Harry Symeou (@HarrySymeou) is an Arsenal broadcaster, podcaster, commentator and presenter whose work spans BBC London, Arsenal’s official channels, Sky Sports Plus, DAZN’s Serie A coverage and talkSPORT.
Before moving into football media, he spent more than a decade in banking, but redundancy during the Brexit period gave him the chance to pursue the work that fulfilled him: writing, podcasting, broadcasting and talking about the sport he grew up loving.
When did you start supporting Arsenal and why?
I started supporting Arsenal when I was a little kid, probably properly around six or seven years old. That was when my interest really started to peak and from then on it has been a one-way street.
The reason I support Arsenal is because my dad is a massive Arsenal supporter. I was brainwashed, basically. I had no choice, but it is a choice I am grateful he made for me. In my household, you were not getting away with supporting anybody else.
That is the root of it, but you grow to love and admire the club yourself, and that is definitely where I am now. My dad’s fandom came about because, at that time, there were a lot of Cypriot families in North London. My dad’s family came before the war in Cyprus in 1974, and many families gravitated towards Finsbury Park, Archway and Tufnell Park because there were people from back home there, shops where they could get familiar products and a big community.
When you move to a new country, particularly in those days, I think it was important to have your people around you to help you settle in. My dad always tells me that back then you would go around to different football grounds in London. You might go to Tottenham, Millwall or West Ham. It is not that there was no multicultural element elsewhere, but Arsenal was the place where they felt most welcome. They did not feel as though they stuck out like a sore thumb walking into Highbury.
I think that, combined with the proximity to where they were living, is why you now look around Emirates Stadium and find people of Greek and Turkish Cypriot descent everywhere. It was the area they gravitated towards, and Arsenal had that welcoming feeling.
What was your first Arsenal match?
The first time I went to a game was September 10, 1996. It was a UEFA Cup game at Highbury, Arsenal 2 Borussia Monchengladbach 3.
I only really knew Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal from the very beginning, although I think Stuart Houston was still in charge that night and Wenger took over the following month.
At the time, my dad was working in South London and we had moved down there temporarily for a few years. I remember going to school and him coming to pick me up early. He told me the reason was that I had a dentist’s appointment, but the real reason was that we were going to Arsenal against Monchengladbach. He didn’t want me to go into school and say that, so he lied to me to make sure I didn’t land him in it.
We travelled up and went to the game. I remember walking in, the floodlights, the lush pitch and that first feeling you get when you walk into any ground for the first time. For me, it was a ground I had been seeing on television and was desperate to get to, so it was a really special moment.
The game didn’t go the way we wanted because we lost 3-2, but that was my first experience of going to watch Arsenal live. A night game has its own magic as well, and that made it even more special.
We sat opposite the dugout in the West Stand, brilliant seats, and from then on, I was properly hooked. I got my first Arsenal shirt, which still fits me!
I think Ian Wright scored and I remember the mural being there because they were building the North Bank.
I've spoken a lot to David Seaman about the mural and the players thought it was horrible, because the ball would bounce off and then go halfway out the pitch again.
My godfather took me to the shop afterwards and bought me a little arsenal pin, which I've still got in my hallway. I think when you get taken to your first match and you feel part of something.
My friend, his daughter Chloe (Tron), is on the Board of Arsenal Supporters Trust and she's quite active.
Who was your first Arsenal hero and why?
My first proper Arsenal hero was probably Dennis Bergkamp. I always fancied myself as a bit of a flair-type forward, so he was a player I naturally gravitated towards in terms of style.
He oozed class in everything he did: the touch, the vision, the execution of some of his finishing. There was so much to love about Dennis Bergkamp. He was also very different to a lot of what you saw in the Premier League at that time.
There hadn’t really had that influx of foreign players yet, so there was something mysterious about players who had come from overseas and brought a totally different style to the Premier League and to Arsenal in particular.
