Guest Blogger Is Optimistic - Dan

I woke up at 3:45am on Sunday to check the Reading-Liverpool score. Since I was awake, I might as well check my email and to my surprise, I saw an email from Mr Blog asking me if I could guest blog for him. I was totally elated at the honour of being his guest blogger. You see I have truly enjoyed his blog as well as all his guest bloggers.

Now, I am totally an unknown to all of you and I am sure you must be wondering who on earth is this guy. I go by the nickname 'dleo' on the Arsenal Singapore forum. Why dleo? It is actually an abbreviation of my name, Dan Leong.

A brief introduction of myself -- married with 2 kids. I have a boy, Zachary who is 4 years old and a little girl, Eliza who just turned 1. My wife and I hailed from Malaysia and we moved to Singapore in 2001 from the US. I was working in the US for a good few years in the late 1990s and was one of the fortunate ones to ride the dotcom wave. Those were the fun times, everyone was dreaming of Nasdaq but for those of us who didn’t quite make it, were brought back to earth with a thud.

As I young boy, I grew up in a family of Liverpool supporters. I have a cousin who is much older than me and he was the first in the family to study abroad. Yes, he went to a university in Liverpool and every time he came back for holidays, he would buy us some souvenirs from Anfield. I would proudly show it to my friends and little did I know then that the colour of my heart is actually red and white.

There was a period of time when I lost interest in football until I went to a university in London and started watching the Premier League again. My love affair with Arsenal started about the same time as the arrival of the Dutch maestro, Dennis Bergkamp in 1995. I was simply amazed by his skills and humbleness on and off the pitch. His partnership with Ian Wright was such a delight to watch and they got Arsenal to the final of Cup Winners' Cup in Bergkamp's first year at Arsenal. I was watching the final in my hostel room and unfortunately, we lost in extra time to Real Zaragoza. The winning goal was scored by Nayim from 45 yards out catching David Seaman off his line and it literally broke my heart. I was so devastated that I didn't leave my room until the next morning. The same devastation feeling was again felt 10 years later in 2006 when 10-man Arsenal lost in the Champions League final when Barcelona scored twice in the last 14 minutes.

In 1996 when Arsenal announced their new manager, Arsene Wenger, I was one of the many who asked the question -- Arsene who? I'd never heard of him until David Dein introduced him on TV. Did you know that Wenger was Arsenal's first manager from outside Great Britain or Ireland? Well, we all know what happened in his second season in charge, Arsenal won the Double and that was the start of good times for Arsenal and us as fans.

My favorite player is still Dennis Bergkamp – I wouldn't mind naming my son after him but it is a little too close to my name and I am sure my wife wouldn't agree to it. I shed a tear at his testimonial game and felt terrible knowing that I wouldn't be seeing him wearing the red and white jersey again. The legend Bergkamp remains as the most intelligent players of all time.

Last week, I was at Bishan Community Library and I noticed there was a Caucasian walking towards me. He pointed at my Arsenal jersey and gave me a thumbs-up and introduced himself as Ben. The following conversation took place:

Ben: "Hi, you're supporting the greatest club in the world."
Me: "Oh absolutely."
Ben: "Did you watch the Villa-Arsenal game last night?"
Me: "Yes, we came from behind to win the game."
Ben: "I missed the game because it was a little too late for me."
Me: "Do you want to see the goals? (Before he answered, I started showing him the goals on youtube)."
Ben: "My first Arsenal game was in 1938. My dad brought me to Highbury and I was a season ticket holder for many years after the war. I now live in the countryside which is about 80 miles from the Emirates stadium. My sons and grandsons are Arsenal fans. One of them is in the waiting list for next season's tickets and his queue number is 60,000 plus."
Me: "Whoa! Did you just say 60,000 plus?"
Ben: "Yes and he will never get it."

Ben was in Singapore for holidays to visit one of his sons who has been living here for many years. Isn't it nice to know and talk to people who share the same interest and passion as you? I was so glad to know that there's a local forum for us as Arsenal fans as well as meeting up regularly at the Liz though I have only been there twice with my entire family. What an atmosphere! My wife who isn't into football will tell you it is different to watch the game at the Liz than at home.

Lastly (I didn't know I could write so much), can Cesc, Hleb, Robin, Flamini and gang bring back past glories? Without shadow of doubt, I honestly think they can… Let's hope this year is the beginning of something great!

Come on, you Gunners!