A sports team owned by Stan Kroenke, ending a lengthy trophy drought to finally be crowned champions in 2023. That seemed to be the destiny of Arsenal just a few months ago but it wasn't to be.
Kroenke and his son Josh weren't able to celebrate a Premier League title for the Gunners this year, with Manchester City clinching their third consecutive league title. Their fifth triumph in six seasons.
But the American billionaire had success elsewhere. His Denver Nuggets won their first-ever NBA title on Monday night, 56 years after their formation.
The Nuggets are the third Kroenke-owned team to taste glory in the last 18 months, with the LA Rams winning the 2022 Super Bowl and the Colorado Avalanche lifting the Stanley Cup in the same year. Arsenal are yet to taste the success of their American counterparts but the comparisons in process are clear to see.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone had just one year of experience as a head coach before being hired by Kroenke back in 2015 and he was given time to rebuild. Time to steady the ship and this patience was finally rewarded as Malone's team beat out the Miami Heat 4-1 in the finals.
Like Malone, Gunners boss Mikel Arteta had experience working as an assistant coach and like the NBA coach, Arteta was a gamble - potentially even more so. The Spaniard worked closely with Manchester City chief Pep Guardiola but taking the hot-seat at the Emirates Stadium was his first managerial gig.
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Malone owes much of his success to homegrown stars. Finals MVP Nikola Jokic and his running mate Jamal Murray were both drafted by the Nuggets and they were patient with both, particularly Murray - who missed over 500 days of action after tearing his ACL.
Arsenal have their very own homegrown duo that have developed over the last few years in the form of Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe and the latter has also experienced injury woes. Despite the Nuggets clinching the first seed in the Western Conference coming into the playoffs, the bookies favoured other teams with more seasoned veterans and experience at the elite level, like Steph Curry's Golden State Warriors.
They made an unlikely birth to the finals of the West back in 2020 but had failed to kick on until this season. Still, Josh Kroenke, the team's President has claimed his faith never wavered.
When asked about what gave him the confidence to build around the current Nuggets' core, Kroenke told Altitude TV: "You saw flashes along the way if you were paying attention. I thought we were this good for a few years now.
"We just needed to get healthy and that was my one wish this year, was to get healthy and see how good we were. I thought we might have a chance to, as Nikola said, do something nice and I think holding this thing (the trophy) feels pretty nice."
When asked how it feels to hold the trophy, he added: "It's even better (than I imagined) to finally have my hands on it and know that we earned it and we went about it in a way that some people very much doubted along the way, it feels very special. We didn't cut any corners, we played for each other, we all tried to do our best in our own individual roles."
A lot of this sounds similar to Arteta's side. Giving patience to a young crop of players, putting faith in an inexperienced coach, and people doubting their ability to compete with their more experienced rivals at the highest level.
But none of this will matter to Arsenal fans without success. Like the Nuggets three years ago, they have just gone the closest to winning the title in a very long time.
The Gunners faithful don't want to wait another three years, they want the top silverware and they want it now.
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