There’s a framed poster on my wall in a prominent position with that immortal quote from David Rocastle - “Remember who you are, what you are and who you represent.”
It’s a mantra for life, not just the honour of supporting Arsenal, but it’s something that I think about often.
I grew up in West Ham country, an early memory being the 1-0 FA Cup Final defeat to the Hammers in 1980 and constant crowing from their fans.
We endured years of mediocrity until George Graham brought through a generation of young homegrown talent who were set to be the foundation for two decades of competing for the biggest trophies in football.
While Tony Adams set the agenda, it was Rocastle who captured the imagination of my younger self. It wasn’t just his barnstorming performance at White Hart Lane that set us on our way to victory against Tottenham and one step closer to our first silverware in almost a decade, the League Cup victory over an imperious Liverpool team.
I recall spectacular goals by Rocastle at Anfield and Old Trafford which set the tone for our team of young pretenders. Arsenal were a big club in terms of support and resources but competing for the title felt like an impossible dream during my childhood.
Rocastle’s passion for the club made that dream feel like a possibility, never wilting in the face of the intimidating crowds our Young Guns faced in the North West.
That’s the reason why Rocky is so popular with Arsenal fans now, 20 years since his premature death.
No longer did we have to look back on former glories – he gave us our status back.
The fact that the move away from our beloved Highbury to the Emirates Stadium more or less coincided with Chelsea getting a sugar daddy happy to bankroll them to success followed by similar levels of investment at Manchester City.
We can all agree that the move to a new stadium has pushed us down a level, competing to stay in the Europa League, rather than having us challenge the likes of Bayern Munich and that elusive Champions League glory as former CEO Ivan Gazidis once proclaimed.
That ‘status anxiety’ has seen us gamble on short term buys who have not fitted the Arsenal DNA, in the way that Rocastle epitomised.
So many times in the last days of Arsene Wenger’s reign and under Unai Emery and Mikel Arteta, we have seen players who don’t fit that blueprint.
To represent The Arsenal means doing things the right way, battling until exhaustion. But it’s also about competing with honour, fierce determination and having a sense of teamwork and flair that brings with it victory and admiration in equal quantity.
It’s not about playing for the club from the earliest days of youth football – most of the famous Back Four, Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry and many others from our most recent glory years did not grow up in North London. They did not learn their craft at Hale End.
My wife has never had the slightest interest in football and my attempts to bring her into the Gooner family have been as successful as a David Luiz free kick.
On our wedding day, my speech out of the way, she stood up to say some words of her own, espousing my love of the Arsenal before uttering words I will never forget: “I’ve spoken to one of the Arsenal Double-winning captains who wanted to send me a few well wishes on our wedding day.
“But instead of me reading them out, he’s here this evening…..it’s Frank McLintock.”
A year before I was born, and still fresh enough in the memories of those adults who took me to games in the early 1980s was the Double winning team of 1971.
There were of course plenty of homegrown talent in that team, but there were also titans like Frank McLintock who led by example and went down deservedly as a club legend.
The images of him celebrating with Charlie George, Bob Wilson and the rest of the team at Wembley is undeniably etched in Arsenal’s history.
The fact that he was here, his arm around me, talking about my love of the club and the anecdotes my wife and friends had shared with him blew me away.
He ended up staying for the evening reception, dancing with women of a certain age who were charmed by the twinkle in his eye and his effortless ability to talk to anyone about more or less anything.
Being an Arsenal fan is not just about supporting a football team who play in red and white.
It’s about an institution, the values and honour that come with following what is undoubtedly the biggest club in southern England.
And that’s something that I’ve tried to pass on to my young son Orlando as well. In youth football, he battles for every ball, chases every cause, keeps on going even when his junior team is losing heavily. He shakes the hands of those who have spent the morning scything him down and pulls his team-mates along with him so that they know that giving up is simply not an option.
Being an Arsenal fan is not just about the colours you wear or the players you cheer on week after week.
It’s a philosophy, a culture. It’s about The Arsenal Way.
This article first appeared in The Gooner. Subscribe HERE