A very subjective look into AWFC

I just watched a little snippet of a chat between Steph Catley and Caitlin Foord, which was fascinating btw. In case you haven’t seen it I encourage you to check it out here: https://twitter.com/ArsenalWFC/status/1707047908774674839

Anyway, they went over a few of the new signings and what they bring to the table, so to speak. Towards the end of this clip Steph talks about the injured players coming back and how they will be like new signings. And if you are of a certain age and you were also following Arsenal men during, specially, the latter Arsene Wenger years so will know that hearing anything related to “new signings” is borderline cringe worthy. Let me break it down…

Towards the end of Wenger’s tenure at our club, he had this knack of saying certain things that some of us in the Wenger Out world, would find very annoying and I’m paraphrasing here but one of those things he would say was how we shouldn’t buy new players or invest in the squad because the injured players would eventually come in a fell like brand new signings.

I guess he had a point for but kinda not? Like I get what he tried to do/say/mean but when it was said so many times, years after years, to sorta justify the lack of investment, it becomes very noisy to hear. But for the sake of my own sanity, I’m gonna go ahead and agree with Steph on this, and here’s why:

Our injured players have been out for so long that the squad has had to adapt in all fronts. Tactically, football wise and also as it regards to the missing players’s personalities when not around. There are so many intangibles but that’s not the point. This extended period of time means that other teams prepare a certain way when they face us and might see some predictable patterns or several ways they should approach the game, but it’s almost like when they get used to how we play, our injured players will come back and then it’ll be a jolt for the opposition.

Make no mistake, it will be growing pains for us as well, since I don’t just expect Leah, Viv and Beth coming in and the new players knowing how to play with and FOR them. But I tell you what… I CAN’T BLOODY WAIT TO FEEL THOSE GROWING PAINS because it will mean they are back.

In other news, and I mean this as kindly and respectfully as I can, but a certain defender from a rival club had a bad game yesterday and I hope it carries on into the weekend and every weekend thereafter.

A few more sleeps my friends!

d ❤

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