Fever Pitch

Following the 1985-86 season, Arsenal fired its manager and replaced him with former player George Graham. Hornby is not overly excited about the hire, but Graham soon has the club at the top of the league standings throughout most of 1986-87. Explaining that managers can alter the whole tone of a fan’s life, Hornby states that “the most intense of all footballing relationships is, of course, between fan and club. But the relationship between fan and manager can be just as powerful” (161). In his essay “A Male Fantasy,” Hornby re-introduces his partner and reveals that their relationship began at some point in the mid-1980s, when she began accompanying him to matches. The title of the essay refers to the fact that his partner actively participated in his fandom and even became an Arsenal fan herself, which he alludes to as something of a fantasy for many men. Hornby, however, begins to wonder after a while “whether this Arsenal sharing really was what I wanted” (164). Supporting the theme of the obsessive nature of his fandom, he admits that he did not like sharing the emotional territory that came with his type of fandom.