Four Signings and a Wedding.
By Ian Jenkinson
@Gooneriano
It has been a busy time both for Arsenal and me this summer. While Arsenal has been busy extending their family, I have been busy planning a wedding. I am due to be married this Friday and the excitement is really high in our house as you can imagine. And it struck me how throughout all this summer of planning how excited I have been for two very different reasons but with the same level of passion.
Football is a passion that we all share, especially on here where we have a huge passion for all things Arsenal, and I really don’t think that the level of passion or love we can feel for our team is much different to the love we feel at home. They are two completely different emotions but the levels are the same.
Every time we got something organised for our big day it left us with that lovely sense of excitement, the butterflies came at the thought of how well the flowers that we had just chosen would look on the day or how great the kids will look in the new dress and suit we got them. When we booked the honeymoon we daydreamed of us being there, just lazing about in a bit of luxury and all that excitement resurfaced.
I was getting the same sense of excitement and butterflies when all of our signings were announced. One by one the names came out and I got that lovely feeling all over again.
I know it was the same level of emotion because they were happening alternately alongside our wedding plans so it was easy to measure them. Our wedding plans have just coincided with one of the most exciting transfer windows in Arsenal’s recent history. Literally day by day there was great wedding news and great Arsenal news. It has been truly fantastic.
Arsenal already has a very strong squad, with Diaby back and hopefully a much better year in relation to avoiding injuries, so it promises to be a very interesting season. With long term injuries last season to Theo, Ozil, Wilshere, Ramsey and The Ox we still managed to finish only 7 points from the top of the league and we won the FA Cup. If our new fitness coach Shad Forsythe and our fitness team can keep this squad fit for the season it will be a mouth-watering campaign.
This summer we have added some fantastic players, and who knows there maybe one more to arrive?
Alexis Sanchez will bring so much to us, his quality is frightening and he is coming off the back of a very positive season with Barcelona and a great World Cup. I cannot wait to see him play for us. To have bought the very man who has kept Bacary Sagna out of the French national side is fantastic. Mathieu Debuchy is a well capable replacement at right back.
David Ospina had a fantastic World Cup and looks a top goalkeeper, he will be a fantastic addition and will push Szczesny for a starting place. Calum Chambers for me could be the ace in the hole. If he fulfils his potential he can be a fantastic utility player for us. Arsene admitted that the price was high but in a few years that price might seem like a steal.
Just like our wedding on Friday I am so excited for the start of the season. The pitch is marked and grass cut/the banqueting room is set up. The new kits are all ready to be worn/the suits and wedding dress are hanging. The players are training to be fit/the speeches are written. This summer the two events have interwoven and I am overloaded with respect, love and excitement.
The positivity surrounding Arsenal this summer (we have always been positive on here but it is great to see Arsenal fans elsewhere finally seeing the light) has been mirrored in my own life and that just makes everything worthwhile. All the planning, decision making and careful consideration that have gone in to both the club and my life are coming to fruition. I just hope Arsenal enjoy their season as much as I will enjoy my day.
Due to all these plans and with life naturally keeping me busy I haven’t written too much for Untold lately but I was gripped by the similarity of my feelings this summer between The Arsenal and the Wedding that I felt compelled to take some time to write this short piece. I hope to be back contributing a bit more in the future.
Right, I’m off to bask in all this positivity!
@Gooneriano
The books
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal
wow congrats man, wish u al d best on your wedding day. i knw how u ar feeling bcos am having my own wedding on the 30th of August. goodluck to u
Congrats sir. I assume you will be back from honeymoon in time for the start of the season? Anything else is poor planning……
Don’t talk me of poor planning ClockEndRider. I planned a week holiday when there is international Fick Fufa football at the start of September. So would be coming back home on Saturday 13 September. I was hoping that they would move the match to Sunday but they have made it an early kick off that day at home against Man City. So I will be driving from the South of France back home while they are playing. Bad planning indeed…. sigh 🙁
Congratulations Ian! Hope you have a good day and an even better wedded life.
