Hmmmm….been a tough season so far, hasn’t it? It has for me at least. Although to be fair, this is my first real season as a football supporter. Let me explain.
When I was younger, I was never really into football. I mean I played for a kid’s team when I was like 7-10 or something but none of my school friends went with me so I lost interest. At that time my dad wasn’t really around (wipe your tears) but I remember when I was like 11 he took me to watch Southampton vs. Barnsley, I think? It was at the DELL. I loved it, but all I really remember of it is some big bloke sitting next to me shouting “short ones don’t work” at the saints taking a corner. Oh and I shook Kevin Davies hand. Anyway, when I went to high-school, I was in a constant search for who I was, as is everyone growing up I’m sure. I became friends with someone in my form and he was an Arsenal fan. This was the year 2000. He would tell me stories, I’d collect the merlin stickers and bring them in “for swaps”. Although id watch football with him I knew my heart wasn’t in it at that time. In 2001 I met new friends who were skateboarders, we would hang out at school and smoke and generally be “outsiders” we imagined football fans all to be dickheads, either popular rude-boys who would try to take the piss out of us at school, or drunk aggressive “men” that beat their wives and are just sad about their failed lives.
I’m 24 now, and I finally understand. I get it. I get the whole thing. I feel it myself, let me tell you how I got there.
During the summer of 2012 it was hot, I was tanned and everything looked wonderful. Me and my friends would buy some beers, go to the beach and play arse or one touch. The Euros were also about to start. Me and 2 mates decided to watch every single game. We thought it would be funny or something. I didn’t expect to be drawn in but boy was I!
We watched everything from the Poland VS Greece opener, to the domination Spain achieved of the final. So that was it, 3 weeks of constant international football and then nothing…
So what’s a man to do? Well, I knew I needed more. I needed that “let’s go down the pub and watch a game”; that “let’s talk about the result and the game till we’re blue in the face”. I needed to find my own team. How was I meant to do this? I had no idea. How does one find a team? Obviously they follow their dad’s favoured team, but my dad never really had one, and if he did I’d of still chose something different. No I would have to work harder to find my team. I decided that I would pick a team on quality of play and “personality of club” (I do believe each club has a personality). I did not want to be a glory hunter either. I never liked United, although I do respect Alex Fergusons achievements. I didn’t really want to support a northern team, as I live in Sussex I needed one closer to home. Which manager could I respect? Then the obvious finally dawned on me. Wenger. A man that took The Arsenal to “invincibility” a man that I could respect, that taught his team to play attacking football. This was the club for me. It’s strange how life works, how I discovered them again. “All roads lead to Arsenal”. So that was it, decision made and now it begins.
I started to read all transfer gossip about players coming in and going out, bye RVP, I didn’t know him whilst he played for us so ok. I never could imagine how much I could hate to see someone hugging Alex Ferguson after scoring a penalty
Then the games began, 0-0 against Sunderland, riiiighhht…..well it’s a season opener so it’s ok, then 0-0 against stoke. This wasn’t what I was hoping for. Where were the goals I’d promised myself? The following weekend I was away on a course. I was looking for a stream online on the Sunday and a guy who was also there was wanting to watch it, he was from Liverpool. We did them 2-0! To see how upset he was and how happy I was, that 2 goals were scored by 2 people that had joined the same time as I had, this is what it was all about. Somehow I felt something that I hadn’t before. I felt that I could listen to his moaning and stand up for Arsenal. They weren’t “cheaters” I told him that, I told him Reina wasn’t all to blame and that we were good! I liked it, I really did.
This season I have had a baptism of fire. I have seen us destroy teams, like Southampton at home. I have seen bizarre-o games like Reading away (capital one cup). I have seen how bad we can play, but I have also seen how determined we are. I have learnt, read and listened to anything I can about Arsenal. I have listened to podcasts back dated to 2008. I feel like I’m caught up. Although I have much to learn I feel part of the community. And before anyone says it, I am not a rich middle class fan. I have bitten my nails down and hidden behind cushions just as much as anyone this season.
I wish I could have witnessed Henry score against Tottenham at Highbury. I love listening to him talk about that place, and I am only sorry I never got to go, but the Arsenal is my future and I plan to see my first game at the Emirates for the Emirates cup, this summer.
I was not born as an Arsenal fan but I have a very sneaky suspicion I will die one.
Tom Hond (@tbhond88
Positively Arsenal 
Nice piece Tom
I thought at first it was written by PG since it was posted by him. It was only when I got to the end that I saw your name. So, I was a little confused along the way because PG is a grumpy old curmudgeon who been around a long time!
