Michael Timbs (@MichaelTimbs) started his career in digital and social media at the popular YouTube footballing channel COPA90, where he spent five years as a content creator and writer.
He now runs his own YouTube channel and appears on Match of the Day as well as working for some of the biggest names in football including EA Sports.
He recently featured in Arsenal’s promotional campaign aimed at helping small businesses that were hit by the Covid lockdowns, getting his hair cut at the JNF Haircutters in Finsbury Park alongside his friend and midfield star Emile Smith Rowe.
When did you start supporting Arsenal and why?
I was born in Hammersmith and grew up in South West London but my Dad grew up in Dagenham and he and my Grandad were Arsenal fans so it was natural that I was going to support the team too from when I was a kid.
As soon as my brother and I could walk, we were in an Arsenal kit playing football. We had no choice and obviously we loved it as well and actually Arsenal were really, really good at that time so it was quite easy to support them.
My Grandad ran a Sunday League football team in Dagenham in the same league and same division as Tony Adams’ dad.
So they knew each other because they coached in the same league.
Tony grew up in Dagenham and he's a very similar age to my Dad as well.
When I was growing up and playing Sunday League football, I joined a team called Feltham Wanderers and Tony’s son Ollie also played for that team.
So Tony and my dad would watch the games and got on really well because they were two boys from Dagenham and were actually two of the quieter parents.
They would just kind of sit on the sidelines and talk about football and watch their sons play, so we got quite close to them.
My sister was close to Ollie's sister, Tony's daughter, and so we used to go around their house and just like chill with each other, basically.
It’s come full circle now because I have interviewed Tony and been on shoots with him but I have known him since I was a kid.
What was your first Arsenal match?
I don't remember the very first game, but the first I do remember vividly was Arsenal 1 Manchester United 1.
It’s the one where Thierry Henry scored that belter against Roy Carroll, picking it up 30 yards out and he just banged it in.
I can really vividly remember the whole day, driving there with our family friends, walking up the steps to our seats right at the top and just watching it all was amazing.
But the first game I actually went to, which my dad obviously had to remind me of because I was five, was in ‘97 when Arsenal played Wimbledon.
Wimbledon actually won 1-0, I think and Vinnie Jones scored.
A friend worked for Nike so she got us tickets and it was at a time when things were more super-relaxed and it wasn’t how it is today with all the official barriers and passes.
So we actually got to go down to the changing rooms at half time. I think Tony got injured, he’d hurt his ankle or something like that, so we were able to meet him.
This was before I started playing football with his son and he and my dad became friends.
My dad tells me a lot about that day, because obviously it kind of had a special place in his heart but I don’t remember it at all.
Who was your first Arsenal hero and why?
When I was a kid I remember Ian Wright, he was my first hero…everything from the cockiness and the swagger, he was cheeky, lively and an unbelievable player.
The first I can remember who was even better was Thierry Henry because he was like a God, beyond a hero.
I could not believe he was real. I met him once in Barcelona for a Puma event and he was lovely.
The first time I met him was at an NBA after party and I had to go up to him and I said “I am sorry but I love you!”
He is the best player who has played at Arsenal and best player in Premier League.
He was so far ahead of the game. He was playing at a different pace, no one could keep up with him physically and technically.
He was as good a spearhead as you could have in a team.
Who is your favourite ever Arsenal player and why?
As a teenager, playing central midfield, how I developed and saw the game coincided with when Cesc Fabregas came into the Arsenal team.
Watching him as a kid, a young playmaker, with lovely feet, that’s me…I could see myself in him… but I'm obviously so much worse!
Remember, he was not raised as an Arsenal boy and he wasn’t not from London but he embodied a new wave of Arsenal and became the heartbeat of a team that no other player has been since.
Cesc held everything together once the old guard left….the captain with all responsibility
He was that good at 16 and we helped nurture him into world beater and that’s why he means a lot to so many people.
Even with the Invincibles, we had Patrick Vieira, who was the main man in the middle.
But there were so many unbelievable players and arguably better players around him….(Dennis) Bergkamp and Henry.
There was no one man that that had all the responsibility and that strung everything together. And that was what Cesc was.
We pinned all our hopes on him and as long as he was playing well, we'd be fine.
Whenever I watched him I just thought I can't believe we've got a player this good at Arsenal because he just found so much time.
Cesc is polarising because of the way he left but he will always have a really special place in my heart.
But you see from when he went to Chelsea, how good he was there, helping them win the title.
What’s your biggest Arsenal regret/disappointment?
In in terms of disappointment, I would probably say the Champions League final for obvious reasons.
You think what winning in Paris could have done for our club.
Money doesn't really make a difference at that point, but just for the history of the club, and what we could have gone on to achieve, and the players that we maybe could have kept and that we had to let go…
It's like the butterfly effect, you know.
