A very subjective look into AWFC

by Demian Arriaga

PODCAST

  • Tumbleweed

    One school of thought, regarding transfers, is to try to get them done early, to integrate the player into the club, it’s culture and facilities, and to show intent to other clubs that we mean business and will be proactive. There are other schools of thought but since I belong to the first one I described, that’s the one I’m gonna focus on.

    Of course there must be reasons as to why some singings take longer than others or why the club doesn’t make things happen quicker but it doesn’t make it less frustrating honestly.

    I get that there is plenty of time left and there are other excuses but why can PSG sign Earps, Chelsea sign multiple players including Lucy Bronze and we have only managed to sign Caldentey when we are desperate for so many other players in virtually every position.

    Some negligence vibes for sure if you ask me and you’d think the club and manager would know “better” but let’s be honest, they DO know better, and they certainly know better than me so I have to trust that they know what they are doing and that there’s a reason right? But then I remember they let Viv go on a FREE, so pushing back and doubting their nous is fair game if you ask me.

    It’s also painfully predictable that if we sign players that would be considered a blockbuster deal like say Keira Walsh, there’s a massive probability that the current manager will mismanage them, barely play them or play them out of position and I can already tell you I’m frustrated and predetermined to dislike most of his choices, just based on his track record. And if there’s one person that can prevent Keira Walsh from not winning a title it would be without a doubt that person.

    Do I really think that would happen? Not really. I think she’s one of those players that can beat her own coach if that makes any sense but either way I would love to find out, yet I don’t expect her to be playing for AWFC.

    Could we use her? Absolutely, do I think we neeeeeed her like we need other players? Not really, no but of course I’d love to see her play for us. But if she goes back to city, with Viv and Jill, it’s CL time for them for sure. No doubt in my mind.

    In other news, I haven’t been doing my podcast for various reasons, some of which I will explain soon but I’m not sure I will continue doing it, to be honest with you, all for very, very good reasons.

    d ❤

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  • If Leah can’t, who can?

    If you have been a fan of women’s football you have realized, since day one, that women in this sport (and society) have a continuous uphill battle. You don’t have to be a sociologist to see how the role of women in sport is not usually riding a steady upward trajectory. There are lots of periods, in the micro and the macro, in which it is very much a one step forward, two step back situation.

    One of the first podcasts I ever did was about player’s lives post retirement. I was so intrigued about it and I was naive and hopeful enough to think that, specially after the lionesses winning the Euros, that they would all be able to make tons of money and retire and live happily for a long time.

    Before the Euros The FA wanted the lionesses to be household names by the end of the tournament and I truly believe that mission was accomplished and surpassed, yet hearing Leah talk about how she doesn’t make enough money to retire is pretty wild and it worries me and fundamentally hurts me and bothers me to my very core. Specially in a sport where at the highest level there’s sooooooo much money.

    Imagine that Martin Odegaard has to have a plan B. And this is not about women deserving equal pay or not. Of course they deserve it. This is about how absolutely insane it is to think, as a symbol, that the captain of Arsenal Women would need a plan b. Like why would Kim Little, THE Kim Little, ever need to worry about anything money related after what she has done in her career and for world football.

    One way for them to make more money is the game growing and growing. Like I’ve said before, the growth of the game brings with it greed and greed brings toxic masculinity and this is something that might sadly be inevitable, unless there is a clear ceiling to what they can earn and then they have to explore other ways of earning money, and I have several ideas which I don’t have to share here but we cannot expect every single footballer to have an entrepreneur mind and be business savvy. That’s not a realistic expectation.

    However, as a professional musician, this is a harsh reality. We all have to think that way and most of us have never had any sort of business courses unless we did business/management at a music college. We have to try to develop a brand, which I don’t really like because it implies social media and that means an endless pit of validation searching; but there are other things as well.

    I can definitely see a universe where retired footballers do incredibly well for themselves, even if they don’t stay football adjacent. I would think it’s only a matter of time until we see them do and try many different things, like they have had to do for ages, but hopefully in other arenas they will be able to make more money, quite soon.

    d ❤

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  • Every match counts

    I woke up today and realized that I have no idea when the WSL fixtures will be released. I tried finding out but I couldn’t and I’m also writing this at 6:45am so I am not in the most energetic and eager to research type of mood. However, I looked for the fixtures so see when we would play city.

    A lot of people are always thinking about the first match of the season and I get why they do that and it all makes sense, but I am one of those people that doesn’t really care about when the matches are played and more about winning them aka not losing any of them.

    Of course starting the season against a weaker opponent can help “get the season started” and it also helps if its a tough match to begin with and we win, which can add to the optics of optimism and good things to come.

