Sport Chat

Geraint chats to Tim

How long have you been supporting Arsenal, and what attracted you to them initially?

 

About 4 years. When I was a kid I supported Man U. At the time everyone in Ireland either supported United or Liverpool. United had Norman Whiteside so that sealed it for me. But at the age of about 10 I started getting into music and totally lost interest in any sports. Many years later...I moved to London in 96 and I lived in Highbury for about 9 years. My interest in football got reawoken when I was at a
dinner with some gooners and I was telling them I'd never been to see a game at Highbury. I thought it was funny cos I'd lived there through several double winning years and parades and seen armies of gooners walking up my street every week for years. So the next week, one of them took me to a match against Bolton and that started my interest in football again. I got hooked. Weirdly enough when I moved to New York, I got extra obsessed cos I was in a completely new culture and I found that by following what was going on in the Premiership, it kept me in touch with the old culture that I was used to. I really love the way Arsenal play football, even supporters of other teams admit that they play really entertaining football. I like Wenger's philosophies, He'd be a good manager of a band. After every show he could talk about how good our technical quality was.

They've been pretty successful for most of the Premiership years, what's been the highest point for you as a fan? 

For me, it was getting to the Champions League finals. What a fucked up final it was though. That was a brilliant run and I would have loved to have seen how that final would have been if Lehmann hadn't got sent off.

 

You can't have been happy to see Thierry Henry go – are you surprised how well they're doing without him?

Yeah, he was magic, but I knew Van Persie would be brilliant once he got back from injury, Adebayor had a lot of potential, Da Silva had just come in, and Bendtner had being doing great at Birmingham, so I thought it was ridiculous that people were writing the team off. It's nice seeing all the pundits proven wrong. Another player I miss is Super Robert Pires, he was great.


If you were Arsenal manager for a day, which player would you look to buy and who would you show the door to make room for them?


Having said that about our strikers, I'd swap Didier Drogba for any them except for Van Persie, Drogba is amazing.


Is it frustrating for you that Arsenal have yet to win the Champions League? Would you sacrifice a season of challenging for the title if it meant European glory?

I think Challenging for the title is more important cos if you don't you mightn't end up in the top four and won't have the luxury of being in the Champions League the next year anyway. Still, when they got to the Final of the Champions League, it was awesome, I'd love to see them do it again.

How optimistic are you for the future, with Arsenal seeming to have an endless stockpile of young talent?

I don't know where Wenger gets them from, but he can put out a team of total unknowns in the Carling Cup and they play pretty much as stylish and strong as the first team, playing the same awesome passing game. I think it's a massive credit to the manager, and as long as he's there, I think the future looks very good.

Are you ever guilty of lording it over the other Ash boys when your team are on a roll? Do they give you much stick back for your choice of team?

Well I like Villa a lot cos of Martin O'Neil, so I don't wouldn't lord it up over Mark. As for Rick, he doesn't seem that arsed so I don't bother with him. However, our tour manager Paul is a hardcore Liverpool fan, he's the best one to wind up cos he takes it dead seriously.

Where do you stand on the "too many foreigners in the Premiership" debate?

Being a foreigner myself I don't care at all. I think it's good having the best talent that can be found.

Lastly, will your lot hold onto their current position and win the Prem this season?


It's going to be tough, it could be any of the "Big Four" really and
Man City are looking good too. As it stands, It's great sitting here top of the league, I hope we stay here.