A very subjective look into AWFC

The past few weeks have been very heavy on me emotionally as it relates to Arsenal Women, Arsenal as a whole, and actually, as it relates to football overall. With the World Cup only a few days away here in the USA (and Mexico and Canada), I cannot help but feel very strongly about the politics of it all and many other things. Football just has been a LOT lately not just as a sport but as a reflection or society, culture, identity and self expression.

Whenever I get in a place like this I resort to art. Whether it’s reading, writing or of course making music. One of the many things I’ve read has to do with some philosophy and specifically “The Ship of Theseus” and the paradox that exemplifies… Sounds dorky as fuck but stick with me…

If you’re unfamiliar with the Ship of Theseus, here’s the basic idea: Imagine a ship. Over time, one is replaced, then another, then another, etc until eventually every single piece of the ship has been replaced. Also replace the ropes, the sails, the doors, windows… you get the idea.

Now here’s the question: is it still the same ship?

For the record, the paradox implies that the planks of the ship are replaced because they are rotting but I refuse to make that part of this example because I don’t think any player that leaves is “rotting” so I’m not taking that part of the metaphor/paradox… anyway…

I’ve been thinking about that a lot recently when it comes to Arsenal Women. My favorite players have left and some new players I like have come in, but things just aren’t the same at the moment. Football moves fast and squads evolve. Players leave. New players arrive. Managers come and go. Staff changes. Sporting directors change. Sometimes even owners change… Clare and Jodie seem to stay forever though… haha ok let’s continue.

At what point does a football club stop being the same football club?

Take Arsenal Women today.. Many supporters discovered the team through players like Vivianne Miedema, Kim Little, Leah Williamson, Jordan Nobbs, Beth Mead, Jen Beattie, Danielle van de Donk or Katie McCabe. Some supporters go back even further and remember the era of Alex Scott, Kelly Smith and Faye White.

Now imagine a future Arsenal side where every single current player has retired or moved on. Would it still be Arsenal Women? Most of us instinctively say yes.

But why? After all, the people are different, the manager is different, the tactics are different, the training ground has changed, the stadiums have changed, the league itself has changed dramatically.

Almost every part has been replaced and even though we can say and effective affirm that it is in fact the same club, my pushback is that it doesn’t FEEL like the same club. And maybe it’s because of the toxic fans that are corroding a lot of things for a lot of people.

Of course, there is another version of the Ship of Theseus paradox.

What if every original part from the ship was saved and rebuilt elsewhere? Which ship would be the real one? Football has its own version of that question too.If Arsenal Women sold every player tomorrow and another club somehow signed them all, where would the identity go? Maybe not every player but lets be frank: Viv and Beth and Laura at City… etc…

Would a small part of AWFC travel with the people? I’m not sure there’s a correct answer but I would say yes, only because if we as people are who we have been and where we’ve been, then you cannot take that away… the same way we had PSV with DvD, Sunderland with Beth and so on.

What I do know is that football clubs are strange things, very weird things. They are simultaneously changing and staying the same, and sometimes players are valued and loved beyond any sort of objective reasons. Every season Arsenal Women become a different team, ever so slightly sometimes but I think this summer will bring even bigger chances.

Every season they remain Arsenal Women… Maybe that’s the paradox…Or maybe that’s the magic. I have no idea.

But there are some limits to my love and willingness to embrace people just because they support AWFC. There’s more to life than that. Like I cannot be the same type of person as the one that sings north London forever and in the same breath insults and abuses a woman on social media… we are not the same and singing a song doesn’t make you a “true fan” if anything else, it exposes who you really are, maybe not to the world because of all the distractions but at the end of the day we go home and look at ourselves in the mirror, if we have the guts, and come to terms with what we are and who we are.

Before I go, I started a new instagram ONLY for my handpan music so please follow instagram.com/panwave and if you wanna follow my personal account please do so at instagram.com/demianarriaga

❤

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