For me it's family... Dad, Granddad, great Granddad etc going back to the old days at Woolwich were all Arsenal fans (we do have a few Sp#rs and Chelsea fans in the family but they're rarely invinted to family gatherings.. My first game was away to Wimbledon in 90/91 when Merson scores and runs to the Arsenal fans behind the goal you can see me on the clubs official video!
in about 96/97 i saw the gawd dennis bergkamp and ian wright and decided arsenal were the team for me the 97/98 season did it for me though, especially with anelka and vieira with arsenals fun style of play
I probably didn't identify as a Gooner until around 2000. I started following the league in 1994. US World Cup excitement and the Netscape web browser made it easier to learn about the sport. By 1996 I decided that I needed to start following one team exclusively. Arsenal were hiring some French, J-League manager who I figured would be fired by the end of the season, so why not root for him until then? Still around.
Like many American kids who played soccer through grade school and high school, I played a lot but didn't watch much on TV. Seemed like around the time my high school was coming to end, ESPN started picking up more games and I think my parents' cable package expanded to get Fox Soccer. Chelsea was really the first team I was exposed to in the EPL, and I thought "Wow, they play so fast, this is awesome." Then I saw Henry and the Gunners, and I've been an Arsenal fan since.
Because I hated Reebok with a passion. I was in South Africa in 2001 and the only teams I had heard of at that point were City, United, Liverpool, and Arsenal. One of the guys I was working with was telling me about the FA Cup final and how he was telling me he was going to wear his Liverpool top. I didn't care, but when I saw the top and the reebok logo, I decided to support Arsenal. Been supporting them ever since.
I'm with you up until there. Instead of being wowed by Chelsea, I became an Henry fanboy after watching him play with France and Arsenal. When he left for Barcelona, I became an Arsenal fan because I really liked how the team played the following season.
Since Ian Wright, Tony, Seaman and the famous back four days, 1992. Though we won a few trophies in the latter Graham days, the football was boring, and due to the rise of Fergie and Graham losing the plot we never really were going to challenge for the league. I think to this day that we signed Bergkamp since the board knew a change in strategy was needed for the club to prosper. Buying McGoldrick or Glenn Helder wouldn't cut it lol..
Grew up in Kent, parents both being from South London. They were both always Arsenal fans and I liked the colour red - when you're 5 there's no better reason than you like the kits. So, been a fan since '77. Football coach/French teacher in secondary school was also best friends with Tony Adams too, so that wasn't a bad connection. I remember him taking us to watch them train and playing darts in the clubhouse with Paul Merson and John Lukic.
Childhood coach was a supporter and then my parents bought me a book on tactics as soon as I could read. It was the mid 70s so the book was mostly plays by Brazil (even as a kid I knew no one could replicate that) and the Arsenal double team (stressed their organization). Between the book and my coach I assumed that Arsenal were the best side in the world. That was confirmed (only 11 years later) when we won the league... Found that book a few years ago when we moved into our house. Cannot wait to have Mr. Charlie George sign it.
For some reason my younger sister fell in love with Liverpool as did my Dad. I was ********ing sick of hearing about 'Pool so I had to pick a team to go against them. Just so happened I was watching Fox Soccer and Arsenal happened to hand it to Pool. Cool name. Cool kits. To an American kid, calling a sports team "Arsenal" or "Gunners" sounded awesome. This was in 97 or 98 I think. A year later I started dating a girl who's dad was French. Talked a lot about Henry. Then he ended up on Arsenal. Named my cat after him. I didn't get to see many games while I was in college. Maybe a handful. 2-3 tops during the Invincibles run. I still preferred Arsenal to other EPL teams but wasn't that into it. It wasn't until '08 that I really became a true Arsenal fan. Again ... as kind of a reaction to someone else. I had a truly evil SVP at the company I was working at. He managed to drive the company into the ground, ruled through fear, took great delight in publicly humiliating employees. He was also a huge Tottenham supporter. When he found out that me and another rep were Arsenal fans he grilled us at our Op Review for 2 hours. Just absolutely grilled us. No one else went for longer than 20-30min. So one day I absolutely plastered his office with Arsenal material. Started long running cold war in the office. We hated the guy because he was killing the company and morale but Arsenal became the symbol that everyone rallied around as a small measure of resistance...as was St. Totteringham's day. There was a small bar a block away that always had a couple soccer games on and that's where we'd congregate daily at lunch or after work to bitch about him.
