What do you do when you meet your God? I don’t mean… ‘Him’, or ‘Her’, perhaps, up there all bearded and omnipotent and omniscient, but your real, honest-to-goodness heroes? What do you say to them that expresses how you feel but doesn’t leave you looking like a screaming Beatles fan in 1964, throwing your underwear and sobbing like a baby? Of course, what you want to say is: I LOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEE YOUOUOUOU; YOU’RE MY HERO, THE BEST, BRILLIANT, SO MUCH PLEASURE… and I LOOOOOVVVVEEE YOUOUOUOU!!!!

So instead you remember where you are (errr, Wembley?) and shake his hand and say: ‘How’s your knee these days, Ledley?’ all calm and relaxed as if you get to meet iconic sporting heroes every day and you haven’t just wet yourself in just a teeny weeny way.

Because Ledley was not just our captain, our God, our saviour, he was also one of England’s finest players. When he switched from central defender to holding midfielder he transcended the mere brilliance he brought to his former role and redefined a new one. For club and very notably for country too. And all that with a knee that was beyond normal dire fuckage. Way beyond.

Ledley (my new best mate), ‘told me yesterday’ that he couldn’t train with the team for 5 years. If he had, his knee would be too inflamed to play the match. So he just rested it, then (probably) had it pumped full of steroids so he could last hopefully, 90 minutes on Saturday. After which it would be re-swollen like a giant melon, and the cycle went on. And that is, by any definition, heroic. Although some would define it as ‘stupid’. Not me.

I also met Ossie Ardiles. And if Ledley was Thor, then Ossie was Zeus. He came in 1978 after winning the world cup with Argentina and, along with compatriot Ricky Villa, became the first ‘foreigner superstars’ to play over here. Odd to imagine now, when you look at any Premiership team sheet that we used to have a league full of English players. A Scotsman seemed exotic back then. The Welsh positively other worldly. Which in a way they still are.

And Ricky was brilliant. But Ossie was simply divine. Playing alongside Glenn Hoddle in the midfield he was an absolute master of skill and vision. Which had me down the Lane every match. The Hoddle/Ossie show. Didn’t even matter if we lost (he says, even though it did, it really really did).

Bit like yesterday’s match. We were better, we were dominant, slick and superb. And much nicer than Chelsea. Prettier. Yet we lost. Yet another semi-final disaster. Our seventh now.

But heh, it was a great day and right now Ossie and Ledley are writing how they met Andy Conway!!!! In real life!!!!

If you call this living. I’ll get over it. In time.

Happy Sunday

A xxxx