A very subjective look into AWFC

And honestly, I’m still not fully present. I have been absolutely disconnected from all things AWFC to be frank, and I haven’t been excited on intrigued enough to write much on here, plus I have been working a lot on music stuff and I just haven’t been motivated enough. I wish I was but I’m just a bit out of sorts.

Things feel different, they don’t feel bad, they don’t feel weird, just different. Am I excited about the season? YES. Am I excited about the squad and all the new additions? YES. Am I counting down the days til the girls play and see how they line up? YES. Am I convinced that Smilla will have a lights out season? YES.

Absolutely gutted that Vivianne Lia has left the club? YES.

But here’s the thing… this is what we’re supposed to feel when we’re making big changes in our lives… when we take risks, when we step out of our comfort zone… shit just gets weird and it’s a transitional period.

The AWFC brand is out of control massive… like holy shit. And I love that because ideally it allows for wages to be higher, better facilities and all the support stuff too. I’m super chuffed by it all.

I. Just. Feel. Weird.

but I love the players and I love you too.

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I did something silly

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Fixtures are announced and everyone and their mother want to know about our matches vs Chelsea, City and Man Utd. Of course, now magically aka thanks to the investment and all the obvious and warranted reasons, everyone wants to know about our matches vs London City.

It feels like every club highlights these encounters and tons of social media accounts have these featured as weekends we can’t miss. I get it… I truly do but anybody with a brain knows that the matches vs the teams that everyone expects us to beat end up being the most important ones and the points we’ve dropped against them in the last several seasons is basically why we haven’t won’t the WSL since 2019.

We cannot just overlook Brighton, Aston Villa and Liverpool and even Spurs. Birmingham won’t be poor either… and mind you, every single match will have a component of emotional attachment more than ever before for a lot of us. The normal matches won’t be the same as they used to. Hell, for some people beating Tottenham means beating their beloved peloved and it’s just gonna be interesting overall.

I couldn’t be more excited about Lia Walti playing vs Arsenal and by excited I mean I am going to throw up from anxiety. But seriously, I much rather watch that than a game vs Man Utd for example, mostly because I am used to seeing Dom Janssen play for other teams by now. A player who I absolutely adore and think the world of as a human as well.

My whole point is that if we minimize in any way our matches vs opponents that aren’t “content worthy” then we’re doing something wrong as fans, as a club and as a sport in general and pardon me if that sounds harsh but I’m mostly being clumsy and I’m jet lagged.

Of course some matches mean more than others, I obviously checked when we host Man City to see if I can make it but it’s in January. But I’m not seeing every other match as a given. We’ve seen what happens.

37ish more days.

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As you all know I stopped creating That Arsenal Women Podcast a day or two after the girls won the Champions League. That’s over 2 whole years ago. Somehow, someway, people still find it and they find it interesting enough to listen to it. My podcast host sends me an email every single week sharing metrics of the podcast and most of the time its maybe 10 plays, some weeks 6, some others 18… and maybe once every 3 months I have no idea why but it gets over 100 plays and sometimes over 300. That is nuts.

Those are numbers I wasn’t getting that often even at the height of the podcast and it just always makes me wonder why or how. I never ever promote it and I have barely been on social media since the earthquakes happened in Venezuela about a 35 days ago.

It’s only normal that I see these numbers and just think: wow, I should really start it up again… but no my friends, I really cannot commit to that and I have very few people asking me to do it honestly, I’m just being open and honest as usual with you. It’s just interesting how that all can mess with your head.

What I mean by this, among many examples, is that of assuming that I have something important to say and that my opinion MUST be out there or heard. False. Absolutely false. Nobody NEEDS my opinion or my view. Some people might be curious but there isn’t an actual literal need for it, but our brain sometimes processes things in a very strange way that can deceive and trick us… brain? maybe it’s more like our ego…

I’m very anxious for the season to start. It’s been an insane transfer window and I just want to see how all teams play… not just us but other teams too.

To say “there’s something different this year” is the most obvious thing. Lots of changes, transitional season, OUR players playing for Brighton, Chelsea and City. It’s pretty wild. Not sure if I’ll ever get used to that.

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Woso will save the sport. All of us know that our side of footballs is “a few years behind” in terms of investment, popularity etc etc etc but to be honest I think that this can be a good thing for some aspects, specially when it comes to the the amount of money around fan experience or things like that. Just hear me out…

The americanization of the sport, hopefully limited to this world cup, is something that gives me a lot of anxiety, and I’m saying this as a Venezuelan-american. I don’t like hydration breaks and as someone who has performed in something like this, I don’t like halftime entertainment too much either.

These shows are never for the people in the crowd, most of people there absolutely hate it and just want the “traditional” experience… basically just get on with the bloody game. If you pay attention, the TV feed never ever shows the crowd, and the reason is because nobody is into it. Literally nobody has ever said: “OMG I’m so happy I saw the black eyed peas perform right before this match, it made such a difference!!”

Back in 2022 I performed percussion with The Jonas Brothers at the Dallas Stadium, the same stadium lots of matches have been played in this World Cup. It was for a massive thanksgiving shows, and at the time it was the most watched ever with over 42 million views. And I can promise you it was the worst energy and the least engaged and interested crowd I have ever performed to, in my life, ever.

I can assure it had nothing to do with the music we were playing or the brothers not being a band that is made for that crowd, but the performance was amazing, the songs were all bonafide hits, Joe was as usual a total stud and a killer front man, the band was on point, the Dallas cheerleaders were incredible. Everything about it should’ve made it great but it really wasn’t.