I played soccer when I was younger up until high school but quit when I reached high school because it conflicted with golf season, and unfortunately I was a better golfer than soccer player so the choice was pretty easy in regards to what sport to give up. Still I never did watch soccer. My first soccer game I went to wasn't until summer 2007 (Revs-KC Wizards). That started my interest in following soccer so naturally I followed my home team the Revs. College sophmore year I started playing FIFA (I forget which year) but I loved playing with Henry so I just started following Arsenal slowly, getting into the EPL there was a ton to digest (and still plenty to learn today).I was so clueless I played with Henry and Arsenal all the time without even knowing he was on Barcelona lol. But Arsenal was the team I picked so I stood by them. Didn't really start seriously being a Gooner until 2009. I wish I had a more romantic story to falling in love with a team but this was just dumb luck. Glad it happened though. Had I waited a couple of years probably would have ended up a Liverpool fan because I am a Red Sox fan. As mentioned earlier FSC and ESPN's expanded coverage really helped me getting into the sport.
I was 10 days away from my eleventh birthday, and will never forget the angst, sulking, moping, and according to my Dad, crying...that took place, on the back seat of our Vauxhall Viva, as we drove home. In Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby penned... Much like I remember it..... I think, for me, it started with Bobby Gould in the 86th minute of that match. Then came the Fairs Cup, The Double, and Charlie..... There was no turning back.
I lived in England from 1973 to 1976 and I played soccer at the air base. My first coach, who I had for two seasons, didn't know anything about soccer, it was his son that loved the game. My coach was a fast pitch softball player. Anyway, he had been stationed there in 1971 and of course all the media was about Arsenal doing the double. You have to remember, doing the double was a rare thing back then, only two teams had turned the double in the previous 40+ years. So, he followed Arsenal. Back then, licensing was as big, so the base recs department bought the same jerseys the pros wore, so for two years I wore the white sleeves with red cuffs that the big guys wore. How was I going to become a fan of any other team? Of course, in the mid 70s we sucked. The 75-76 season we were only 2-3 spots ahead of relegation the whole season. Charlie George had left, as had Ray Kennedy and Frank McLintock. Liam Brady was still breaking into the team, Alan Ball taught me the definition of feckless, and really, only George Armstrong gave us any reason to cheer. Then I moved back stateside and within a month we had bought Malcolm MacDonald for the record price of 333,333.33 pounds and we never were in the relegation zone again. Two years later Pat Jennings came and we've been pretty damn good ever since. Could have been worse. The first two years I played in the league, the other teams were Derby, Ipswich, Colchester United West Ham and Burnley....
After Dalgleish's meltdown in 1991 It was clear that I couldn't go on supporting them so I had to find a new team and Arsenal won the league that year so it was a no-brainer really.
I became a Gooner amidst the fortunate aligning of English Premier League football on American TV and Dennis Bergkamp’s arrival to Arsenal football club. I had fallen in love with the Dutchman’s skills several years previously when I watched an Ajax v. PSV game that a friend’s Grandparents had recorded from an obscure satellite channel broadcast. I immediately became a KNVB fan and as I discovered Dennis in the red and white-sleeved shirt, I similarly was drawn to Arsenal Football Club. The perfect combination of a favorite player who represents my two favorite teams.
I blame the French exchange students back when I was in high school. They gave me French jerseys and Arsenal jerseys. Henry, Thuram, Petit and Vieira. I started to watch Arsenal on the TV and I was drawn particularly to Vieira's no nonsense approach. In fact, they sent me a Mathieu Flamini jersey out of contempt for me missing one of the boys' wedding. Even though I bought a new kitchen island for them lol.
3rd grade, and I was buddies with the grandson of Margaret Thatcher. His bodyguard got him supporting Arsenal. I went to my buddy's house, and his room was covered in Arsenal posters....Bergkamp, Seaman, Adams, Keown, Dixon, etc. He also had a number of Arsenal shirts hanging up in his wardrobe, and often wore them to school on casual day. This was around 1999, and I too joined the bandwagon. Dennis was my favourite, but I really thought that team was the bomb. I remember having a Player Profile magazine, and I memorized all the random details. I still remember Bergkamp's favourite meal was lasagna!
test your knowledge: http://www.sporcle.com/games/andrewdj/french-arsenal-players-under-wenger i got 24/33 there were 3 i'd never even heard of, and 2 i can barely remember hearing of. as for the thread.....1975, as a 6yo staying at my arsenal supporting uncle's in london, lots of irish players. he brought me to the first 2 home games of the season before i had to go back home for school. the same again for the next couple of augusts until he brought me over for the '78 cup final (couple of days after my birthday). we used to go with a guy called frank who worked for arsenal. i was also brought to man utd games when staying with my utd supporting family in sale, which is just a couple of miles from old trafford. she lived (still does) in carrington lane, where is very close to where both manchester clubs train now (they didn't then, though a lot of players lived around there back then). i met alex stepney (utd's keeper) while playing footie with my cousin and his friends on the local green. he would join in quite often apparently. matt busby used to go to church right opposite her house. a lucky escape for me, eh?