Reading these posts make me think as to why I am a gunner as well. I guess my path is a complicated one but I will give it a try. My team has always been Barca, ever since I went to spain while in high school I have always loved them. Arsenal seems to have the same style and flair that makes spanish football more specifically Barca so entertaining to watch. But wait there's more... on another one of my travels I fell in love with London and vowed to return one day when I finish school to live for a while, since I love the city so much I figured that I would support one of its local teams. Since I absolutely hate chelsea it became a no-brainer that AFC was for me. And last but not least there is no team I hate more that ManU (except maybe RM). Any team that can deify a muppet like Beckham deserves all the hate and scorn in the world. I will never be able to support a team that could make people like Beckham, RVN, and Rooney into their poster children. I guess that should suffice as an explanation, and if that doesn't work my local club team as a kid was Arsenal.
Not at all, everyone has to start somewhere, its one of those things. Some of us were born and live nearby ( Im now waiting for Lanesra to chime in saying "the leafy suburbs don't count...." ) And of course as football wasn't available to you in the US until recently on TV, you get a choice of teams for different reasons. Most to do with Fever Pitch!!! Miguel who I met yesterday and is going to Palace, read the book and became hooked. This is his second trip over here. It really doesn't matter, we are historically a small club and so the more the merrier - especially as we have a nice new big stadium to fill soon!!
Answering the second part first - yes. The are the ManUre/Chelsea of MLB. Their team salary is far more than any other team, they are able to buy all the top players and for the past couple of years they have nothing to show for it beside profit and a trophy is more valuable to the fans. Rick has been great and even though it was Henrik who really influence me with all the stories and history, Rick has done his part in making me realize what great supporters are. That includes his whole group whick I only know a few of Simon, Ed, Judy, Andy & Steve. Great people to meet and talk about Arsenal with. I know there are plenty more out there. Fever Pitch - can have an influence, but what it really does is show you the English culture and the game. It could have been written about any team and possibly had the same impact on how fans are and not necessarily Arsenal. Although I'm glad it was about Arsenal and brought out the history of the team.
You are hitting the nail right on its head there David. The game is not just about money and fame etc, it's also about belonging, it's like a family, being together, even if your own cousin is a prat he's still part of your family. You'll always come back to YOUR team, whatever you're supporting, time and time again and again because it, the club, the stadium, the local pub etc becomes your second home. That explains why so many English supporters find it so diificult to share stadiums with another team, which is custom in Europe (most famous example is San Siro, Milano).Logic says they should, but the fierce rivalry, history and tradition tells another story. Imagine Spurs and Arsenal sharing Wembley? Ok, ok ......stop throwing bottles at me............
No, just no. It was hard enough a couple of years ago when we played them in the F.A. Cup at Highbury. They were given the whole of the Clock so I got re-allocated to the North Bank. I felt like bringing dis-infectant to the next home game. The dirty mongrals.
my sister was in England and knew I was a football fan. she told me she'd bring back a jersey for me but I had to pick a team. So I looked at the table and saw Arsenal, which is the name of a road in my hometown, plus there was an arsenal in my hometown, so I picked the Gunners. that was 10 years ago.
Not sure what you mean by this. In the 30's we were already one of the biggest clubs in the world. Every club was small when it was first formed. BTW Rick - I would appreciate your quote by Sir Robin Butler more if the english was of a higher quality. I find it difficult to believe that those are his words.
Why did I choose Arsenal? I have no memory of making a conscious decision. I guess I was lucky to be born into an Arsenal family and to live in Islington all of my life. I started following football in the early 60's and if I had made a rational decision at the time I would probably have chosen the team which won the league and cup double in 1961. By such small margins are the direction of our our lives determined. A wrong move back then would have condemned me to a life of footballing misery. I've suffered pain and anguish along the way but the good times more than make up for the bad. Last year I met up with my Uncle Bob who took me to my first game in 1963. I laid into him about the thousands of ££££ he had cost me over the years!!! There is a saying about being a football supporter. "You fall in love with the first bunch of 11 losers you come across and then you are stuck with them for life"
I started following soccer seriously in 1999, when I was living abroad, so I'm still kind of new to the sport. I didn't really have a favorite team at the time, although it was quite fun to watch Slavia Prague beat Leeds United in the second leg of a UEFA Cup match (which didn't matter, as Leeds won the first leg 4-0). After moving back to the states in 2000, I went to a Chicago bar to watch Arsenal play Man United. I only cared that United lost, because I saw right away that they were the NY Yankees of the game, and I hate the Yanks. Then, Henry got the volley of the left side of the penalty box, spun, and shot the ball into the upper left hand corner of the net. I've been in love ever since.