    The reality is that under the current manager these first matches are irrelevant since there is a clear ceiling to what he can provide as a leader of these trailblazing women. We have beaten Chelsea match day 1 and we didn’t win the league. We were beaten by Liverpool and we didn’t win the league.

    So, all this to say that instead of fixating on a few matches specially first, last and when we play Chelsea, or now when we host City, it might be worth thinking about things in a slight different way and know that every single match matters, whenever they are played, against all opponents.

    Chelsea matches have lost their spark since Emma Hayes is not there anymore so I don’t really particularly care or worry about them and I honestly don’t worry about any opponent. I think we have the squad, just not the right manager and I feel that way because we have had chance after chance of winning the league and he hasn’t done it because of his own decisions.

    Maybe if I lived in London I would care more about when the two league NLD take place or when we travel to X place but to me, having to wake up at 4am every weekend is somewhat irrelevant, yet its not lost on me how each fixture has its own vibe and its own culture almost and that is beautiful and if you are one of the lucky ones that can attend matches often then I’m very happy for you.

    If I could choose one match to watch it would absolutely be Man City at home. I’ve never seen Jill Roord play and I need to make that happen.

    d ❤

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  • Reunited

    You have my word that I will talk about Arsenal Women in a few minutes but I have to start with the not so new news that Viv is officially a City player. If you read some of my blogs I had spoken about how I thought Lyon or Barca were the best and most logical options. Lyon being the leading one in my mind because of how beneficial it would’ve been for her and that squad but moreover, how big that would be for The Netherlands. Dama, Viv and of course DvD.

    Alas, that wasn’t to be and City is her destination which is also VERY good for The Netherlands. And in case you’re new here, I’m a massive Oranjeleeuwinnen fan they are the reason why I follow women’s football and they led me to Arsenal Women.

    Viv had her best seasons when she played with DvD or Jill Roord, who I firmly believe will reignite her career post ACL injury and there’s no-one better to help her with that, and vice versa than Vivianne Miedema.

    Ok, enough about another team. This is THAT ARSENAL WOMEN BLOG for a reason and even though I’ll never get over or stop talking about Viv I will move on now, but not before I mention how Casparij being there also helps the dutch and Dom having signed for Utd, meaning she’s in the same city as Viv, can only help, so you’d think. So, with all this said I am saying that The Netherlands are winning the euros.

    Reunited also applies to Laia Codina and Mariona Caldentey and if we are to be arsenal-centric for a moment we need to realize that is is a very big deal. Laia needs and always deserved more minutes. Maybe it’s her personality or what we haven’t seen on social media but she seems very private and to herself and maybe she hasn’t found a really close friend within the club. Having her mate join is so huge for both of them and I think this is massive. Let’s be honest, it can only help Spain, not that they need it.

    With or without Viv I feel we have an incredibly strong squad who are capable of the lot. As convinced as I am of that, I am convinced that we don’t have the right manager to achieve that, so until that changes my confidence will be conditioned but putting that to one side, I am not scared by City or any squad in the WSL and I cannot wait to see how it all unfolds, and I can’t wait for Casey Stoney to take over * wink wink.*

    No idea how the CL qualification works but we should beat Rangers and the next team.

    d ❤

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  • We need other clubs to thrive

    Rivalry is one of the many tenants of sport, competition and fandom. History provides depth, culture establishes certain things that us fans hang onto and its ammunition for us to poke fun at other teams and of course this can get way more serious and go beyond “poking fun” and you don’t need me to talk about violence in the men’s game and all that.

    In the women’s game I’ve always felt it was and should be different. I am one of those people that doesn’t feel there’s any room for hate and I’m also not naive and totally understand people engaging in discussion online or on podcasts and all that stuff. I totally get it.

    Personally I couldn’t care less about what fans from other team’s say or think about me, my team, my players or anything, honestly. But I am bothered when my fellow Arsenal fans do that to others and I say this because there is a large degree of hypocrisy and contradiction which isn’t synonymous with empathy, the topic of yesterday’s post.

    I find it so childish and hypocritical for people to make fun of Man Utd for their current situation. The fun aimed at players, what they will do, how poor their dressing rooms will be and all that; the club deserves it. I’m talking about comments about Toone doing or not doing x, about Dom Janssen doing or not doing x, etc etc etc.

    These people don’t realize that on one hand they’re claiming to be supportive of women and when they say stuff like what I said above, they are factually NOT supportive of women. They just support THEIR women or women THEY care about. This is NOT supporting women.

