It certainly was a weekend to avoid the news; every channel showing images of Mr Terry front and centre soaking up all the attention. I admit I turned over after the final whistle so missed the glorious moment Terry was stripped down to kit (with shin pads and all) to claim glory for a game he didn’t take part in. sums up his character all round.

Only thing I regret missing out on was the live shots at all the spurs pubs after the final kick, the disappointment on all their faces are priceless moments.  I’m sure there must have been a few kids crying, adults too. Spurs champions league adventure was over before it had even started.

One thing that did raise a question to me was where did all these so-called fans love for Chelsea come from? I suppose I am old school when it comes to supporting your club, you support your local team. Times have changed though and fan bases reach out ever so further than a borough in a city. It is essential for club growth to reach out all over the world.

As a kid you tend to gravitate towards the more successful teams, that’s why many gentlemen from my generation were Liverpool fans. They were the team then and so had a high fan base.  When the premiership kicked in it more or less turned into the Manchester United show. From then every kid loved united.  Arsenals emergence under Wenger led to an increase in awareness which in turn led to many new gooners. 

Don’t get me wrong it’s not like nobody supported anyone unless they were successful I just found it interesting  that growing up I would see so many people proudly wearing the shirts of the teams they supported.  In London for every one Chelsea shirt you saw you would see twenty arsenal or spurs or Liverpool or man united shirts. 

Chelsea fans were few and far between. It was only after the introduction of Mr Abramovich and some success that the Chelsea fan base grew and grew, only then I started to see little kids donning Chelsea shirts.  Fair play to them they were winning things and so winning the hearts of the next generation. 

As I mentioned earlier football reaches a lot further than these shores and I am happy than I have come in contact with many Arsenal fans from across the world that share my love for the club.  Overseas support may have been looked down on in the past but media has evolved so much to the point you could follow your club from anywhere in the world. 

Gone are the days when I would go on holiday and the only way I could follow what was going on back home with the Arsenal was to receive a day old sun newspaper from the hotel.

I welcome all new Arsenal fans from any part of the world my only problem is Arsenal need to get back to where they were and start attracting the next generation of fans again.  We need to look to putting silverware back in the cabinet and enhancing our global support. We are a club enriched with so much history and not just the past ten years like Chelsea.   I’ve noticed a few Man city shirts on kids in the park lately.  I hope their fate is similar to that of the Blackburn fans that emerged in the mid 90’s.

Reputation as a successful club not only appeals to your average fans but to future football stars.  If a young talented footballer supports the club he is at it only helps consolidate his potential to stay at that club.  If you love your club you do not move on (mitigating circumstances permitting).

I remember seeing an article from an interview from Romelu Lukaku and he stated that Chelsea was the club he always wanted to play for and how he idolised them as a kid. Now that’s a straight up lie! Like he has ever known of Mark Stein, Frank Sinclair or Gordon Durie without clicking on Google.

Let’s see if he will last at his dream club Chelsea for the rest of his career, somehow I don’t think so..

I feel dirty about mentioning Chelsea so much in my blogs past couple days. I apologize to all gooners. 100% focus on Arsenal from now on

Enjoy your day.