Wednesday, February 28th. Two days after the trophy cabinet. Five days before Man United. Eight days before Atlético.
The podcast was recorded at the apartment. Not at a studio. Not at Beckenham.
At the dining table in the Dulwich penthouse, two microphones on stands, two sets of headphones, Emma's laptop open, the recording software running, and a woman I had been sleeping next to for three years sitting across from me with a notepad and the expression of someone I had never met.
Professional Emma was a different person.
I knew this. I had seen her interview other managers, other players, other people in football who sat across from her and discovered that the warm, funny, slightly chaotic woman who burned toast and stole sweatshirts and forgot where she parked the Mercedes was, when the microphone was on, precise. Focused. Relentless. She listened to answers the way Konaté read strikers: with total attention, looking for the gap, waiting for the moment to press.
