A very subjective look into AWFC

This is a question that I want to ask to so many football “experts” and bloggers and podcasters. They talk with so much authority and self assuredness that it’s very admirable really. The levels of confidence you have to be to just go ahead and behave like that and to have the guts to stand there and talk/type some of these things… it’s… impressive?

Sometimes I hear these men talk about professional football players and mention their weight, how they lack of pace etc and I can’t help but want to ask not just the badges questions but also: when was the last time you kicked a ball? when was the last time you actually ran?? for fitness, not to grab a pint.

Make no mistake, when I say “THEY” am talking primarily about ME. I am one of “them.”

I am a touring and session musician. What I know about football is through my life growing up in Venezuela watching football every single day, wether on TV or across my home on that football pitch I could see from my kitchen on the 8th floor.

I am NOT a football expert.

The questions I asked above??

I’m asking myself these questions. It’s all my own projection.

I haven’t played football in 2 years and haven’t even kicked a ball for 2 months when I was playing with my nephew in his backyard which is the size of large iPad.

I don’t have my badges, I don’t know about tactics and I don’t know how to read data. I have no idea what I’m talking about other than what I feel and see, and expert or not, the fact that I have the time and interest to start a blog or a podcast, doesn’t make me better than anyone else, nor does it make me feel worse either. I just do it because I felt there was a lack of variety and all that. Moreover, I felt a duty to offer some perspective during a very interesting time for the club we love and moreover, the players that we all love and deeply care about.

But this stuff is lots about opinions and how you phrase those opinions. Some bloggers are incredibly awesome writers and journalists. They are wordsmiths and have written fantastic books. There are podcasters whose shows sound incredible and have a team and budget etc.. everything they do is magic for their fans and I, like their fans, don’t particularly care if they were a pro footballer or not.

And then you have… Little Old Me. Just another man with a blog.

I don’t always share expert’s opinions. We see it every single week in every single match. A former player, a legend even would say X and then Y happens but you, like me also not an expert, thought Y would happen. So… who knows more? Who is right? Does it matter? Def no.

This sort of brings me to music and music critics, which a lot of us in the industry have very, very strong opinions about. Ok fine, some of us have slightly less strong opinions. Believe it or not, I am NOT one of those people that discard’s someone’s opinion because they aren’t great or accomplished at a certain craft or art. Not just because being accomplished can be subjective but also because I feel people should be free to express their thoughts and opinions, assuming there are consequences to these, of course.

There is, however, something interesting when someone that objectively sucks at guitar, going on social media saying that a legendary guitar player is overrated with a lot of passion and confidence. But the key here is the negative and the undertones that is passive aggressive for some. And this is a whole different thing honestly.

I don’t actually think a 12 year old Taylor Swift fan’s opinion about what Taylor’s best album is, is less important than mine. I don’t think that people like Eddie Trunk, renowned metal and hard rock critic, and someone who I’ve spent time with, knows less than me just because I play drums and he can’t play an instrument to save his life…

This is all just a grey area because some people just don’t get the reality of a situation, no matter how close they are to it… Let’s say you have to kick the championship winning PK for your Sunday league… the pressure is insane right? That pressure, and how convinced you feel that it must be what Chloe Kelly has lived…. holding your hand when I say this… it’s nowhere near.

But at the same time, it is. You can relate… you can have EMPATHY.

And the lack of empathy comes from men in this space. Usually.

You are not a footballer if you are not a footballer. But you can just have a blog and be thought as a “writer” because literally you are writing. We are just people that do things sometimes which has a self appointed title that gives some sort of credibility?

Don’t take me seriously please.

The whole thing about this blog to share “A VERY SUBJECTIVE LOOK INTO AWFC”

I don’t know what I’m talking about.

I still think that Viv, Jill, DvD, Lia and Beth should win every Ballon D’or there has ever been. I will never forgive people who chose our former manager over Viv. I’ll never vibe with people that doubted Beth Mead and wanted her out of the club. Not vibing with people that thought Kim and Lia were not the best partnership possible. Opinions, opinions, opinions.

At the end of the day there are so many assumptions, expectations and most of all: ego. Ego usually implies men and let me make clear that I have zero criticism towards any female pundit/writer/blogger/fan.

Somedays I wake up thinking I have no business in this space that belongs to women.

❤

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