Many thanks
LikeLike
Nice one Tom!
Welcome aboard.
LikeLike
yeah, same confusion here, but nice to hear your story Tom.
Arsenal gives you a feeling no other club can.
LikeLike
Welcome to “Keep the faith” Tom. I’ve over 60 years more than you supporting the Arse but my conversion was dramatic to say the least. My gran was an out and out Spudette and thought my 5 year old brain needed indoctrination! But, she also decided that one day in early April that the family should go to Southend for a knees-up. As I was only five, my cousin was elected baby sitter. There was no ways he was going to miss a game at Highbury so I was smuggled onto the bus and into that wonderful stadium. He was after all “baby sitting after a fashion.
I became a gooner…my gran was not amused. See my avatar for my first game. Cheers and long may you be a Gooner
LikeLike
“All roads lead to Arsenal”.
🙂
welcome tom from southampton…i studied there…great times…between 98-01 ..i met le tissier once in los marinos tapas bar…he was on his 16th pint or something.. him and beattie… very joyful people..is the rhino still going in polygon ?
LikeLike
@hunter13 at 10:52 am
Did you also scare the likes of Le Tissier and Beattie or were they too far out of their trollies to notice 😀
LikeLike
I thought that was a terrific story.
It disproves the notion that you must win stuff to attract fans.
But it proves that we can and do attract the right fans.
LikeLike
I was just about to say, “Is this George reincarnated”, our lovable curmudgeon. Almost fooled us there. Tom you are so refreshing. Nice to see this PA thing is not just a bunch of old farts reliving the battles of the past 8 years. You are one more evidence that the footballing values of this club will outlive the greed, treachery and excesses of our time.
LikeLike
haha…it was the other way round georgaki..he scared us with his drinking…no chance we could keep up with him…. boys against men really 🙂 great player and a great person too.
LikeLike
Actually, our “lovable curmudgeon” can be so grumpy I would like to propose the following: PG is to grumpiness what Brazilians are to football. Since many Brazilians have names ending in ‘nho’ as in Ronaldinho, Jarzinho etc., I baptise PG ‘Grumpinho’ …..
LikeLike
Nice stuff Tom… welcome
LikeLike
Steve_I ,where have you been?
LikeLike
Lovely stuff, welcome aboard Tom,you’ve chose the right team and the right blog!
LikeLike
hello everyone and tom too.
its great to be a gunner. a club with a unique name ARSENAL. many of us didnt start a gunner just like you. i have the misfortune of starting as a chav. but just like you, we want to die a gunner.
LikeLike
i unfollowed some people on twitter yesterday who were moaning about rip winning the league. he has just won one while already have 13. we will start winning trophy soon while he will go home and retire a traitor.
LikeLike
Layksite,your reasons for coming to Arsenal would make a blog post?
What do you think?
LikeLike
Steve_I 11:10
Double that!
Welcome Tom.
I started supporting the gunners in ’76.
Not a vintage year! But better days were comming. Everyone else in my school was supporting Liverpool, it is good to be righteously different to the rest.
LikeLike
Welcome on board Tom. You know there is no going back don’t you? The fact you grasp and so many don’t is that every match is an opportunity for glory and excitement. It isn’t all about league trophies otherwise why do the other 90+ teams bother?
Each game, each season is a rollercoaster ride and if you’re lucky there is a trinket at the end of it, if not, you’ve had 9 months of exhilaration.
LikeLike
Oh and Tom, my first ever match was also at the Dell. Dad took me Chelsea v Southampton. Can’t recall the score or the year. But Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris was playing.
LikeLike
And Charlie Cook.
LikeLike
So did anyone notice that the usual historical revisionism is now rearing its ugly head after ManUtd won the title? Yes sirree. According to the revisionists, using history as recent as one year, Arsenal was less competitive because the club did not root out all the ineffective, unmotivated players and bring in new blood. Of course the permanent departure of Song, Eboue, Almunia, loaning out of Bendtner, Park, Djourou and Chamackh, santos the intake of Santi, Giroud, Podolski Djourou and Monreal were all figments of our imagination. We should also ignore the damaging impact of VanPayme’s secretly whoring himself to ManCity and United during 2011-12 and eventually scandalously forcing his way out of the club. All this time Wenger was complacently asleep at the wheel while the transition of the club from the RVP focused attack to one built around the strengths of Giroud, Cazorla and others happened by default other than design.
