With Champions League qualification on the line, Wednesday's Europa League final was billed as a £100m game, but the Championship play-off final remains the highest stakes game of them all.
Like Tottenham Hotspur, the winners of Sheffield United v Sunderland can probably bank a nine-figure sum in a new competition next season. But the Premier League keeps the gravy train rolling with two years of post-relegation parachute payments – three if they can avoid it in season one – that will get close to doubling their money.
Saturday’s victors will rub shoulders with some of the world's best next season; their fans can make plans for Old Trafford, Anfield and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Lose, and the Blades' 92-point season will have been for nothing.
Luckily, they have a goalkeeper who when asked to describe himself in one word pauses and replies: "Chilled."
Last week former Blade Dean Henderson was Wembley’s goalkeeping hero, saving a penalty as Crystal Palace won a first FA Cup.
Manager Chris Wilder compares going from Henderson to current No 1 Michael Cooper to swapping "a rock star” for a “librarian" but the quiet approach is just as effective.
QUIETLY CONFIDENT: Michael Cooper of Sheffield United (Image: Andrew Yates / Sportimage)QUIETLY CONFIDENT: Michael Cooper of Sheffield United (Image: Andrew Yates / Sportimage)
QUIETLY CONFIDENT: Michael Cooper of Sheffield United (Image: Andrew Yates / Sportimage)
"I’ve gone from one extreme to the other, haven’t I?" he jokes, "in terms of having the lunatic in goal for us for two seasons.
"Every time I send (Henderson) a message, I always say, 'England’s No 1, how are you?'
”Michael’s completely different."
But Sheffield United’s player of the year is excellent in his own way.
"LUNATIC": Former Blade Dean Henderson starred for Crystal Palace in last week's FA Cup final against Manchester City (Image: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)"LUNATIC": Former Blade Dean Henderson starred for Crystal Palace in last week's FA Cup final against Manchester City (Image: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
"LUNATIC": Former Blade Dean Henderson starred for Crystal Palace in last week's FA Cup final against Manchester City (Image: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Burnley took defensive miserliness to new extremes in the 2024-25 Championship but summer signing Cooper waited until their Boxing Day visit, his 10th home match, to concede a Bramall Lane goal with Sheffield United. He has conceded 33 in 45 league and play-off games.
Not bad for a Devonian who uprooted from Plymouth Argyle, the only professional club he had played for, to south Yorkshire aged 24.
"Moving five hours away from home, I think a lot of people would struggle with that but for me, it just sort of came fairly easily," he says.
"I get told off for being too chilled out and not being on it from the missus and the parents. It just comes into my football as well.
"I just like to just play my football, do my job as a goalkeeper and not make too much of a fuss about it."
He will play it cool at Wembley.
"It would be silly to say it's just another game because it's not – there's probably double the amount of people that we've played in front of all season and VAR and all that sort of stuff, and there is something on the line," he acknowledges.
"Every time I've watched the play-off final, I've always thought, I'd love to play in it one day. I can't wait to step into probably the best stadium, best pitch in the world, all the history that goes with it.
"But once kick-off's done it's effectively another game of football."
And Wembley is not unknown territory either.
"A lot of the lads have played there, scored there, won there, so I think that will help us," he argues.
"Two years ago with Argyle, it was the Papa John's final. I was injured but to be pitchside... there was 80,000 there that day, I had a little taste of what it could be. I remember rocking up thinking, 'Christ!'"
He has been there plenty of times in his mind's eye too.
"I do a lot of visualisation," he says. "I don't sit down and try and do it, but I'll catch myself watching TV and just thinking about the game.
"If you ask any eight, nine-year-old at club football what do they want to do it's play at Wembley, isn't it?
"It's something you should relish rather than fear.
"I've played in front of one thousand, 50,000, and whenever that whistle goes, it's just gametime and nothing really changes. Especially for a goalie, you've got to be so focused on defenders and the ball.
"At Plymouth going for a League One title and 100 points or staying up on the last game of the (Championship) season, it's equally as big."
That matter-of-fact attitude is typical of his squad after a points tally which would have brought automatic promotion had Burnley and Leeds United not each won 100.
"We haven't thought ‘unlucky us’ or ‘we shouldn't be doing this’," insists Cooper. "We've got to crack on with our job and try to get it done."
And if that means thrusting the "librarian" into the spotlight of a penalty shoot-out, so be it.
"Quite a few finals have ended up in penalties," he says. "Hopefully it doesn't but if it does we're all prepared and we feel good about that.
"A penalty shoot-out is a completely different scenario, more pressure on the takers.
"I don't think I've had one yet in the pro game, but if and when that does happen, I'm looking forward to it."
There can be few better suited to shushing the nerves than the librarian.