Movie About Defeating Odds and Walking Again

I'll never forget the moment that the reality of attending live football during the pandemic really hit habitation.

It was July, 18, 2020 and I was walking up Wembley Manner only over an hour before Arsenal'south FA Cup semi-final with Manchester City was due to kick off.

I reached the top of the famous ramps as I approached the stadium and looked effectually as I prepared to record a video. I couldn't see a single other person.

It was FA Cup semi-final day at Wembley and I was standing on my ain with no i else around. My eye sank.

This wasn't the first game I'd been to after 'Operation Restart' had kicked into gear; in fact, it was my 11th. But it was the one that really made me realise just how poorer football game was without fans.

Possibly during the previous games I was merely happy to exist dorsum doing my job once more, or that the surreal nature of the state of affairs had stopped me really taking a moment to appreciate how hollow things now were.

But that all became abundantly clear that afternoon at Wembley.

This should have been a huge occasion. Commonly Wembley Manner would be awash with color. 1 side red, one side blue every bit fans streamed upwardly the ramps towards the stadium.

Just it just wasn't the same; it wasn't football.

And information technology was exactly the same feeling as I fabricated my style into the ground and looked around at ninety,000 empty seats.

I remember when the referee blew his whistle to get the game under mode. Information technology was a audio that should take been greeted by a giant roar. This time? Nothing. Silence, aside from the shouts of the managers on the touchline.

From that moment on, reporting on football felt like a very hollow experience for me.

There were some good games along the way and some bang-up goals, only it wasn't football. Not really. Each match felt like a slightly glorified friendly.

Despite that, I never lost sight of how fortunate I was to still be able to go to the games each week.

I know I was in a privileged position to be travelling upward and down the state going to games watching the lodge I non only report on, only support.

Millions of Arsenal fans effectually the world would have given annihilation to swap positions with me on a matchday, including my father – who has been a season ticket holder since 1990 and has saturday in the same seat at Emirates Stadium since the move from Highbury in 2006.

For years now I'd grown used to taking my seat in the press box before a game and waiting for the same text message. It would normally arrive at near 2.30pm and always read 'Where are you?'

I'd transport one back so look across to the opposite side of the stadium where I'd see my dad look down at his phone, and then look across to discover me, put his arm up in the air and first waving.

It was the same routine, every game, for years.

I can't tell you how much I missed that during the pandemic.

One for my Dad, who in normal times would just be taking his seat around now (pretty much right on top of that cannon). Wish he - and all of you - were in here for this one. Big game feel this evening at the Emirates. pic.twitter.com/EXpRNZTQtm

— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) January 30, 2021

Ane of the hardest things well-nigh achieving my appetite of condign an Armory reporter was having to give up sitting in my actual seat in the stadium next to my dad every other week.

Going to Armory as a fan had been something I'd washed on a about weekly footing since 1991. Watching games from the printing box took some adjusting to and I still detect it difficult now when the likes of Spurs, Manchester United and Chelsea coil into north London.

But yet being able to see my Dad at games made that transformation slightly easier and and so looking across at his empty seat during the pandemic felt completely wrong.

I knew how much he missed information technology, so sometimes I'd walk around to the entrance of turnstile J and accept a movie but to transport to him, or I'd send him a photo of the area where he would unremarkably be sitting as I walked by on my mode to the press box.

They were just piddling things, but I knew they made him experience just that piffling fleck closer to his beloved Armory on a matchday.

Dad is 76 now. He was raised in Holloway just a stone's throw abroad from where the Emirates now stands. Arsenal is in his blood and the fact he couldn't become every calendar week left a big pigsty in his life.

Information technology was a hole he obviously tried to fill past doing other things and he would still watch every game from home, merely he freely admits it just wasn't the same. A victory didn't feel as good and a defeat never felt as painful.

The relationship was withal there, only there was a disconnect that only absence tin bring.

And that's why last Sunday's game against Chelsea was so special.

Forget the result and forget the negativity that currently surrounds Arsenal. That game against Chelsea was nigh more than that, just as it was for fans effectually the country who made their way back to support their clubs over the opening fortnight of the new flavour after 18 months away.

I knew exactly what going back to his seat for the first time since that win against Westward Ham 533 days before meant to my Dad and that'south why I had to go to the game with him.

It was the outset fourth dimension I'd sat in my bodily seat since 2018 and walking through the streets on the style to the game was very special. It was like former times again.

I was moaning almost Arsenal while my Dad was being positive. He was pointing out houses that his friends used to live in, while I was request him for money to buy a burger from i of the stalls outside the tube station. Information technology was like nosotros had never been away.

For the first fourth dimension in a long time, going to football felt normal again and fifty-fifty a demoralising defeat couldn't take away what a special feeling that was.

I'll exist dorsum in the press box when Norwich head to Arsenal on September 11 and my niece will be sitting in my seat next to Dad.

One time over again, I'll be looking forward to receiving that text message at two.30pm and seeing him frantically waving trying to get my attention. I tin't wait.

Welcome back, Dad.

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Source: https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/premier-league/news/its-like-old-times-again-going-back-to-arsenal-after-the-pandemic-with-charles-watts-and-his-dad/1194jkts0i93w1k24nr11l68oa

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