Well, well, a trip down memory lane. I started playing when I was older (about 13-14) in eastern NC. There was almost no information about soccer available. I remember SPORT magazine had an article about Cruyff being their player of the year, which basically meant he was European POTY. So I guess Cruyff was the first player I knew anything about. I still, 30 years later, remember the name of the article "Johan Cruyff can take a kick". It was about his "skill over rough play" philosophy. About the same time, Pele retired from Santos so there was a New York Times article about that. The school library had the NYT and they had the English First Division scores every Monday, so about Thursday I could read the scores, but I could only imagine the games. I loved the names. I've always been a history buff and anglophile, so many of the names were places I'd heard of but could only imagine. Liverpool, Portsmouth, Southhampton, Leeds, and yes, even Tottenham. As I read more and learned more (it was still pitifully little) I read about more teams and more of the history. I was one of the first subscribers to Soccer World magazine. It mostly covered US scoccer, but it had some european coverage. In particular, it had an excellent series of articles about the tactical evolution during WC 74. Once again, the connection with Cruyff came back because of thetactical advances of the Dutch team and "total football". Later that year, I went to my first NASL game in Washington, seeing the "Dips" play. At the beginning of my second season, a kid moved with his family back to the US from England and he and I got to be good friends (I grew up in an Air Force town). I was kind of a long-haired, rebellious teen and he made the comment that I was the "Charlie George" of the team. I. of course asked him who Charlie was, and it turnedout that he had a lot of books from the double season and a color 8mm tape. After watching the tape, watching Charlie score so dramatically, hearing the chanting and the excitement in the stadium, I was hooked. So Charlie George made me an Arsenal fan. I want to mention what a lot of others have. For many years, it was hard to be an active Arsenal fan. You'd get bits and pieces her and there, but it was hard to follow it continuously so a lot of the big events that many of the rest of you got to enjoy, we all missed. I think Val made the point that for a long time we had to be soccer fans first and fans of a particular team second. I think we would not have Fox Sports World if it was not for those fans who, like myself, were willing to support some pretty poor teams and to do what we had to to promote the sport in the low years between the demise of the NASL and the founding of the MLS. In a way, all those years with no information and no access make me even more happy that I can be an Arsenal fan and see my team on a regular basis now. PS I went on the ArsenalAmerica trip last year, and guess who walked through the lobby as we started our tour? Charlie George himself! I was 14 again. Next time, I will have the presence of mind to at least ask for a picture! Thanks to all of you who have made us American gooners feel welcome and wanted, and to the Americans who have gone that "extra mile" to make trips like that happen. It truly is a big family.
I started playing soccer in Tulsa, OK when I was 5 and was a big supporter of the old NASL team the Tulsa Roughnecks. This was the era of the NY Cosmos and Pele. Also during this time, my dad and I watched "Soccer Made in Germany" on the local PBS station. It was basically a Match of the Week for the Bundesliga. After the NASL folded and I quit playing in Freshman yr of high school, I lost interest. There was no real coverage of the sport anymore. I was in college for the 94 WC and worked as a bartender. I would put on the matches and my interest grew again, but after the cup there wasn't much tv coverage again. In 98, I was going to grad school in Florida and was friends with a bunch of English soccer players at the school. We watched all the matches and were gutted by the loss to the Argies in the crap call back of Campbell's goal. I then moved to Miami and found an Irish pub where they showed EPL games. The first match was ManUre vs. Arsenal. All the fans in the pub were for ManU and I wanted to go for the underdog. I also remembered Campbell and Seaman from the 98 WC, so I became a Gunner fan. It has been 6 fun filled years, and good or bad, I will always remain a Gunner!!
