On Monday I was jet-lagged, punch drunk and exhausted. I was sad that I missed new episodes of Game of Thrones and Mad Men.
But I was in London. And the prospect of meeting up with fellow Arsenal supporters that night at the Arsenal Supporters' Trust AGM put a lid on any thoughts of sleep or missed TV shows.
I had the good fortune of meeting up with Akhil Vyas, Terry Shaw and Tim Stillman, who I had met last year to my trip here, for a cheeky pint before the meeting. It's amazing how social media makes it seem like we've been friends all along. Although, maybe it's not the social media, maybe it's the type of person who supporters our club. Good people. People who have a great understanding of community and all that the word means. They're engaging, they're polite and most of all they're gracious.
The meeting itself had the same type of feeling as I had with the "away boys" at the pub. There was a sense of all, and a respect for one another. A community. The AST discussed Arsenal at differing levels and passions and also included a Q&A with Amy Lawrence. It's a really cool thing to hear a journalist like Amy give her opinion of the Club they support - as most of the time they need to somehow put that emotion in a lockbox. And like the away boys, Amy was kind enough to talk afterwards about the Club with me.
In all honesty, where else can you find something like this? I'm a total stranger to 99 per cent of the people in the meeting room -- and my attendance to the meeting wouldn't be possible without the help of Tim Payton. Huge thanks to Tim and all the people at the AST for making me feel like one of them and allowing me to speak as well. Thank you.
Thanks for reading and thanks for listening to the Arsenal America Podcast. There won't be a podcast this week, but the show will return in full strength next week with recaps of Norwich, Everton and Fulham as well as an interview with the one and only Nick Hornby. Please don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or grab the RSS feed. Enjoy the rest of your week.
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Chris Toronyi is a longtime Arsenal supporter and the host of The Arsenal America podcast, available every week at ArsenalAmerica.com and on iTunes at "Arsenal America Podcast." You can read more of Chris' thoughts on Twitter.
The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of Arsenal Football Club or Arsenal Media Group.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