The moment that stands out for me is the hat-trick he scored away at Leicester City. That encapsulated what Dennis Bergkamp was for me: class. Getting the ball on the edge of the box and bending it into the corner, then the goal where he took it out of the air, did those little kick-ups to bring it back onto his right foot and creating the angle for the finish.
The variety of finishes he could produce and the way everything looked so easy was when I really started to appreciate what a player we had on our hands. There were other goals along the way, but that game is probably the best hat-trick in terms of quality that you have ever seen in this league. I cannot think of a better one.
Who is your favourite ever Arsenal player and why?
I think you have probably got to go with Thierry Henry. The levels he elevated us to over the years, and the levels he got to himself, were extraordinary.
I don’t think there is another Arsenal player I look back on and say that, at a point in time, he was undoubtedly the best in the world. We have had players who were among the best in the world in their positions at various points, and we still do today, but with Thierry Henry, at the peak of his powers, you looked at him and thought: this guy is not just the best at Arsenal, not just the best in the Premier League, but the best in the world at what he does.
There are so many memories of him. The goal at the Bernabeu stands out. The 5-1 at San Siro, when he was outstanding, stands out as well. But the best we saw of Thierry Henry was probably the day we played Liverpool in the Invincibles season. We were 2-1 down and he just took the game by the scruff of the neck.
He wasn’t doing it against a lowly side, with all due respect. This was Liverpool. To take the game on like that and produce that level of quality is the game that always stands out for me. If he doesn’t do that, maybe we don’t win the league and we certainly do not stay unbeaten. In terms of impact as well as quality, he covered it all off on that day.
What’s your biggest Arsenal regret/disappointment?
The Champions League finals are the things I have probably struggled to get over the most because of the magnitude of them.
We were desperately unlucky in 2006. The sending off for the goalkeeper did not help and then, even though we were still in front, we managed to end up losing the game.
Even the Champions League final we lost last season was interesting because I felt awful in the immediate aftermath. I came back to England, got home and remember saying to my kids, who really wanted to go to the parade: “What do you want to go to a parade for? We have just lost the European Cup final?” It was as though, in that moment, the heartbreak felt bigger than what we were about to experience at the parade.
I am so glad I went, but that just puts into context how big the Champions League finals were to me. To lose one, or to lose two, was very hard and probably the lowlights of my Arsenal-supporting time.
What is your favourite ever Arsenal match?
My favourite Arsenal match was the 5-1 win at Inter. I know there have been more significant matches than that, and you could put games where we won Premier League titles in there and have a case that they were bigger or more important, but that night was special.
I grew up on the magic of Italian football. I absolutely adore Italian football. I cover it today on a weekly basis as a commentator, so I am really engrossed in it.
Maybe that made it more significant to me, because I understood what a massive result it would be to go to San Siro and dominate Inter the way we did.
You also have to remember that they had beaten us 3-0 at Highbury before that. You looked at that Inter side and thought they were a proper team. So to go there and do that to them on their own patch was sensational. That is the one I would choose.
What is your favourite Arsenal memory (away from the pitch) and why?
My favourite Arsenal memory away from the pitch is the 1997-98 parade, because that was the first time it really dawned on me how big Arsenal Football Club is.
There was no social media back then. I was seven or eight years old, and seeing the crowds and crowds of people lining the streets of North London made me realise that it was not just me, my dad and a handful of other people we knew who supported this team. It was literally the team of North London, and it was incredible.
I remember that day because my uncle was in charge of the McDonald’s on Highbury Corner. We arrived there and went in to see him before the bus came round, and he said: “Why don’t we go upstairs and watch from the roof?” It will be much better. So we had an amazing experience. When the bus came round, the players were almost at eye level with us, so we had a unique view of it.
By then, the bug had already kicked in. I had been watching from about six years old and that 1997-98 season was my first full Wenger season.
Once we won the Double in that fashion, I was looking at it thinking, this is amazing. I just could not get enough of it. I would have followed Arsenal anyway, but for that to be your first experience of a full season as a young fan is everything you could wish for.
To listen to Harry’s Chronicles of a Gooner podcast, please click HERE