Bale vs Inter was incredible. I was at both games and although he scored a hattrick in the San Siro, he played better at WHL - he was dominating (taxi for) Maicon and Zanetti, again and again. I think it was for Pav’s goal, he started in his own half, knocked the ball one way, accelerated around the outside of the defender and put a cross in.

Context matters for this one, too: Inter were the reigning European champions, Tottenham had scraped into fourth place for their first Champions League campaign. In January (nine months before these two games) there’d been talk of Bale going on loan to Nottingham Forest in the Championship but Benoît Assou-Ekotto was going to the AFCON and then got injured so Bale stayed, scored two vital goals against Chelsea and the Goons, and really kicked on from there.

I thought we were going to really struggle with whoever replaced Hugo, I could see it taking a few years and maybe even two or three poor GKs before we had someone, but Dewey has been so good. It’s genuinely a good thing that we’ve not heard that much from him, because a lot of the time with goalkeepers you hear their name a lot when they’ve dropped a bollock. Like Hugo Lloris kept doing last season.

Town of 40k-ish, we’ve got semi-pro team who were promoted last season to the National League North despite not being in the north of England. They’ve spent my lifetime in steps 6 and 7 of the football pyramid.