    Every woman deserves to thrive. Every women’s club deserves to thrive. It’s very simple. If Utd aren’t thriving, the league isn’t thriving, we aren’t thriving. Players that play for other clubs are friends and basically family with players from other clubs and from Arsenal. It cannot feel good knowing a loved one is being treated poorly or work under poor conditions that they don’t deserve.

    Every time we hate on bad situations for women we’re hating on women for having bad situations. It’s not helpful and it’s irresponsible.

    So what if Arsenal have state of the art facilities? AND?? Until they all do it’s not the best situation.

    I get being proud of history, of a rivalry and all of that, I totally get it, but if you’re boasting about having a state of the art gym and at the same time taking the mickey out of any club that isn’t that just not cool and it literally does not represent “Victory Through Harmony”

    d ❤

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  • The New Happy

    I know this might not seem like a post related to women’s football or even related to AWFC but I promise you it’s one of the most relevant ones because it relates to understanding or trying to understand our emotions which I think is lacking from what we can see online sometimes…at the end of the day we could all use more empathy when it comes to the players, their decision making and their lives in general.

    I’m not here to change anyone or to imply I have my stuff together. The same way I am not in the business of making misogynistic men interested or respectful of women’s football, I’m also not in the business of converting people who talk about player’s personal lives etc into people that don’t.

    If empathy is important then self empathy is very important as well. It’s all a hard subject and we never perfect it, we just try to be more and more empathetic and also check ourselves when we can and approach things differently for some perspective from time to time.

    There’s an Instagram/Twitter account that I love called The New Happy which you can find here:

    https://www.instagram.com/newhappyco?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

    It’s an incredible source of positivity, of empowerment, of empathy and it helps me understand my feelings and myself more and more.

    Understanding what being a fan is implies respect and responsibility and those things are hard without empathy and empathy is hard without those two as well.

    Among the reasons why The New Happy is so good it’s because it offers a visual representation of a lot of the things that we are trying to “see” but we can’t until we literally see them illustrated for us.

    Check it out and tell me your thoughts!

    d ❤

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  • Things are moving

    Transfers being around, new numbers given out, injury updates… things are ramping up and in a world of men’s euros and Copa America, I am finally getting the estrogen I desperately needed and it being in this form is something that makes me very happy.

    I’m very happy for former players if I can start with that, actually. Dom Janssen is a player that I absolutely love and is very near and dear to my heart. She’s someone I admire and respect as a footballer and even more as a person and I am very proud of her for her move to Utd.

    Now, I know there’s a lot of drama surrounding that club and one thing I’ll kindly remind you of is that we don’t know every single detail and we have to trust that the players and their management know this is a good move for her for reasons we might not understand and it’s also not our business.

    Also chuffed for Jen Beattie who is finally getting starts for Bay FC and they have won 2 matches in a row and are now in the playoffs spots… with lots of football to be played but this is such good news for someone like her who deserves to play often and who should’ve played much more often at Arsenal but thanks to our current manager this is no longer a thing.

    What is a thing is LWM being injured and having been injured for months and we haven’t heard anything and know no details, which again is none of my business and I just wish her well. At the same time we cannot assume she is gonna be ok soon and we need to buy a defender very soon, and there are PLENTY of amazing options out there. Don’t be fooled.

    Caldentey… I’m very happy of course and also may her signing be a reminder of how a certain blogger loved by many, leaked this info which could have way more repercussions than anyone is talking about. Unforgivable and I will never understand how people put so much stock in what he says.

    My laptop is dying and I don’t have a charger!!!!!!

    gotta run!

    d ❤

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  • Stony! Stoni! Stoney!

    Yesterday I was driving back from Las Vegas with one of my bandmates. He not only isn’t into football at all but he isn’t into sports at all, but since we had a 5 hours journey it was bound to happen that we would talk about football, specially since I was watching the England men’s match on my phone while he drove.

    He asked me why I liked the sport so much and we ended up talking about women’s football and I explained to him how our club was affected by ACL injuries and more. I made it a point to explain to him things in the most objective, non biased way, to someone that has ZERO idea of the sport, the rules, the culture, etc. We eventually touched the subject of the current manager.

    Before I even spoke he said the he found very weird that we had a male manager and the way he phrased it was essentially that he thought it was really terrible for any sport in any country to have a man telling women what to do, how, why and when. He mentioned how, in society, the norm is to be surrounded by men who feel a need to mansplain things and so on and that why would anyone would be willing to put themselves through that in a work environment when sports are supposed to be about artistry as well, which implies self expression, freedom and authenticity.

    I was fascinated by his insight and I agreed with basically everything he said. Of course there is some nuance there and it’s way deeper and also not but it was interesting to hear his perspective and when I showed him the video of our current manager shoving Viv. We stopped at a Starbucks in mid conversation and I took the chance to, without saying anything, playing it for him and he said: “So who’s the new manager?” I was stunned.