I hate to put a negative spin on this, but getting married was the end of me going to Highbury, which lasted ten years until my divorce. I missed the first double side matches and didn’t get back to going to games until Terry Neil’s London Irish team, but don’t let that put you off Ian. Best of wishes to you & your lovely bride.
Many congratulations, Ian. On both front. Hope you enjoy your day tremendously.
Ian,
Have a great day on Friday. I know that all Arsenal supporters are in for a great year.
Congratulations Ian, and wishing you and your bride a lifetime’s happiness.
Oh, hope you get seeing the Emirates Cup! 🙂
It is good for all of us to have a positive take on all aspects of our lives and our football!
As Arsenal supporters we have had a very good summer following the FA Cup win – lets keep the positive mood going!
Congratulations Ian! To be able to spare some time and write for Untold so close to your big day is like scoring in borrowed time and getting all 3 points for the Gunners!
Wishing you a Great Wedding and a blissful married life…come your first anniversary hope you write one for Untold on how the team should regroup to defend all their titles won this season!
Congrats man, I guess the perfect wedding gift would Arsenal winning the EPL this season.
Congrats, i can just about remember what marriage is all about.
Seriously, all the best for the day, and the rest of your life.
Congratulations Ian, wishing you a happy conjugal life!
As my wife and I approach our 68th wedding anniversary, we send to you Ian, and your bride, our best wishes for a long and happy marriage.
In our twilight years, two pieces of advice are mandatory.
If, after a disagreement, you get up early one morning, go into the kitchen, open the curtains , make the breakfast and call your beloved….if, when she enters the kitchen, she first RE-ADJUSTS THE CURTAINS, you know you are on a pretty good wicket once more.
The other thing to remember is that when you say anything to your wife and she replies “What” you mustn’t assume that is a question. It is purely a woman’s way of allowing you to re-phrase what you said.
Congrats for your big day and best wishes to you both.
Congratulations on the big day Ian! Best of luck for you too and wonderful happy marriage.
So reports in Colombia say Quintero is flying in to London to hold talks with Arsenal, sources in Portugal saying that’s not the case #afc
7:26pm – 31 Jul 14
super comparison mate……..Arsenal is like a recalcitrant bride, always edging up to the altar but skittering away at the last minute, until last year! Have a long and prosperous married life and a great Arsenal fan experience.
Hope you & the Missus enjoy your day on Friday and if you just remind her as I do my wife you married arsenal a long time before her and she has to remember you haven’t divorce them even in the toughest of times so you are devoted but she must overstand that August to May she must be tactical with event planning for plus 1 events and you and her will have a long and healthy marriage.
Conratulations in advance to you both
Congrats Ian, I wish you and your bride a glorious wedding and a blessed happy married Life.
@Shynegooner, congrats in advance too.
Definitely, we (Arsennal fans) would celebrate trophies this season.
Ian
Your namesake Carl has gone on a years loan to West Ham & it looks likely that we’re going to get 21 year old Colombian Quintero from Porto. Another left footer, we’ve got a few of those. The downside is that Santi may now have to leave to make way.
May your marriage be as happy as Podolski on a happy day!
I absolutely love this article! It’s made me post a comment on Untold for the first time ever, that’s how much. Congrats to you Ian, and thanks for making this most apt of comparisons between two of the most important loves in our lives.
JUAN FERNANDO QUINTERO? yes please.
Or is Quintero a smokescreen transfer rumour for someone else? Or would it really be that Santi will leave us. It can’t cos I love little Santi…
Congratulations Ian , wish you a happy and blissful wedded life .And may all your problems be ‘little ones’ !
The jokes will be on later , much later !
Its much later !
http://beattiecartoons.com/wp-content/gallery/cartoons/first-anniversary-stupid.jpg
Best wishes, sir!
And much , much later….
What’s Checkmate?
You tell your wife “I saw a lady, looked exactly like you” and your wife asks “WAS SHE HOT..??”
You can’t say ‘No’ and you can’t say ‘Yes’ – now that’s Checkmate!
@Brickfields
Nice one at 5.26pm – reminds me of a certain silly AAAA troll who has been married three times……. 🙂