Seven Questions – Elliot Smith @YankeeGunner

Andrew Allen (Left) celebrates with Andrew Mangan (Arseblog) after the FA Cup final win 2015

Elliot Smith (@YankeeGunner) is the host of the Arsenal Vision podcast, sharing his fast-talking, reactionary humour and insight with Arsenal fans straight after matches and beyond.

Perhaps equally impressive is the little-known fact that Elliot had a small role in the fantastic Pixar movie “Up” with his dulcet tones heard by lead character Carl in the opening scene.

When did you start supporting Arsenal and why?

I was studying at law school in New York and to supplement my income, I was working for QVC, the television shopping channel, which I am still involved with now.

It was the late 1990s and I used to get flown over to London to present the show.

There were a couple of Arsenal fans at QVC UK and one of my visits coincided with the FA Cup final against Newcastle which secured the Double.

We watched the game and I decided that Arsenal was going to be my team. I’ve got to say that I was pretty lucky with the timing!

Arsene Wenger, this exciting French manager, had tremendous success in his first full season and Arsenal had gone from being a boring team to more of an exciting team.

What was your first Arsenal match?

I’ve never actually been to an Arsenal match and it’s something I deeply regret.

I didn’t actually live in London when I was on QVC over there, I was flown in and out and it was pretty hectic. As a student I wasn’t exactly swimming with cash, paying a fortune in rent in New York, so it wasn’t an option to stay extra days to make it a vacation and watch a game at the stadium.

I was young and assumed the opportunity to go to games was going to exist forever but every time I’ve organised to watch the team, whether it’s in London or even in LA, one thing or another has stopped me from going.

I know other fans in the US who are over there regularly (in normal times) and I really envy that but also, especially right now with two young children, it’s just not possible.

It will sound really cheesy and I’m sort of embarrassed to admit this but I actually bought one of the engraved stones around the stadium so that is my presence for now.

I was supposed to go to two games in March of last year (2020) and have a live podcast event in London but this whole Covid thing blew up so it’s on hold.

It’s worth explaining, too, that being a sports fan in the US is very different.

People move around a lot and the culture of actually attending the games as a fan here is a little different. People don't follow their team home and away for example, so if you in Seattle, for instance, you're not going to go to Miami for a game when it's a six-hour flight.

Many fans might never actually go to a game to see their team. It would be like watching Arsenal if they played in Bucharest every weekend!

The way American fans consume their sports, baseball, basketball (American) football, they are sports that have always been very stats and analytics-driven and looking at the numbers, the metrics and the tactics can give you an edge.

For instance, what Gary Neville does on Monday Night Football, is relatively new in the mainstream UK football media but it’s been the culture in the States for a long time. 

Don’t get me wrong, there is no right or wrong way but it’s the way that appeals to me.

We’ve built a real community with ArsenalVision. We don’t do it for clicks or to drive a wedge or be salacious but we have a real sincerity about what we’re saying and care about the community we’re interacting with.

The podcast has allowed me to get together with friends and chat and laugh and it has become a proxy for a lot of the social interaction I’ve otherwise lacked during the lockdown.

I know there is a perception that social media is toxic but my interactions are fantastic and I feel genuinely privileged. I would be very lonely in my Arsenal-supporting existence if I did not have this community.

Who was your first Arsenal hero and why?

I love Dennis Bergkamp and it’s such a cliché but it was really Thierry Henry.

In my view he was the best player in the world and I think he's the best player there's ever been in Premier League. He's the best player I ever watched and if you're an Arsenal fan in America, he is a God, an absolutely untouchable legend.

He obviously then came and played for the New York Red Bulls and there are a lot of Arsenal fans in New York, so there was a chance to sort of adore him over here.

He was just so cool and talented and he had a panache about him like. As a newish observer at the time, you just love a striker who scores brilliant goals. Henry was a global icon.

With Bergkamp, those memories feel a little more sepia toned, whereas with Henry my memories feel a little more HD for lack of a better way of putting it.

Who is your favourite ever Arsenal player and why?

It has to be Cesc Fabregas, a player that I feel the strongest emotional attachment to.

He came through as a young kid in the team after the Invincibles, who had this all- conquering swagger about them. Arsenal felt like the big club in England, along with Manchester United at the time.

We moved to a new stadium, the Invincibles broke up and the economic situation changed so we didn’t have the budget that some of the big-money teams had like Chelsea and ultimately City as well.

It felt like we were the underdogs, trying to do it with Project Youth and lesser-heralded players.

Cesc had not come through our Academy but he was at the club from a young age and was so precocious and really embodied what were becoming, from the power and pace of the Invincibles to this new team based on technique and intricate passing, which was so fun to watch.

He showed himself to really be a leader at a young age and helped the team that had no business challenging for title and probably should have wound up winning it.

I have also never had the animosity towards him for leaving that some people do.  

He was a bit stitched up by Barcelona in some ways with the timing of his departure.

If I grew up in a place and all my childhood friends were playing for a coach that was one of my idols, having massive success, and there was a window for me to go back there and win everything with them, I don't know how you turn that down.

Football careers are short, ACL injuries happened, a drop in form happens. Pep Guardiola could have quit. Lionel Messi could quit so I have some sympathy for him doing it at that point.

What is your biggest Arsenal regret/disappointment?

The Birmingham game in 2007/08 is a game I will never ever forget.

Eduardo’s leg was broken and then Gael Clichy gave away a penalty at the end and it cost us the title that season.

The defeat in Paris against Barcelona and the 4-4 with Newcastle are also painful but nothing comes close to that Birmingham game.

What is your favourite Arsenal memory (away from the pitch) and why?

I have become good friends with Tim Clark who runs the @Arse2Mouse podcast and we met for the first time when he was living in San Francisco.

We watched the FA Cup semi-final against Wigan together. It was a dreadful game but we won and had an amazing time.

We got super drunk at the bar all day, then we went to see a baseball game and it was just an awesome experience and we have become really good friends since.

What is your favourite ever Arsenal match?

The one that really sticks in my mind was beating Real Madrid in the Champions League at the Bernabeu. (Thierry Henry scored as we won 1-0)

I wanted to see Arsenal win the Champions League so badly and that performance really stuck with me. I felt the window to lift that trophy had already closed in some ways because the Invincibles were breaking up and then we had missed what I thought was best opportunity when we lost against Chelsea.

I was devastated obviously by what happened in Paris (Champions League final 2006) but after the win against Madrid I remember the excitement I felt and thinking that this would be our year.

The other game is the win against Barcelona when Andrey Ashavin scored the winner. I don't know why that game felt so important to me.

We were drawing 1-1 and they’d scored an own goal but we wound up losing the tie when Robin van Persie got sent off.

I was always a big Jack Wilshere fan and in the home game, Jack put in such an incredible performance that I thought that we had someone who would go on to be one of the stars of world football. It shows that there is no such thing as a sure thing in football.

It brings us back to the present because we have two or three young superstars and it's a reminder that while us fans can get connected to the players, the club has to do what's in the best interest of the club long-term. And the best interests of the club long-term right now are protecting Bukayo Saka, protecting Gabriel Martinelli and protecting Emile Smith-Rowe.

We are a mid-table team in a second tier European competition and if we ever want to be more than that those three players in particular are going to have to be carefully looked after.

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