strider6004
Legend
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Here’s mine you might want to add more
At the matches
The day I decided to become a member in ‘89 I went up to SB midweek walked in past the Shed towards the East Stand and saw and old country-looking building and a prefab building just before it. As I was pondering which one to try first I saw a smartly dressed man coming towards me with grey hair I caught his eye and thought to ask him where to get the membership when I realised it was Ken Bates. I smiled as this seemed a strange coincidence and I realised he had the reputation of being a miserable bxgger.
As he saw me smiling, he remarkably smiled at me, ‘Can I help you?’
I hadn’t expected that.
‘Yes, I want to become a member,’ I beamed back thinking, this is surreal it’s like the owner personally came out to greet and direct me.
He looked at me a little bemused and said ‘It’s over there,’ pointing at the prefab.
I thanked him and went off to the prefab and the rest is history.
During my years the surprising thing was the old acquaintances I unexpectedly caught up with.
Firstly, a chap a year younger than me I knew from school and had also been in the ATC. I spotted in in Fulham Broadway and was amazed he liked football as I had never seen him even kick one. He said loved the atmosphere.
At Bristol away by chance I saw the cousin of my old flame asking for help as a group of Bristol fans had told him to bring his crew. He didn’t know what to do and I don’t think up until then we had ever even spoken. Looking back it makes me laugh as he reminded me of the Harry Enfield character Kevin but about 6’2 with big shoulders.
Then at Selhurst Park sitting in the seats with a few friends I had met on an away trip and a chap I had known when about 10 or 11 comes over and says ‘hello mate’ and asks me to come and meet up with his friends at the CIU club close to the ground when we next play at home. I agreed a little bemused as I remembered him as a wimpy ten-year-old that could hardly kick a ball and was now looking like a graduate of a Charles Atlas exercise regime.
So eventually we made it to the CIU and caught up with my ‘Charles Atlas’ mate and he introduced me to his friends and I introduced mine. There was lots of banter and then on my way to the ‘gents’ I see a face and he says, ‘I know you.’
I look at him and say, ‘I know you too………….Marcus.’
‘Yeah and you’re xxxxx!
‘How’s your brother?’ I asked as I used to play with his brother, he was the Hulk and I was Spiderman. I lost contact with moving away.
I often met with Marcus at Victoria station as we headed in the same direction.
[SIZE=12pt]In the Office[/SIZE]
Now looking at this from another aspect, it was not just the chance encounters while physically following CFC yet the aspect at work.
I worked in a high street bank my 4th choice of career yet there it was. There was one older CFC fan there from Battersea a bit of an arrogant SOB who I rarely spoke to (that changed a few years later and my opinion of him changed too) yet another work colleague asked me to go for a drink in the evening and brought along another chap from another bank branch. They both liked music yet the chap from the other branch also liked Chelsea. That was the catalyst for going to SB.
I transferred from that Bank to another branch after making the cardinal error of asking a question at the manager's team meeting about the possibility of training. It opened the floodgates of all these ladies’ pent up frustrations with their dead end jobs. His furious glance at me led me to believe my transfer was not just a good opportunity for me, more his chance to move on a ‘trouble maker’.
At the new branch my first day I recognised another chap in the this much smaller office called Mick, we had both been in the bank’s football teams. We got talking and it transpired he was a Chelsea fan. All of a sudden the move didn’t seem so bad and he even had a sense of humour though different from mine.
I didn’t stay there for too long and after a short spell as a roofing labourer decided I was better off in an office and got a job in a different bank back office. I bumped into Mick one night and after telling him where I was working he told me his friend worked there too called James and he supported CFC.
So I sought out James and said ‘hello’ and mentioned Mick. He told me the Bank was full of Chelsea fans. He pointed out a few and then in my job of dealing with exceptions I found loads more. Not many went to SB at that time so instead many came looking for me in the week asking about the matches.
It got awkward at times as people would be coming to me and supervisors would not be happy yet the worst offenders were actually quite senior so often the supervisors bit their lips. On the other hand it helped my job too as I ended up having contacts in Payments, FX, Loans, Projects, Mail Room, Sales, Doc Credits. With all those contacts I started getting opportunities and got promoted. Another benefit was getting programmes from one of the porters in the Mail Room. I guess this was an example of early networking from the 90’s.
