaving the Hilton about half 4 for a 7 am flight back to London, you might have noticed I never booked a hotel or stayed at one, I merely drank in someone else’s hotel, ah the joy of a European tour!

That night changed me, it was the start of a commitment or a vow – If I could be at an Arsenal match I was going; money/holidays/work came second from that day on and still do.

Arsenal forever, forever Arsenal.