Living the Dream (Not quite)
What does a life-long Gooner do when he relocates to London? Why, blog about it of course! It's been quite a revelation over the last few months following the team up close (in a sense) and I started this as a way to capture those memories in a more coherent manner before the old hard drive up there gets wonky.
First of all, this is not one of those blogs that reviews every game in all its gory detail (there are plenty of journalists and bloggers out there who do a much better job). It's really about the experience of a fan in the country where his favourite team plays. If I am lucky I will watch more than a handful of games at the Emirates, but if not then like most fans, even those in North London, I will be watching it on the tv, or laptop. Through this blog I would hopefully have left something for my kids to remember me by. Two are already Gooners, and one is not quite a football fan. Yet.
When I first heard that I would be coming here, it was of course a natural reaction that this would be a great opportunity to closely follow the team I had loved for so long. People started congratulating me, asking me if I had bought my season ticket yet...Well, it's a little more difficult and complicated than that, as I soon found out.
Expectations are quite different when one comes over for a holiday, and it might be the only chance you will ever have to catch a game at the stadium, though I have a fair number of friends who make these treks from Singapore quite regularly, sometimes with spouses in tow. Now that's commitment. But the considerations are a little different when you actually live here. That's a post for another day. Can't use up all my good stuff at the first get go.
Apart from being a season ticket holder, I suppose the other dream (or fantasy) football fans indulge in, is that they are somehow a part of the club.
First of all, this is not one of those blogs that reviews every game in all its gory detail (there are plenty of journalists and bloggers out there who do a much better job). It's really about the experience of a fan in the country where his favourite team plays. If I am lucky I will watch more than a handful of games at the Emirates, but if not then like most fans, even those in North London, I will be watching it on the tv, or laptop. Through this blog I would hopefully have left something for my kids to remember me by. Two are already Gooners, and one is not quite a football fan. Yet.
When I first heard that I would be coming here, it was of course a natural reaction that this would be a great opportunity to closely follow the team I had loved for so long. People started congratulating me, asking me if I had bought my season ticket yet...Well, it's a little more difficult and complicated than that, as I soon found out.
Expectations are quite different when one comes over for a holiday, and it might be the only chance you will ever have to catch a game at the stadium, though I have a fair number of friends who make these treks from Singapore quite regularly, sometimes with spouses in tow. Now that's commitment. But the considerations are a little different when you actually live here. That's a post for another day. Can't use up all my good stuff at the first get go.
Apart from being a season ticket holder, I suppose the other dream (or fantasy) football fans indulge in, is that they are somehow a part of the club.
But first, a little bit of context.
It all started when as a young boy in school, football caught my imagination. I was in a school that literally just started the year I joined, and there were many sporting activities that I signed up for. I played softball, hockey, and did track and field for the school. But strangely I don't think we had a football team (maybe they did and I was just crap), though I played it every chance I got - before class started, during recess, and after school (while waiting for my van ride home). And I would play again in the evenings at the void deck (we had futsal before it became a thing) of my flat before dinner. That's a punishing schedule. And pros complain about playing twice a week...
How did the Gunners become my club/team?
That appealed to me, as did the fact that Arsenal had a reputation for doing things the right way, and always conducted its affairs with the utmost propriety. Of course some of this was good PR but I think there has been sufficient justification for that reputation to remain largely intact until in recent times. (The huge infusion of money into the game, the demands for instant success and of course social media have changed the relationship between clubs and their fans for good.)
And so I embarked on a life-long journey of addiction to this team that has thrilled, frustrated, maddened and alienated me at various times in my life. No turning back. Could be worse. There were some of my peers who decided to support Derby County.
Stay tuned.
It all started when as a young boy in school, football caught my imagination. I was in a school that literally just started the year I joined, and there were many sporting activities that I signed up for. I played softball, hockey, and did track and field for the school. But strangely I don't think we had a football team (maybe they did and I was just crap), though I played it every chance I got - before class started, during recess, and after school (while waiting for my van ride home). And I would play again in the evenings at the void deck (we had futsal before it became a thing) of my flat before dinner. That's a punishing schedule. And pros complain about playing twice a week...
How did the Gunners become my club/team?
This probably sounds insane to fans today who can watch all games live on TV (except, as it turns out, in the UK) but back in the day, I supported a team that I hardly ever saw play. This was in the early 70s when watching your team on TV (Star Soccer on Saturday and it wasn't live) was a rare treat that you might get only once or twice a season. My recollection of watching those games on TV are a bit hazy but I think it isn't too inaccurate to say that the quality of football on offer was not the best. Colour TV only arrived in 1974, and my impression is that all we had then were fuzzy black and white telecasts of games played on terrible muddy pitches (for the most part). Come to think of it, maybe those terrible pitches made the players look much worse than they were...
Arsenal won the Double in 1971 but I was already a fan before that. Perhaps that success (sadly not sustained) did reinforce my growing devotion and more importantly, convinced me that I had made the right choice. After all, the demographic profiles of fans probably reflect the dominance of the team of the era. So you have many Liverpool fans who grew up in the 80s, Manchester United fans from the 90s, and Chelsea fans of a more recent vintage. And these are the first-generation fans that will ensure a steady succession of fans from subsequent generations though I note some interesting families where each member supports a different team. Can't imagine the dinner conversations...
But my father was not a football fan. Don't think I ever saw him watch a game in his life. So it was not an inherited loyalty. It all started with a book I bought about the history of football in England and one club and one fact in particular caught my imagination and remains imprinted on my mind. On one occasion, there were 7 Arsenal players from the all-conquering Chapman team of the 50s in an England line-up. 7! It blew my mind. That must have been some team. So it became my team. Plus I liked the jersey. There's a certain timelessness about the jersey (though the white sleeves hadn't featured at the founding of the club), the canon emblem and its simple connection with the team's name, the nicknames for the team (Gunners) and fans (Gooners) that strengthened the bonds.. And later I came to discover the club's motto, "Victoria Concordia Crescit" which is Latin for "Victory Grows Through Harmony". Or something like that.
And so I embarked on a life-long journey of addiction to this team that has thrilled, frustrated, maddened and alienated me at various times in my life. No turning back. Could be worse. There were some of my peers who decided to support Derby County.
Stay tuned.
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