Memory can be a tricky beast. Most fans are unlikely to recall the exact position their team finished in any given season – especially years or decades later. Unless it was first, or maybe in the bottom three.
But even as your memory turns hazy, you will always remember the year they won a trophy.
The year 2025 will always be marked as the time of Newcastle United, Crystal Palace and Tottenham Hotspur – three teams little known for winning trophies. They delivered the sorts of occasions their fans dreamt might come only once in a lifetime. And football is a little bit better for it.
No one will remember this as the season Tottenham finished 14th, 15th, 16th or even 17th in the Premier League. But it will always be recalled as the season they won the Europa League. The season they lifted a first trophy in 17 years. The season they won a European cup for the first time in 41.
It will be remembered as the season Ange Postecoglou told everyone he always wins something in his second season, and everyone laughed at him. And nine months later he did just that.
The viral clip of Postecoglou hugging his wife and two children on the San Mames pitch after the final will resurface every once in a while, when people need cheering up. Maybe the clip of Postecoglou, standing off to one side of the winners’ stage letting his players bask in the glory, then pulled into the middle by his players, will do the rounds here and there, too.
When Spurs finished second under Mauricio Pochettino, nobody was counting how many years it had been since they had last finished second. But the countdown clock now resets to the last time they won silverware. It always does.
This might, hopefully, be the season the decision makers remember what it means for fans of clubs that rarely win – which applies to most – to taste that glory.
Perhaps they will see the bus parades, the smiling faces, the joy it brings, and realise that’s worth infinitely more than a few extra million in the bank, or a season in the Champions League.
Ruben Amorim repeatedly talked down the importance of the Europa League. Even on the eve of the final, the Manchester United manager said: “When I say that it is not the most important thing for our club, I really mean it. If you win the Europa League at Manchester United, I’m really sorry, it’s not a big thing. You need to go for the Premier League and the Champions League, and we are so far away.”
United were, in fact, pretty close: only one game away from qualifying for the Champions League and an extra £100m-plus for the budget. That game was the Europa League final. And besides, it was the chance to win silverware and add a little light to one of the darkest seasons in Manchester United history.
It was a time-buyer for Amorim, a face-saver. The chance to show he isn’t, contrary to increasingly prevailing opinion, out of his depth.
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Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola talked down the FA Cup, too. Asked if winning it and finishing in the top five would still constitute a good season, he replied: “No. The damage would be minimum. It’s not going to confuse [that] the season has been good.”
Tell that to the young fan at Wembley in a City shirt, caught by one of the television cameras crying his eyes out in the dying minutes.
Palace, twice runners up, from the fans to the players to the staff, wanted it more – that was abundantly clear. For City, it was a vague annoyance in a dismal season.
And if you believe this season will probably be an anomaly and that things will go back to what they were, even the England manager has taken note.
“A lot of players were involved in titles who are not used to winning titles,” Thomas Tuchel said. “This is a big boost for us.”
An season of ecstatic and unparallelled underdog stories. It will not be forgotten by the England manager, nor by millions of fans across the country.