At the matches
The day I decided to become a member in ‘89 I went up to SB midweek walked in past the Shed towards the East Stand and saw and old country-looking building and a prefab building just before it. As I was pondering which one to try first I saw a smartly dressed man coming towards me with grey hair I caught his eye and thought to ask him where to get the membership when I realised it was Ken Bates. I smiled as this seemed a strange coincidence and I realised he had the reputation of being a miserable bxgger.
As he saw me smiling, he remarkably smiled at me, ‘Can I help you?’
I hadn’t expected that.
‘Yes, I want to become a member,’ I beamed back thinking, this is surreal it’s like the owner personally came out to greet and direct me.
He looked at me a little bemused and said ‘It’s over there,’ pointing at the prefab.
I thanked him and went off to the prefab and the rest is history.
During my years the surprising thing was the old acquaintances I unexpectedly caught up with.
Firstly, a chap a year younger than me I knew from school and had also been in the ATC. I spotted in in Fulham Broadway and was amazed he liked football as I had never seen him even kick one. He said loved the atmosphere.
At Bristol away by chance I saw the cousin of my old flame asking for help as a group of Bristol fans had told him to bring his crew. He didn’t know what to do and I don’t think up until then we had ever even spoken. Looking back it makes me laugh as he reminded me of the Harry Enfield character Kevin but about 6’2 with big shoulders.
Then at Selhurst Park sitting in the seats with a few friends I had met on an away trip and a chap I had known when about 10 or 11 comes over and says ‘hello mate’ and asks me to come and meet up with his friends at the CIU club close to the ground when we next play at home. I agreed a little bemused as I remembered him as a wimpy ten-year-old that could hardly kick a ball and was now looking like a graduate of a Charles Atlas exercise regime.
So eventually we made it to the CIU and caught up with my ‘Charles Atlas’ mate and he introduced me to his friends and I introduced mine. There was lots of banter and then on my way to the ‘gents’ I see a face and he says, ‘I know you.’
I look at him and say, ‘I know you too………….Marcus.’
‘Yeah and you’re xxxxx!
‘How’s your brother?’ I asked as I used to play with his brother, he was the Hulk and I was Spiderman. I lost contact with moving away.
I often met with Marcus at Victoria station as we headed in the same direction.
[SIZE=12pt]In the Office[/SIZE]
Now looking at this from another aspect, it was not just the chance encounters while physically following CFC yet the aspect at work.
I worked in a high street bank my 4th choice of career yet there it was. There was one older CFC fan there from Battersea a bit of an arrogant SOB who I rarely spoke to (that changed a few years later and my opinion of him changed too) yet another work colleague asked me to go for a drink in the evening and brought along another chap from another bank branch. They both liked music yet the chap from the other branch also liked Chelsea. That was the catalyst for going to SB.
I transferred from that Bank to another branch after making the cardinal error of asking a question at the manager's team meeting about the possibility of training. It opened the floodgates of all these ladies’ pent up frustrations with their dead end jobs. His furious glance at me led me to believe my transfer was not just a good opportunity for me, more his chance to move on a ‘trouble maker’.
At the new branch my first day I recognised another chap in the this much smaller office called Mick, we had both been in the bank’s football teams. We got talking and it transpired he was a Chelsea fan. All of a sudden the move didn’t seem so bad and he even had a sense of humour though different from mine.
I didn’t stay there for too long and after a short spell as a roofing labourer decided I was better off in an office and got a job in a different bank back office. I bumped into Mick one night and after telling him where I was working he told me his friend worked there too called James and he supported CFC.
So I sought out James and said ‘hello’ and mentioned Mick. He told me the Bank was full of Chelsea fans. He pointed out a few and then in my job of dealing with exceptions I found loads more. Not many went to SB at that time so instead many came looking for me in the week asking about the matches.
It got awkward at times as people would be coming to me and supervisors would not be happy yet the worst offenders were actually quite senior so often the supervisors bit their lips. On the other hand it helped my job too as I ended up having contacts in Payments, FX, Loans, Projects, Mail Room, Sales, Doc Credits. With all those contacts I started getting opportunities and got promoted. Another benefit was getting programmes from one of the porters in the Mail Room. I guess this was an example of early networking from the 90’s.
Being hugged by Neil Barnett was a marginally better experience 
?