I guess the only saving grace is that Dortmund, the pet example of an Arsenal-like club that was able to defeat Bayern for the title in 2011 and 2012, (due of course to their superior coaching) only conceded the title as early as April of this year. This is despite not having to compete with two other oil-financed giants but why quibble. Latest news: They will only lose Gotze to BM for 32 million which will make Klopp and Dortmund the only club to sell its best player to a rival. No problems that should make them even stronger next year.
LikeLike
Thanks Tom, welcome to the Arsenal. Hope you enjoy the journey.
–
Shotta, it is funny. Those football gawds certainly love their irony. Only a few months after the distorted meme started by trolls like Jabba’s Delights and various bitter WOBs which attempted to compare AFC to Dortmund reached it’s peak…well, what can we say? Before yesterday’s news Dortmund were already less cohesive then last year after two years of losing key players, and couldn’t compete in their league. I hope they beat Madrid, good luck to them. Muchen gave Dortmund a good mullering before they had their Arses spanked, they haven;’t had any joy this season against their bitter rivals. If they do face Bayern in the final it’ll be very very tough on them. They were a better team last season in my humble opinion, and of course Munchen are much improved (Bayern missing their new striker today is a big bonus for Barcelona).
No, you don’t need the wealth of nations to make a title winning team. *coughs* Lords ladies and gentlemen and I present the (maligned) squads of ’08 & ’11. But it is just a little bit harder when lose your best players two seasons in a row, and lose some of that ineffable but all important ‘momentum’. *facepalm*.
LikeLike
Fins @ 12:53pm
How quickly we forget the intellectual and managerial giants like Jabba and Ateeb! They certainly provided a lot of fodder to the cattle.
LikeLike
ah welcome to an institution Tom, all roads do lead to ARSENAL and there are many different ones that bring us all home, your road may be different but not wrong.
After one season you have probably metaphorically only just dipped your two in the ARSENAL water so may I suggest you fully immerse yourself in everything goonerific from our immense history to our present day academy and reserves players which will also give you much pleasure. you do know you will cry as well as laugh but the dark times always make the bright days shine all the more warmly. I have always told my wife I have loved this club longer than her and she should therefore respect it so, but as in any relationship you have to pay your dues, you will get hurt , but it all makes the love stronger ……
once again welcome to THE FAMILY
LikeLike
shotta what can i say. they are clearly high to expect that a club still repaying its stadium and having to sell its best players would be in any position to challenge for titles in a league where the ones who win it have three and four times wenger;s budget.
i think they are frustrated cause they know that with wenger we could have won the lot against these jokers if only the club wasnt as conservative. the feeling that the time to dominate was now with wenger at a good age, ignoring that the financial realities of the CLUB couldnt allow it. it depends how you view it really. would you do it as dein and disregard financial reponsibilities and ensure wenger got the players he wanted to beat them all? or use this period of fierce competition against richer rivals as a time to lay low, improve foundations and infrastructure and wait for the crazy-money phase to run its course? …. a strategic decission really.and the ultimate decission maker is the owner. not the coach, not the manager, not the fan.
it just so happened, that the owners happened to have the most suitable candidate for their plans. If their plan was to stay low, repay stadium, and bank on wenger to get top4 while also find make and sell gems then their business plan has been 100% succesful so far. If their plan was to compete against glazers roman and the sheikhs right after building a stadium then they wouldnt have told wenger to finance his own transfers now would they? they d jut tell him : “here take as much as you want, we want the title”
and what gets the fan the most is that he doesnt know whether this plan was the board;s making or wenger;s making.
LikeLike
I got to say I felt sorry for the u21s last night I’ve never seen so many spuds in one place, they took more to Barnet than they do to shite hart lane jebus! However in a really intimidating atmosphere some our younger players who have just stepped up to this level done very well, Hayden and Chuba looked very composed and Martinez is proving again and again we have another quality keeper at the club.
On a personnel level I want to apologise to all the kids I kicked out of the way outside to have my photo taken with Bouldy, once a kid always a kid eh!
LikeLike
Lovely, Tom – welcome to the fold! You are a one-man rebuke to those who call recent fans plastic fans.
And on a personal note, it’s nice for me for once to come across an Arsenal fan who hasn’t been supporting about a decade longer than I have! I too envy people their early memories.
@ a_or_b
Give yourself a break – I would have trodden on Labrador puppies whose sick sisters needed an operation, to get my photo taken with Steve Bould!
LikeLike
Gotze to Bayern it seems.
Sad 😦
LikeLike
Is giroud’s red card appeal verdict out yet??
