Within a couple of years of our Champions League final in 2006, the likes of Thierry Henry, Sol Campbell, Jose Antonio Reyes, Ashley Cole, Freddie Ljungberg, Robert Pires and Dennis Bergkamp had all left the club. The new generation was epitomised by Theo Walcott, just 18 years old at the start of the 2007/08 campaign.
The lightning-fast winger had joined us five months before our Champions League final against Barcelona, at the age of 16, though didn’t make his debut until the following season. It was during 2007/08 however, that he really came of age. He played nine times, scoring twice in the Champions League that term, but it was his incredible assists away to AC Milan and Liverpool that truly made the footballing world sit up and take notice.