After Chelsea's Champions League triumph, eminent Chelsea fan Roddy Doyle joined us to pick through an unforgettable night for Blues fans.
Doyle began following the Blues after the 1967 FA Cup final, and has seen the precipitous highs, the basement lows and the creamy middles of life as a Blues fan.
Roddy Doyle on Chelsea
As should be expected with one of Ireland's foremost and wittiest wordsmiths, Roddy took us slightly off-piste into why he loves football so.
"It's about watching the game, really, it is the utter unpredictability of it. Like Alisson's goal - I would rather he hadn't scored it as it would have made things much easier for us in the final week - but I don't think there's any other sport that could deliver something like that.
"I love watching the game. I much prefer being there, it's good on telly as well, but it's the game itself and how the players position themselves. At my age, when you see a sub coming on and his face is in repose, and he looks like a child. Then he's on the pitch and he's a man. I never noticed that as a child myself.
"You hear some players now, in the case of someone like Darnell Furlong you think 'ah yeah, his da used to play for Chelsea years ago.'
"One of the first memories I have listening to a match, West Ham were playing - I had the radio in my bedroom on the top bunk to get the good reception. When I finally got good reception, Harry Redknapp was being sent off. It's hard to imagine that the man we see on the telly now was a footballer when I started.
"It works on whole different levels. I lose patience with the punditry. There is too much of it; a lot of nonsense. Listening to Glenn Hoddle going on about the little pockets and the channels. Then you hear gobshites in the pub, and we'll hear them again. It's all systems. But there are times when having a move explained to you by someone who really knows what they're talking about is useful.
"It's the football itself, it's the game itself. The camaraderie, it's sharing it with so many people, your closest friends since childhood and people you don't know. It works on many levels.
"It certainly worked on Saturday night, anyway!"
That night in Porto
As for Saturday, which might now be forever-remembered among the Chelsea faithful as 'that night in Porto', it's that connection to youth that makes it all the more poignant.
"The link to childhood is definitely there. When the whistle blows, it doesn't matter who earns what because the best of these players would play for nothing. Quite rightly, they're well-paid because there's a lot being made and why shouldn't they make a chunk?
"But when you see them playing, there are some that you really begin to like, like Kante - or 'The Twins' as some of the fans call him. His distinct way of moving, and that smile of his. The fact that he was in the lower divisions of the French league ten years ago.
"I've become very fond of our goalkeeper, Mendy - he was unemployed for a spell. He also looks a bit like a kid, which - from my early days of teaching - I found made me even fonder again. They all seem to be like a nice bunch of kids.
"Even Thiago Silva - I know he's 36 but he's slightly more than half my age so he's a kid to me - it's all about the players, really, and the effort they put in. The ones that keep on going, like Cesar Azpilicueta, who wasn't getting a game under Frank Lampard.
"He gets a game under Thomas Tuchel and he hasn't been off the pitch since."
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
