At a Crystal Palace meet-and-greet with the players on London's famous Carnaby Street, fans queue up for the likes of star summer signing Max Meyer and striker Christian Benteke.
The most popular man, however, the one badgered the most for autographs and selfies, the one who receives the biggest cheer when introduced to the crowd, is a defensive midfielder.
In his 18 months at Selhurst Park, Luka Milivojevic has risen from an obscure signing plucked from Olympiacos by Sam Allardyce to club captain, penalty-taker extraordinaire and immense fan-favourite.
Several chants and songs dedicated to Milivojevic have emerged at Selhurst Park, among them the ear-catching: 'He comes from Serbia, he'll f****** murder ya.'
It is blunt, basic and sung with passion, but essentially good-natured. Milivojevic says it inspires him to ratchet up the tough-tackling ways which have seen him impress in the Premier League.
'I just do my job, I just try to be what I am,' he tells Sportsmail, sat relaxed in a store-room under the central London shop where the meet-and-greet is taking place. 'I am the player who tries every time to give everything to my team. The fans recognise that.
'During the game when they sing that song, they give me more energy, because they recognise my passion and work-rate. We have a good relationship.
'They sing many songs for me, and to be honest that means a lot for me. It gives me power, more energy, and in those moments I am so excited.'
The feeling of excitement around Palace – major new signings, new contracts for manager Roy Hodgson and star player Wilfried Zaha, an opening-day win at Fulham – could not be in starker contrast to last season.
Palace were written off as relegated by September after losing their first seven matches without scoring. Frank de Boer, appointed in the summer with the intention of turning the Eagles into a possession-focused side, was sacked after four games.
Milivojevic places praise for the turnaround squarely on Hodgson, suggesting that De Boer's failure to grasp the basics of English football, and attempts to change too much too quickly, had not gone down well with the players any more than the fans or the board.
'The beginning of last season was very hard for the team,' he said. 'Seven games, no points, no goals, that was hard. We went through a very difficult situation but we have many good characters in the team.
'It's 100 per cent down to the manager, when he arrived we were under pressure and game by game we started to be a better team. In the last 12 months he has been the biggest change.
'Hodgson used his experience and put the players in their natural positions. Frank had some good ideas, but a different philosophy trying to build up every single action from the back, with midfielders in the central-defensive positions. Maybe we did not have enough time to do what he wants from us, and eventually, let's say he paid the price.
'The Premier League is the Premier League, there is not a lot of things to change, you just have to put the players in the right position.'
Milivojevic is back in action for Palace after a summer that promised much but delivered little. He featured for Serbia at the World Cup, and his country were never losing when he was on the field.
Unfortunately for Serbia, he wasn't always on the pitch. After playing 90 minutes in the 1-0 win over Costa Rica, he started against Switzerland in the crucial second Group E game.
On 80 minutes, with the score 1-1, inexperienced manager Mladen Krstajic replaced Milivojevic with attacker Nemanja Radonjic, chasing the victory. Switzerland scored a 90th-minute winner.
Against Brazil in the final group game, Krstajic – in only his seventh game as a manager – left Milivojevic on the bench as an unused substitute. Brazil won 2-0, and Serbia were going home.
That tactical naivety clearly rankles with Milivojevic; the feeling of an opportunity squandered for a gifted generation of Serbian players who have never lived up to their full potential.
'We started very well,' he says of the World Cup. '95 per cent of the teams who win the first games go through. But the second game was the one that decided our future.
'I think we should have been more experienced and played more for the result in the last 15 minutes, we tried to take risks where in my opinion we did not have to.
'The game against Brazil, our manager had his opinion, something he wanted to try, and in the end we lost, so that was a bad choice.'
Back in London, however, things are much rosier. The signing of Zaha until 2023, after fighting off the long-played overtures of Tottenham, delights Milivojevic.
'In football you have attacking players, what they don't like to do is chase for the team. He is the guy who really loves to do it for the team, and we as midfielders recognise that, a player of his quality playing both ways. That is important in football these days.'
Is Zaha the best player he has played with? 'One of the best I have played with, for sure.'