His father was and still to this day one of the biggest Gooners that you could ever imagine. He collected cut outs from daily newspapers of every bit of Arsenal news there was out there. Shirts dating back to before I could even count as well as pictures

As you may or may not know, Arsenal Vision has been pretty quiet of late. The transfer rumours and speculation has not been able to get my juices going so writing something has been pretty easy to ignore, especially when I listen to the screaming, shouting and overall mayhem that is coming from my three very hyperactive children downstairs.

I was going through my emails, trying to respond to them (apologies to those who I haven’t yet replied to as yet) and I came across a more experienced Gooner who wanted to know a little more behind Arsenal Vision and how I became a Gooner. After responding it gave me a taste of today’s blog. Something a little different from the Arsenal interested in signing average Blackburn Rovers player.

I suppose you could well call me a glory hunter, if I stuck with the first team that came out of my mouth then I would be bemoaning yet another defeat in a truly disastrous season as Chelsea came to Anfield and beat Liverpool 2-0 to probably seal the title. That’s right, I was a 7 year old Liverpool fan who collected Panini stickers at my north London school. The days of ‘got, got, got, need!’ still hold a special place in my heart.

Liverpool were the team who won all the silverware, the team that everyone wanted to support and who was I to go against the grade especially with peer pressure being so dominating.

I didn’t come from much of a football household so unfortunately I didn’t have any sense knocked into me at home. To be honest, football was never really my love from an early age. I didn’t watch football matches and was certainly not good enough to join in with the kids in my year. At least two of which went on to play for a decent level. One for Cardiff and one had trails at Nottingham Forest before getting some of the ‘you’re too small’ treatment.

My first real taste of Arsenal came from a good friend of mine. His father was and still to this day one of the biggest Gooners that you could ever imagine. He collected cut outs from daily newspapers of every bit of Arsenal news there was out there. Shirts dating back to before I could even count as well as pictures, autographs the lot.

Me and my friend were playing outside his house a few years later, I must have been around 9 or 10 years of age. It was getting late so we decided to nip back to his house to grab some food before I headed home a few doors down the road. After ringing the door bell his dad ran down the stairs cheering and screaming. I couldn’t believe how excited and happy he had become. I looked at my mate in disbelief. Looking back today and I can totally understand where his dad’s head was at that time. Arsenal had just beaten Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield to win the league title. That famous moment in 1988/1989 to write history.

I envy him for that. How I would have loved to have experienced those feelings on that night, especially when success wasn’t as frequent as Gooners of 2010 expect it to be.

My first game at Highbury was in 1992. A 4-1 victory against Crystal Palace on a hot summers day. Paul Merson scoring one of his trade mark curlers. George Graham’s Arsenal got me well and truly hooked on football. I started playing football at 14 years old. Anders Limpar was my favourite player in my youth and now joins Wright, Henry and Vieira as my all time favourites of the clubs history.

The club is very different today, we are now very well known around the world and not just one of the big English sides. That is largely down to Arsene Wenger. Fault him all you like but you cannot deny the growth of our club both on and off the field since he has been holding the reigns.

Just before I started supporting the club, George Graham threw in a collection of Arsenal youngsters David Rocastle, Paul Merson, Michael Thomas, Tony Adams etc the result of that was shown at Anfield. We are not far away from that and I am sure it is all just around the corner.

I have some great memories of the past but I am sure that the future will be even better. I will say I told you so when the time comes.

Back again tomorrow.

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