Before starting this retelling of a life long love affair with my local team, I want to go back to a recent trip to Spain.

I went to visit a club that has ties to Arsenal via them both being a team that Santi Cazorla has played for at some time during his career, and are two clubs that he holds near and dear to his heart. Arsenal obviously being one of them.

The second club in question is Real Oviedo. Located in the Asturias region in Spain, they are the club Santi started his career.

Oviedo are a club with a rocky story, one very much different from Arsenal but no less fascinating. They are a club that I own a share in and recently finally visited and experienced live for the first time. What started off as a trip to see my second club, became a reminder what made me an Arsenal fan.

For me, Oviedo reminded me of home. I grew up on the Holloway Road in Islington.

It did not matter where I went in Oviedo, I would see the blue and white of the club. The Badge was proudly emblazoned on local businesses, whether they were linked to the club or not. The business owners were showing their love, passion and dedication to this fairytale story.

Seeing the level of pride this small town in the north of Spain had for their heroes, reminded me of the same emotions that the Arsenal would evoke in me when I was a young boy.

 Arsenal to me at the start was just a name that I heard on the playground of Pakeman Primary Scholl (less than 10 minutes from the Emirates Stadium).

“Did you see the Arsenal game last night?”, “What a goal by Ian Wright!”, and other Arsenal related topics dominated play time chatter. Red and white shirts seen all around N7 and N5. But to me, it was still just a name.

I was the small, unathletic child who would rather play video games than go out and play football for hours. Sports was not something that I really took up. I had watched England games before. I remember being on holiday in Dawlish when Gazza scored that goal against Scotland in Euro 96. But I was unaware of club football at that time.

That was until I finally asked. “Whats Arsenal” to my father (Who unfortunately supported Luton Town, but the less said about that the better). Little did I know, those two words would start a life long love story. 

After that question, it was not long until I got my first Arsenal shirt – a 1993 home shirt with the FA Cup winners patch on it. The shirt was years out of date at that point, but I did not care. It had the most important thing on the front. The Badge.

From there, anything to do with Arsenal I was invested in. Coaches doing after school football? I would beg my parents to allow me to do it. Arsenal summer camps? Oh you bet I would beg my parents to allow me to do this.

My bedroom walls were soon covered with Drawings of Arsenal players, posters about the club’s history and a collage of Arsenal Magazine covers, and clippings from newspapers. I called it my own Arsenal world of football and it was something that stirred up a sense of pride in my young heart.

This vice like grip a clue can have on an individual is something that I also saw at Oviedo.

It did not matter who you were, man woman or child, the Blue and white of Oviedo were the colours that you would proudly be wearing for the rest of your life. They were the colours you would live for.

Every child who ever kicked a ball or even a crushed bottle (like I witnessed in the concourse of the Estadio Municipal Carlos Tartiere during half time) had the goal to one day play for the team.

It was reminiscent of 10 year old me, training with Tuffnell Park, kicking a ball up and down the Holloway Road, practising my celebrations in the back garden. It was all to one day play in Highbury. Sadly this never happened, but it would never take away from my love for The Arsenal.

It has been 20 years since we moved from Islington, but that fire for The Arsenal never faltered. I now live in Ireland where Arsenal fans are hard to come by. Everyone here supports either United or Liverpool, the latter my brother sadly changed allegiances to due to peer pressure as a child.

Whenever I return home for matches, I see the familiar red and white all around the community and suddenly I am back home. I am that 10 year old who kicked a ball up and down Holloway Road wanting to play for The Arsenal. The 6 year old who got his first Arsenal shirt, and the child who lived and breathed The Arsenal.

Even with me often being the token Arsenal fan in Ireland, Arsenal was at the core of who I was as a person. The way I would play football on the school yard was the Arsenal way, the way I would conduct myself as a person would be the Arsenal way.

I have the club badge etched into my skin as well as the club’s motto but even more importantly, Arsenal will forever be etched into the very core of who I am as a person. The same way it is for the people of Oviedo who fought to keep their club alive in the face of almost certain annihilation of their club.

Puxa Asturies! Vamos Oviedo, Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Daniel
Follow @el_dudeico

What does Arsenal mean to you? We are be looking to publish a blogs written by you, the fans. What are we looking for? Anything. Your relationship with Arsenal. A memory. Many memories. How you came to support the club. Your current feelings on the club. Anything you feel like writing.

Put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and once you are done, send it to shewore@gmail.com with The Arsenal and Me in the subject. Throughout February, we will be sharing your blogs. Do not worry if what you have to say does not get used straight away. ALL will be published!