You could feel that the whole crowd just wanted that to end so they could watch their teams again, you know… that small detail of literally the one and only reason why they were there to begin with. BTW the whole performance is available on YouTube if you want to see what I mean but also, they don’t show the crowd.

Of course I want the women’s game to grow and grow and grow more than anything because I want every single player to make a lot of money and live well and retire and now have to worry. Add to that being a massive impact in culture, women and girls and men and any person all over the world.

Being a little behind might imply having different priorities and investing money in a much more efficient, intelligent, kind and humane way. I wish I was smart enough to I’ve alternatives and options but I am thankfully not needed. There are plenty of people doing amazing, revolutionary and groundbreaking things, such as my friend Rebecca Smith with Montpellier and so much more with Crux Football.

Side note… I might try a different layout/color/vibe on this blog. If you don’t want me to change a thing send me DM on instagram please. I enjoy the plain look and I absolute would rather die than use AI looking thumbnails.

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There seems to be a very predictable selective amnesia going around the woso community and people are piling on a lot of hate towards LCL. They are being perceived as these big spenders, transfer bullies and blinded by ambition. Although I’m not disputing that nor am I minimizing your opinion about their money, I just wanted to remind those that need reminder that AWFC did it as well. Maybe not at the same scale but we were THE club for a long, long time.

We were the biggest spenders, we are currently the most profitable with the most fans and biggest attendance, etc so this idea that we are just a little club in north London is laughable and we need to get a grip. There might be a very real situation at play which is that we aren’t as interesting for players as we thought we were or think we are. I’m not making that as a assertion nor do I think this is a fact, I’m just adding perspective.

Are we even trying to buy those players that LCL are buying? Another question would be why not? Are you telling me that Diani isn’t good enough for us? Are you having a laugh?? They signed Mapi Leon, why the fuck did we not sign her? When NEED her.

Once again, I feel the board are failing us in a deeper level and I also think they are doing good things, for sure. The reason I’m putting that out there is because sometimes you have to buy players so that other teams don’t buy them and I know I’m over simplifying it all and that’s not how it works usually BUT I’d like to think we should’ve done something more.

There was a time when AWFC had all the best players, and we cannot say that is the reality TODAY when we have players that wouldn’t start for most teams and when we lose Lia, Beth, Viv and Katie.

Every team is getting stronger and I don’t know if we are ADDING much more, so far.

Hope I’m wrong.

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One of my favorite things about woso, and just life in general, is learning. That’s what this space has always been for me, learning about the history of the game, culture of the clubs, players and so on. I have no idea who Lisa Baum is. I’ve never heard of her, no clue how good she is, where she plays on the pitch, if she’s left footed or right footed, I seriously have only heard her name but I truly have ZERO knowledge.

Please don’t mistake this for me asking “who the fuck is she???” in a bad way. I’m saying, very loudly, that I know very little about football, clearly. I also don’t follow most players, I don’t really see all posts by AWFC and don’t really invest that much time honestly, specially since Aidan Small isn’t at the club anymore and that is a whooooooole different topic and blog and something that needs to be studied because we all owe that man so fucking much. Talk about an under appreciated person.

What I can tell you is that a lot of people I know are excited about her and that is good enough for me, and these are people who I trust and their judgment is spot on usually… basically what this means is that we both like the same players and dislike the same ones too haha. And literally as I have been writing this blog I was sent a video of her doing some keepy uppies and she looks technically proficient to say the least.

Music stuff real quick…

For those very few of you out there not just reading this, but that happen to like ska-punk, I can share that Streetlight Manifesto has released a new album and I was privileged enough to play percussion once again, making this my 4th album with this legendary band. I did shakers, tambourines, congas, bongos and all kinds of stuff.

You can listen to to it here:

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For those of you that don’t know Spanish, I’m here to tell you that “lion” is “leon” and lioness is “leona” and you might be asking yourself why the hell I’m saying this and why would be talking about Mapi on an Arsenal Women Blog… the reason is not what I hinted at yesterday but more about the fact that we have a massive challenge next season.

Forget that it’s LCL for a second and just see it as another team (imagine it was Villa) buy all these players and have a second season with the ones they had already. That’s pretty serious football business. And I don’t know about you but I’m legit worried.

I’m not saying LCL will win the title but I think the have strengthened in areas they truly needed in order to actually compete and I wouldn’t be surprised if they finish 4th next season. Needless to say if for whatever reason they make the CL that wouldn’t technically be allowed because Michelle Kang also owns Lyon, so that’s a whole different thing.

Anyway, enough about other teams, and let’s focus on things that matter more: AWFC and moreover the fact that there wasn’t a big women’s tournament this summer. I cannot express how happy that makes me not because I don’t want them to be active and participate is a global spectacle but because they all need to rest as much as possible. They have all been going non stop for what seems like 10 years and we all know how overloading players leads to injuries and mental health challenges.

Also, we have had half a dozen players leave and no matter how many are bought or come to us, that is a very big number that fundamentally changes a lot of things for AWFC, and we have to hope somehow that its for the better. Not sure how that could ever be without Beth and Katie specifically.

It’s important to keep in mind these changes happen and we need to manage our expectations and assumptions. Easier said than done but such is life and such is football. At the moment my optimism is growing and I hope that Renee finds her best XI within the first 3 matches because if we don’t get 9 points out of 9, we are staring at 2nd or 3rd place at best.

I think we have a better chance at winning the CL than the WSL if I’m totally honest but again, those first matches will be crucial, but we all know that… every single match is crucial of course!

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