LikeLike
@ A23
Not yet. I’ve just logged on hoping to find out, too! (insert banned smiley face)
LikeLike
This write up is like the morning dew. How refreshing to hear from a new supporter who has not allowed himself to be contaminated by the foolishness. Thanks, Tom!
LikeLike
Giroud appeal failed. There’s a surprise. Don’t know if the ban has been increased or not.
LikeLike
No increase in the ban – three matches.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/fa-rejects-giroud-s-red-card-appeal
LikeLike
Yeh, FunGun, no surprise but I am glad the team did appeal. It was the correct thing to do and showed some support for OG.
LikeLike
Also because he didn’t really deserve a three match ban for that ‘tackle’ ! 🙂
LikeLike
Agreed, I think upholding it is more about supporting the ref.
LikeLike
If only people would listen to Frank’s advice
LikeLike
So Wilshere is due to return for the United match.
LikeLike
Wow. I had to take a moment after reading this. Except for not being male, not being from England, and being a long, long way from 24, I could have written it. Right down to the Liverpool match being the one where I realized I was all in. Tom, you may have a new best friend. I have spent the last 9 months defending myself against charges of some sort of mid-life crisis, as I couldn’t adequately explain, to myself or anyone else, what had happened to me. Praise The Lord, I am NOT crazy! Or at least if I am I’m not the only one.
You’ve found the right place, Tom. No one here will ever say you don’t have a right to an opinion, they will answer any “stupid” questions you might have, and they will welcome you like you’ve been one of them your whole life. Welcome aboard.
LikeLike
Hi guys, thanks so much for your thoughts on this post, means alot to me for sure. I know that within every community there are the negative pople that like the sound of their own voice, but i aso know there is people like you lot. @alabamagooner im happy to make a new best friend haha.
LikeLike
A great first post and a day of wonderful comments – nice place to come home to.
Thanks to you all.
LikeLike
I don’t think Barcelona will win 0-2 in Munich.
LikeLike
Hi Tim – good writing
Day out in Manchester today – all that dancing in the street didn’t half slow the traffic
LikeLike
Fins, this should make Arsenal supporters sit up and take note of our win at their place, Bayern that is. It was big time and bodes well for the future. Not surprising that the team has pushed on from that win.
LikeLike
*Tom
LikeLike
I had to post this here. This is from Untold Arsenal.
“Yassin
April 23, 2013 at 8:13 pm
I say we Do Class, the Arsenal Class, we dont BOOOooo, no we cheer, when he goas out we cheer, but not his name of coarse, but the name he and that Rednose wanted to destroy, wanted to humiliate, we cheer the name of Arsene, we sing him all match long, that will show that what he wanted to prove was bullshit, that loyalty and Arsenal are much more important than any stupid trophy, we show him loyalty to a manager who got us a lot of trophies back then , no matter what we all think of, just to show that skunk what LOYALTY IS!!
Respect for United, yes they will get easily by not putting him on the field next Sunday, or else they deserve our un-respect….
We shall show the media that all they are trying to prove through this guard stuff is nothing but more loyalty from us, its not an honor to win trophies, its an honor to wear an Arsenal shirt and then to make the Arsenal kids laugh for getting a trophy, we shall sing all our legend name, Bergkamp, Adam, all who retired with us to show that he lost what cant be won by trophies,……
and then when the game start, we shall sing all our players names, cheer like never before for any fans to have done, cause then everyone in the whole world will know what a joy it is to be an Arsenal, not to win a trophy,…..
Be class without being weak, silence is weakness, applauding is humiliation, boooing is not Arsenal, but cheering your manager, just at the moment all those people all around the world are waiting to see him at this moment humiliated, will put them all down and raise him above all that c**ts who think they are better than we are….
we should raise banners written on it Arsene`s name, singing his name real loud, until he shed tears knowing if his players are traitor, his fans are not….
BTW all the AAAs, please this time stay out of it, you are not welcomed, this is WAR, and we wont be humiliated that easily, you can sit on the away fans section and cheer United from their…..”
..
LikeLike
“Day out in Manchester today – all that dancing in the street didn’t half slow the traffic”
Are you sure you were in Manchester and not Surrey?
LikeLike
Hey Tom
Nicely written. Welcome to a lifetime of passion, great moments, disappointments, anger, love, frustration, pain, excitement, euphoria a nd some of the greatest moments (in my life anyway). It’s great to be a Gooner I wouldn’t have it any other way
LikeLike
So Bayern thrash Barca 4-0, and they (Barca) had 66% of the ball.
LikeLike
robben and muller were terrific.
Messi was only half fit. Goes a long way to show that they are a one man show..
LikeLike