Haven't we done this already? Well, i was a typical american who played soccer as a child for many years, but without much broadcasting of it during my childhood (late 80's) the sport never took hold. Coaches were not passionate and they made me play defender. Fast forward to the summer of 2002. I was in summer break of college that year and when you are 20 years old you stay up alot. I watched the World Cup that summer and became a fan of football. I devoured all the info I could from the internet and evenutally FSW and video games. I immediately fell hard for Arsenal probably because of one player. Can you guess? (hint: screen name) At the same time I became aware of a musician called Badly Drawn Boy. I had found out that he did the score to the movie "About A Boy". I followed down the path of Hornby and had fever pitch in my deerstand of November 2002 in the Ozark Mountains. Finishing the book, I watched more games and realized that I was indeed a Gooner. What a lovely coincidence that we were playing such football at the time. I must be a glory hunter!
A Long, Long Time Ago in a Country Far, Far Away..... Ah nevermind I'll get to it. I started watching EPL matches on TV back in 98-99 since ManU was the first team I'd seen and liked the way Cole and Yorke played I LIKED them but did not want to consider them my team until I got a chance to see other teams and find out about the history. When I found out that ManU had a deal w/ the Yankees to televise games that turned me off along with Cole and Yorke's antics off the pitch. Later on that year I had heard of a team in London called Arsenal. When I watched them I liked their play, how they were so fluid on offense, and a kid (Thierry Henry), who I found out recently just came there, played the game of soccer like he was on a basketball court w/ fast breaks, Dennis Bergkamp was a great point guard. But the way they connected with their fans and the history of them kicking the racism out of the stands probably earlier than any major club team on the planet that I could think of cemented them as my team. Die hard gunner for life. P.S. For Spainish teams it's the same thing just substitute 98-99 = 02-03, Manu = Real Madrid, Arsenal = Barca, Cole/Yorke = Ronaldo/Figo/Raul and Henry = Ronaldinho but Arsenal will always be my first team. Thank ya now...Roscoe
Ok - I now want to know all of those who went on the trip last year and knows Topcat to tell me whether he actually knew it was Charlie, or whether he asked who it was?!!!!!!
In the fall of 1989 my dad went to Germany for a tradeshow and made a stop in England on the way back to our home in Kansas City. He picked up an Arsenal scarf for me and a Manchester United one for my brother (we used to wear those to KC Comets and later KC Attack games). I've been an Arsenal fan ever since- thank goodness my brother became an Arsenal convert as the years have gone by... Of course, Arsenal were coming off what I later learned to be one of the greatest sporting triumphs in soccer history (I had no idea at the time) and all I knew was that I had a cool scarf that had ARSENAL CHAMPIONS written on it. I was 12 at the time and that's pretty much all it took. Every once in a while I'd be able to find English results in major newspapers but it was when the internet revolution finally hit my house around 1994 that things really took off and from then on I followed Arsenal every week, match to match on the internet (remember when broadcasts were free on the Arsenal website?). I've now been to Highbury 5 or 6 times in the last 7 years- twice for games (my wife's family works for the airlines) and I can't imagine what life would be like without Arsenal.
?? I saw the game. in fact it was the first PPV game I have paid for. Maybe I jinxed it by doing that, and maybe I'm just being dense (yeah, yeah, yeah..not for the first time) but I lost you here.
i blame FIFA (the video game, esp FIFA 98). Arsenal are the first team in the video game and I would pick them because I did not know who to be and I liked DB from the WC in '94. Then I read Fever Pitch.
You and your eternally guilty conscience!!!!! I was (for once!!) talking about someone else here..... He knows who he is - even his wife watched it in the pub!!!
I was there waiting with the rest and saw Charlie coming out of the hall to the dressing rooms. I shouted hi Charlie and he gave us a wave and a hallo. Kelvin (see you soon)was there with baz and Dave (see you soon) and Jason and... In retrospect I should have buttonholed him, but maybe this time Counting the days Bob
I wish I was going to be there. Family commitments this year, unfortunately. Maybe if there's a trip in Feb-Mar-Apr???