Can you imagine living on a football pitch?
Whether it's day or night, you can walk down every corridor. You can go to the dressing room and take a shower (except on match days), know the secrets of every corner of the stands, and hold the keys to the stadium gate. Your daily job is to open the door in the morning and wait until everyone is gone before locking it.
Patti Galligan lives at The Highbury Stadium. In the 1978–79 season, Patti became part of the management team at Highbury Stadium and has never left since. It's hard to describe Patty's job accurately in words, but he always warmly welcomes everyone who walks into the stadium, cleans the locker room, and does all sorts of trivial tasks like resetting the revolver with a long wooden stick or climbing onto the roof every game day to plant 16 flags.
At night, Patty would walk around the pitch to the apartment above the entrance to the West Stand, where Patty lived and where he could see the "clock end" from the kitchen window. Arsenal players love Patti and Henry once described him as "part of the pitch".
At Arsenal, all the players, coaches and staff know Patti and Patti knows everyone. In those days, Arsenal was like a big family. Former Arsenal assistant coach and Patty's friend Pat Rice once said: "We look at each other. If someone is in trouble, you will help them as much as you can. You know that if you get into trouble yourself, other people will help you as well. We all depend on each other. Patti is incredible, he's willing to do anything for the people at the club. ”
Former Arsenal boss George Graham recalls that whenever he was still on the pitch when it was late, Patti would look happy. "Patty was always the last person to lock the door. I would take him upstairs to the office and open the whiskey and make small talk with him. He was really kind. And I thought, 'It's time to go home.' Only then did he realize that Patty was already at home. ”
It's no exaggeration to say that Patti knows every inch of hay at Highbury Stadium. He prefers to climb to the roof because from above the view is wide and can overlook the whole of London. On sunny days, he likes to take off his shirt and lie on the roof to sleep and sunbathe quietly.
Those roofs are dangerous. Arsenal Club photographer Stuart McFarlane would sometimes climb up to install overhead cameras, he would always be cautious, but Patti seemed to jump around without hesitation.
"The East Stand and the West Stand are like death traps." McFarlane recalled, "If you're going to the very top floor of the West Stand, you have to climb up the stairs with your seats, through one window, and then up another ladder on the other side." The front of the roof is wooden planks, which are really slippery. Patti was to plant a flag in the East Stand, and he had two sets of flags that had to be climbed to the top to replace before each match. I remember one time when the wind was so strong that it blew him off the ladder..."
One day in December 1991, I met Patti at Highbury Stadium. As a rookie journalist, I was tasked with covering a match between Arsenal and Norwich, which was cancelled 90 minutes before the whistle due to heavy fog.
What should I do? Confused, I walked toward the main entrance of the stadium and found Patty sitting not far from the door.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
Patti at first thought I was a fool who didn't know the game had been postponed, and thought it was funny, but when he heard that I was specifically covering the game, he responded with the classic Patti style. "Have you seen it in marble halls?"
I didn't.
"Then you'd better come with me."
So at 3 p.m. that day, Patty took me through the bust of Herbert Chapman, the players' tunnel, to the team's locker room... He also took me to a small room for a while, making me tea and preparing cookies, and watched several other halftime scores that had not been cancelled on a small portable TV.
Although I didn't see Arsenal and Norwich, it was worth the trip.
In later years, McFarlane took over Patty's apartment.
"It was a pretty big one bedroom apartment with a living room and kitchen, but it needed to be repaired." McFarlane told me, "I remember once planning to take a shower in my apartment, but when I turned on the water, I found that there was no cold water at all, only boiling hot water. That's probably why Patty often goes to the locker room in the morning to take a shower. He only slept in the apartment and didn't use any of the facilities there. ”
If club staff are working overtime at Highbury Stadium, the sound of water can also be heard from the showers in the first-team changing rooms. Everyone knows patti who likes to jump into an old freestanding tin tub and watch water bubble up from the side of the tub..." For an employee, living on the pitch is certainly a unique experience, and the dressing room is like his estate. ”
Patti would clean the locker room on match day to make sure everything was in place and help with the athletic gear. He is probably the only non-coaching team member who is always in the locker room. "When the players come back to the dressing room after the game, he walks around them as well. He was close to George Graham and Alsenna (Wenger) liked him because he was like part of Arsenal's history. ”
After living in Highbury for so many years, which Arsenal player is Patti's favorite? Patti himself once wrote in an article: "The hero in my heart is Tony, both on and off the pitch. There is only one Tony Adams. I've known Tony for a long time, and talking to him was like talking to my son. ”
According to Pat-Rice, in the 1970s, Patti took over the job after the sudden departure of a former course administrator. "Whatever you ask Patty to do, he'll do it, no problem! At one point we told Patty that the course wasn't flat enough and needed some topsoil. Do you know? When we sat in the coach's seat again, we couldn't even see the other side of the court. He carried a lot of dirt to the center of the court and piled it up like a hill! ”
Although Patty has a straightforward personality and occasionally loses his temper, he is always able to bring laughter to the people around him.
"I think Patti is particularly interesting." "We sometimes organise staff games in the indoor stadium above the clock stands, and if I had to describe his style of play, I could only describe him as a 'tryer,'" Rice said. If he's against you 10 times, 9 times he'll come up and grab or tackle and knock you hard against the wall! He was not afraid of anyone, even if it was Graham across from him. ”
"If it's snowing, I'll have all the apprentices shovel the snow off the terrace, and Patty will bring his cart (like a dump truck) to help." The young players love him. ”
At Arsenal, Andy Exley edits the matchday programme. Exley remembers patti showing up in the office with a plate of toast and jam for a female colleague to eat. Patty found her drunk and not fully awake yet, so tried to help her get back to her normal working condition. And I thought, 'Who is this guy?' ’”
"At the end of the season, if Patti likes you, he'll give you a shirt that the players wear in training. He kept those jerseys in a large bag in the room next to Pat-Rice's office. I've always kept the tops That Tony Adams wore in 2002, the red training jerseys of Eagle Stepanows, and gave my father a Henry training suit. ”
Like most people, Exley was quickly mesmerized by Patty's unique charm. "He's like a mascot for the team. If he doesn't come to the stadium on matchday, all the players ask why. "If you come to Highbury, he can talk to you all the time." If you are interested, he will also show you around the stadium... You can pay attention to the expression on his face. He's always especially proud when people watch everything about the pitch with their eyes wide open. ”
Patty died with Highbury.
In the summer of 2006, Arsenal played their final game in Highbury before moving home to the Emirates Stadium. Patti died of a heart attack while on holiday in Greece.
When news of Patti's death came, Arsenal were in pre-season training and McFarlane was with the team. "We were in Austria preparing for the new season and Wenger announced the news in front of all the players. It was a tough time. McFarlane recalled, "We were collectively silent for a minute. ”
Wenger really likes Patty, once saying: "In my opinion, Patty brings joy and vitality to those around me. He spreads happiness around the pitch. ”
At Emirates Stadium, there's a staff kitchen behind the first-team dressing room where club staff can make tea or have a snack – it's called Patty's Kitchen. "That kitchen made us feel like he was still on the pitch." McFarlane said, "That's what we should be doing for him." ”
By Amy Lawrence
Translation: Football translation of good words
Article Source: the athletic