I knew Barcelona were a good team but I thought we’d be back. Little did I know.
The League Cup final in 2011 when we lost to Birmingham when we had a new team that I think deserved to win something also hurts.
We had such a good season and deserved something and we were ten times better than Birmingham.
But like in the League, I don't like using the term ‘mentally weak’ because I don't think we were mentally weak, but the deficiencies in our game meant we got rattled a bit. So people got stuck into us and we couldn't really hold onto leads.
Against Birmingham I thought we’d got this in the bag. I told people that Birmingham were rubbish, they're near the bottom of the table. Blah blah blah.
I've never been more disappointed after a game than after that Birmingham one, just because I was a bit more aware and I was a bit older.
At that time in my life, football really was a massive emotional part of myself.
What is your favourite Arsenal memory (away from the pitch) and why?
I'm a bit luckier and maybe a bit different to other Arsenal fans because I get to work with the club and I also I know a few of the players quite well.
It's probably been working with the club on different shoots and meeting different players and actually getting to know them.
It's always lovely when you work with the club and the players are as nice as you'd hope.
Some of my favourite Arsenal memories are from a pre-season tour Arsenal did two years ago now.
I got to spend quite a lot of time with the club and with the players. That's when I really got to know Hector (Bellerin) really well and that just meant a lot to me.
I was doing something I loved and getting to interview players that I love and chat about football on camera.
Hector was coming back from his knee injury and at one point he was just chilling and he said “let's just go grab some food and chill today” because he'd done his rehab for the morning.
So then we just spent the day just chilling and eating food and walking about. That was so nice for me.
I am an Arsenal fan at the end of the day, like I know how amazing this is to be able to spend time with the players.
Also probably shooting with Mesut Ozil and actually playing football with him.
That a highlight of my life. He told me I should play for Arsenal and I've just held onto that forever!
I’ve known Emile through mutual friends for a few years and obviously to see him coming through now is incredible to see.
After Leeds at home the League Cup, I walked around to his box and his family was there, so I caught with his mum he came up after the game it was nice to see him.
I remember telling him when he first started breaking into the team that whenever I've seen him play for any side under the first team, he was just too good for that level.
There's no point in playing because whenever he plays, he scores every all the goals and just he just runs past people. He just looks like he's playing against kids.
There are times when he receives a ball and he picks it up in so many good spaces, he turns and rightly is so confident. But when he made his Europa League appearances a few years ago he would get the ball in exactly the same position but he wouldn't turn and drive, because naturally you don't want to hog the ball and then give it away. You basically play it safe just because you want to keep the ball and you don't want to mess anything up. You don't make mistakes.
I remember telling him “You just need to be more confident just because you're so good. You're so good at football, just try and do what you do at under 20s.”
He just needed time to bed into the team and get confident. His decision-making is so good at knowing when to turn and drive and knowing when to keep it simple.
It makes me so happy to see him see him doing well because he deserves it. He's a lovely lovely boy.
When I found out I was I was going to be doing the advert with him it was great because I texted him and said I thought he was going to be cutting my hair!
Because I work quite closely with the club, they said they've got this campaign to help out local businesses because of Covid. Arsenal businesses run by Arsenal people that may need a little bit of support.
They said that one that would suit me would be going and getting a trim.
Obviously I said I'd love to do it and it was great to be involved.
I didn't realise how well it would be received and how big a thing it was going to be, shown in the stadium and on Sky.
You know how good a scheme it is because Arsenal don't have to do that.
What matters is on the pitch but they actually care and that for me has been one of the best things working with the club so much and getting to know the people at the club.
It genuinely is a family club and it goes all the way through from the people who work in the bars or people who work in hospitality, or the stewards.
For a club as big as Arsenal to do that, I think is a testament to them staying true to their values and to see it first-hand is amazing.
What is your favourite ever Arsenal match?
The 2014 FA Cup Final, I mean, I just didn't enjoy it at all.
It was the least enjoyable final I think any Arsenal fan could have.
I thought, (Aaron Ramsey) Rambo's on fire, we've actually done quite well in the League this season so surely we're gonna beat this Hull City side who were so crap.
To see us go 2-0 down, I was just thinking this is the most Arsenal thing ever.
Santi scoring before half time was massive. From then on we were pretty dominant to be fair.
Equally, whenever it's the North London Derby, I don't enjoy it.
There's just so much pressure and until you win it's not fun.
One of my favourite was when we won 4-2 at home under Unai Emery.
It was a typical North London Derby, just goals galore and emotion all over the place. Two teams that are just like all over the shop but it came at a point in the season where we really needed a win.
To come from behind and then have the goals was just unbelievable.
I was up in the heavens and it was amazing: people were climbing over each other and the atmosphere in the stadium was one of the best experiences I’ve had.