    What do you mean? I asked, and he said: “there’s no way that dude keeps his job” And I wish this was the case, so very much, but alas I had to explain to him that indeed he has kept his job and that the club seems to be backing him to the hilt.

    We then got in the car and started talking about music theory, piano learning, course creation and more so the topic was long gone but I kept thinking about he said and this morning I read Casey Stoney’s post and all my respect for her was reinforced.

    I’ve liked her the whole time I’ve followed women’s football. I like her attitude, her vibe, who she is a person, the fact she’s a former Arsenal Women player and more.

    Now, I know there’s not a clear path for her to join our team and the current manager has signed a new deal etc but if I could snap my fingers and make anything happen it would be that. I would love to have someone like her energize our squad, our club and our lives.

    d ❤

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  • Weird place

    I’m currently minutes away from leaving the ummm “interesting” place that is Las Vegas. Due to a sense of respect for music and that it brought me here, due to a sense of gratitude and so on I will know characterize it here how I would like to, because not all my feelings about the city are positive, but anyway, I’m leaving now and it made me think of Arsenal. Why? let me tell you really quick.

    The whole reason I am here was to play a couple of gigs at an awesome jazz club. Yesterday, a bandmate and I decided to go get a smoothie but to get to our spot we had to walk through Fremont Street, and if you don’t know what that is please just look it up on tiktok or google, etc. It’s just a very weird place.

    This is an overarching feeling anyway but to say that I don’t belong in that street, in that culture, with that vibe, etc is an understatement. I wasn’t being judgmental or criticizing anyone or anything except that one restaurant that advertised that you would eat for free if you weighed over 350 lbs aka 158 kilograms. Pretty wild, but that’s the USA for you.

    To compensate, I started thinking about where I did belong and Arsenal Women came to mind. Not the culture culture… like I do not belong going to The Tollington. I don’t belong wearing kits, scarves or Arsenal gear exclusively. I don’t belong chanting or yelling at the stadium. I don’t belong randomly and unpromptedly yell things against Tottenham. I don’t criticize Man Utd or Chelsea out of the blue or hate Emma Hayes. Like if this is what belonging means then I sure as hell don’t. This is not it for me.

    Arsenal Women means much more and it’s personal and it’s my escape and I digest it and have it close to my heart and mind in my own special way and this is why I always reject the idea of someone claiming they are a “real fan” which is so silly if you think about it.

    Not only have I met but I can tell you I AM one of those MASSIVE fans of something but might not know eeeeeeverything about them. Take my “favorite” band Megadeth for example. There was a very long period in my life where I knew every lyric to every song, every credit on every record, who played what, who produced it, where it was recorded. I won a trivia contest in the late 90s. Like I was a fan, I knew everything, I could play the songs note for note on drums, etc. But my memory sucks, I don’t remember anything anymore and I don’t like their last few albums. So am I not a fan anymore? Does not liking them right this second mean I’m not a fan? or not a true fan? I don’t need to love everything all the time.

    Being a fan is being dynamic and you can love the squad and not love the manager for example. hint hint.

    Anyway, just wanted to remind you that the only true voice of fandom is yours. Be true to that.

    Gotta get out of this heat now. bye!

    d ❤

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  • I know what you’re thinking

    Yes…Things are so, so, so painfully boring at the moment. BUT, it also feels like we’re on the brink of an absolutely bananas transfer window. Honestly I think that when it’s all said and done we will be looking back and see this as a massive, seismic one. Not just because of players moving or because of managers getting new jobs and/or sacked but also because clubs are in turmoil and some are getting lots of investment.

    So where do we stand? What is the strategy going in? Who is coming? Who is going?

    As we know all too well, AWFC and Arsenal as a whole, are very very very tight lipped with transfer plans, with fees, contracts etc and I have to be honest and say I rather enjoy that quite a lot and respect it. There’s something old school about it which makes things more serious, and classy if I can say that word. With the caveat that they were a class act as it relates to Viv but that’s something we all know.

    Patience is what is needed and that is a tough ask when there is so much football around us but none of the Arsenal Women players are involved for now and it’s so frustrating. Furthermore it’s not like I’m particularly excited about the Olympics either, I just want the WSL season to start.

    I want to see what we look like next season and I’m afraid, as per, that the current manager has no idea about who his best XI is and if what it takes for him to sort that out are the friendlies in the USA then we have bigger problems than I imagined. What I mean by this is that I don’t think those matches will give us any sort of definitive proof of what the best XI will be.

    Something big needs to happen for us soon. Like today soon.

    d ❤

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