Just Arsenal News

Yesterday i published a brilliant story that Tony Attwood from Untold Arsenal had written especially for the 11Gunners website. It is great that Arsenal blogs from all over the world can get together to help each other out, and especially to help promote football and Arsenal in the massive continent of India.

So today i am now going to publish the reciprocal story that the 11Gunners wrote for Untold Arsenal! It is about the rise and rise of football (and Arsenal) in that great continent, and how it affected one group of young lads growing up together. And here it is:

Arsenal and India: all you never knew

By 11 Gunners

When David Beckham curled one of his trademark free kicks at the ‘Theatre of Dreams’, little he would have known that a nation was awakening into a sporting renaissance of sorts.

The day was 18th August and the year was 2001, when Premier League games were being aired Live for the first time in the Indian Sub-Continent. It triggered a paradigm shift in the way Sports and Football in particular was followed in these lands.

Cricket had always been the mainstay for the Indian audience, and you cannot argue with that considering the heritage we have inherited. Football’s domain, till then had been restricted to its showcase event, The World Cup. When the Premier League flooded the Indian market, its colors, vibrancy, fervor and passion caught the eye of one and all including a bunch of enthusiastic teenagers in the city of Patna.

Yes, I am referring to Us, the founders of 11Gunners. Mere students, (to-be-engineers precisely), the impact the Premier League had on us grew meteorically and soon our lives became synonymous with the League and to be more exact, Arsenal. Their fluid and pacy style of attacking football had caught our rapt attention and we knew of nothing else that could entertain us for 90 minutes the way Arsenal could.

And since then, following Arsenal has transformed from being a hobby, to a passion to a ritual. Even today, no matter where we are or what we are doing, we always strive to make arrangements to follow the game either on text or tube, through the internet, television or even a cell phone for that matter.

Simply put, when Arsenal take the field, everything else in life takes a backseat. The journey of being an Arsenal fan has indeed been a gratifying experience right from the glory days of the ‘Henry- Bergkamp’ era to this current crop of ‘Cesc-led’ world beating youngsters.

People ask for reasons which make us so passionate about a foreign club from a foreign land. They ask for our reasons. Well the reasons may vary for starters.

For a Premiership viewer who watches every game from another Continent, it may be the finesse with which the boys pass the ball, and for the Old Granny who lives alone in a one-room dingy in Holloway, it may be the fervour created in the ‘Herbert Chapman Era’ which still refuses to die. The ‘Invincible’ team, Michael Thomas’ last gasp goal at Anfield ‘89, the touch of class by the ‘Iceman’, or Cliff Bastin’s screamer, they may all be reasons.

On a personal note, we worship the ground where Arsene Wenger walks, we rejoiced when Thierry Henry ran through the defences in Santiago Bernabeau, our eyes went moist in unison when Belleti ended the hopes of ruling Europe. Oh, and we were talking reasons, were we not?

We cannot reason for why we are worshippers of the sacred crest of Arsenal, why we exulted with joy when Van Persie dances past defences in the blink of an eye, why we feel a serene satisfaction when Cesc Fabregas opens up an entire array of defenders with a silken pass, or why we feel a sense of pride when Andrei Arshavin thunders one past the goalkeeper.

These are feelings that transcend words. They are our reasons. Passion knows no boundaries and for us the image of Arsenal Football Club symbolizes exactly that.

There is no cogent explanation for the anxiety we felt when Juan Roman Riquleme has stepped up for the penalty or the sumptuous celebrations that followed Jens Lehmann’s save of that one. We cannot explain why our heartbeats rose when Arsenal trailed Leicester at half time on the final day of that memorable season or why we felt so proud when Patrick Vieira waved the trophy around Highbury and the commentator said:- “The Title and a place in History belongs to Arsenal”!

The history drives us on, the smell of air in Ashburton Grove is magical – almost to mythical dimensions, the Emirates stands like the colosseum of North London, and we know how to play football – the ‘Beautiful Game’. Pass and pass and pass – ‘We Pass Life‘ into Football!

Read the rest here at Untold Arsenal

Anyone who is a real Arsenal Fan will know about Tony Attwood and Untold Arsenal, one of the very best Arsenal sites in the Blogiverse. And if you are seriously interested in the history of Arsenal (told with wit and wisdom!) then you should consider buying Tony’s book, THE MAKING OF THE ARSENAL

Details of which can be found on Tony’s other website Woolwich Arsenal

It would make the perfect Christmas present for the Arsenal fan who has everything!

I have also previously promoted the 11Gunners on this site too, and told about how Arsenal are also investing in the development of young footballers over in India. Read it here.