Jan Vertonghen cannot stop using one word as he smiles his way towards this weekend's Champions League Final... "crazy".
And if his Tottenham side can overcome the odds and favourites Liverpool in Madrid, the Belgian defender will rank this season as the craziest of his long career.
Vertonghen laughed: “Every player has been used in the Champions League and played his part. It’s been the craziest one ever and being at the end of that crazy campaign now is something unbelievable.”
Asked how many moments made him think something special was happening to Tottenham’s European season, he replied: “Like, 16 times, maybe! In the group stages, we should not have lost that Inter away game. We got one point after three games. The Barca away game… there are so many I can’t tell them all, but it’s been crazy.”
Vertonghen is one of the current squad who were already established in the first team at White Hart Lane when Mauricio Pochettino took over as manager five years ago this week.
It looked like his future might be uncertain, but the centre-half has, like so may of his team-mates, forged a strong bond with the Argentine.
The 32-year-old explained: “Five years ago, he (Pochettino) picked this club up and brought us to the level we are at now. He’s done some unbelievable work.
“We have a great group of players — lots of young guys from the academy, lots of English internationals and guys from abroad who have a proper connection with the club now.
"All the guys together, here for so long with the manager, has got us to this level.”
Vertonghen is not alone among Spurs players in citing their second half performance at Anfield in March - a game they lost 2-1 thanks to a late Hugo Lloris error - as proof of their chances of winning this final, despite finishing 26 points behind Jurgen Klopp's Premier League runners-up.
He said: “In the last game we played them, Liverpool started very well but, in my opinion, we totally dominated them. We could have won that game.
"Apart from that, how we’ve been working not just for the last couple of weeks but for the last months has put everyone is in a good place.”
And if they do lift the European Cup on Saturday night, a good place will become - yes, you’ve guessed it - a crazy place.
“This is a big reward for us but we’re not just happy with playing in the final, we want a result there," said Vertonghen. “We always want to remember this team as a team that was able to win the trophy. I’m sure we have the quality to do so.
“How many games have we played to get here eventually? Twelve games? In every single one of them, something crazy happened. At the end of my career, I’ll hopefully look at this and think this was the most beautiful and craziest year of them all.”
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