And so, for the Republic of Ireland squad, it's time to say goodbye to London and get the heads in the right place for the final game of a long season.
The decision to base the squad in St. Albans and to use the facilities of the Arsenal Football Club at London Colney may prove to be a good one, albeit controversial.
It's something of an indictment of the sporting infrastructure in Ireland that there is nothing to compare with the North London training base, the indoor and outdoor pitches as well as medical and media facilities that put Gannon Park in the Malahide shade.
The England squad have been training there as well as they prepare for their games against the giants of world football, Kazakhstan and Andorra.
Many will question why an Ireland team should prepare for a world cup qualifier in a foreign country but considering the game against Nigeria was at Craven Cottage and Trapattoni was anxious to create, as far as possible, a club mentality within the squad the decision is understandable.
Wasn't the idea behind Abbotstown, where the FAI are now based, that a Sports Campus would offer all our elite athletes an academy of excellence for sports science and preparation? I look forward to the day when that dream becomes a reality.
It helped, I'm sure, that an Arsenal legend Liam Brady is part of the Gunner's staff as Ireland looked for a training base ahead of the Bulgaria test. Perhaps the Sterling to Euro differential is favourable or the cost of flying all the squad from the UK to Ireland and back again was a consideration.
However it doesn't take a huge leap of the imagination to think that, in season, Ireland might consider using a London or Manchester base for pre-match preparation ahead of competitive home internationals.
That would hardly go down well with many supporters of the national team but in truth the interaction between players and fans in these security conscious days has diminished to an alarming degree and the danger is that the special relationship that has historically existed between the team and the other boys and girls in green has broken down.
That wouldn't stop thousands travelling to South Africa this time next year were Ireland to qualify for the World Cup finals.
And the reality is that Trapattoni's team have given themselves more than a fighting chance in this group. Saturday's tie is like a traditional end of season cup final and the prize for the winner is enormous. For Ireland it would mean an almost unassailable eight point differential between them and Bulgaria and top spot would be a real target.
For Bulgaria bringing the gap back to two points with a game in hand would put them back in the picture and strengthen their resolve with home games against Montenegro and Georgia and away trips to Italy and Cyprus still to come.
Of course with both sides unbeaten in the group and with Trapattoni's oft repeated philosophy of 'if we cannot win we must not lose' a draw is a distinct possibility.
That would be a great result for Ireland leaving five points between the countries and putting us in pole for second place at least with a traditional journey to Cyprus in September (surely we've figured them out by now?) and two home games in October against the world champions Italy and Montenegro.
The fixtures meeting for this group took place in Sofia eighteen months ago when Donadoni was still manager of Italy and Ireland's cause, without a senior manager, was represented by Don Givens and John Delaney.
The big sticking point was this Bulgaria fixture at the end of the current season and it was something of a gamble to go with the group games as we have done.
We'll know soon enough whether that gamble has paid off.
