Gun

One of the more popular topics over the coffee machine among blokes here is which team do you support. It's hard to be in London without declaring your affiliation to a local football club. I never felt magnetized to follow a team and get drawn into footie banter on Monday mornings or place 50 bucks that my team would finish top of the league while in KL for reasons not imperative now.

Every addicted footie fan got a shot up their arm in different ways and will probably feel very proud to share how & why he/she supports his/her club. The common & familiar stories are family tradition (1,589trillion cases), betting fiends (987billion cases - legal wagers only), inspiration (399billion cases), cute footballers (Beckham, Kaka and now growing Bentley fans) and finally, jumping on the bandwagon (0 reported case).

(On a side note, a research tried to explain why is there such a huge following of the game aside of it being a simple game. Us, primitive beings are inclined to coalesce to a group or a tribe for a sense of belonging. Or go read Lord of the Flies.)

With Pele's beautiful game going global, fans abroad are more involved than ever. Game 39 for EPL was proposed but got a technical KO early, nevertheless on some certain level there is some truth (outside of financial truth) that the FA is trying to bring the game to their beloved fans' doorstep. Changes will inevitably happen, perhaps this could be a harbinger of a truly global game. Imagine Liverpool v Chelsea playing in Bukit Jalil Stadium, wot!. Imagine Wigan v Derby County at Stadium Shah Alam, who?!

Alright let's get the first kiss out of the way, I support Arsenal FC.

Where, what, who, when, how? Living room back home, Fever Pitch by Nick Hornsby, Joe lent that book to me, 2002, have you watch Arsenal play lately? That was the hook, the free stash, the introductory free coupon. I never felt comfortable coming out from the closet as an Arsenal fan, for all the grief and jokes for being an Arsenal fan (haters!) and with their good title runs over the years, it's doesn't bode well with me to be labeled a bandwagoner.

Late 2007, employee no.14 of Arsenal FC swapped his business suit for Barcelona's. The exodus of the Invincibles complete while Burns roamed. The heartache, the trial & tribulation, the sinking feeling of being a NY Knicks fan which weighed heavily down on me were starting its first cloning phase to Arsenal. Jinxed I thought. But tonight the first British team to get a result at San Siro, an emphatic one at that!