A very subjective look into AWFC

by Demian Arriaga

PODCAST

  • News Monopoly

    As an Arsenal fan, my entire blog reading and now podcasting experience has always been on the fringe. I rarely listen to or read the same things that most fans read. I sometimes do this on purpose and at the same time it’s just part of who I am, as in I try to be different and not follow what most people do. At least I like to think that but I also listen to talkSPORT literally all day long.

    Back in the day I read Arsenal News Review and Arsenal Muse which were very much boutique blogs to a degree because they weren’t the most popular and the kind of writing was not only incredibly eloquent but the topics were very interesting and niche and they have inspired me to do this, same with Le Grove, now a good friend of mine who aside from being a great writer, he’s a great human.

    My point is I’ve tried reading other blogs like Arseblog and others and they just don’t do it for me but more than a preference, it’s more of a loyalty thing. I have little time and I go to the things that I want to read/see from the people that I respect, so it’s normal that I will visit the same sites or listen to the same podcasts all the time. The key part here is that there are hundreds of them for the men’s team and we can choose from so many.

    For Arsenal Women the options are very few and nowhere near as good as they should be and I say this as someone with a blog and a podcast who can and should do better with every single episode.

    As the game grows and we have a need for more outlets this need implies there are very few, like I said and with that comes the continues growth of the one leader/source of info, while others try to catch up, but that seems unlike to happen. So that source basically holds the monopoly and everyone and their mother believes they hold the truth. And before you think I’m talking about any one podcast, please know this is applicable to any topic, any podcast and any potential news monopoly.

    Putting all of our trust into one source is very dangerous because it empowers said source and so much power for a handful of people is a recipe for disaster because not everyone knows how to handle that, they don’t know how to be responsible with that and take advantage of it with say, leaking of information to fans who they know will spread it all over Twitter, or hypothetical things like that.

    I know there is not a lot that you can do in terms of being a bonafide source of news, but if that’s what you want I encourage you to do it, to have the proper education and schooling and not just be legit journalist but also have your badges or have experience coaching and with tactics, if you’re gonna talk about that.

    Anybody can have a pod/blog, ummm HELLO… but not everyone should talk about tactics and claim things that will be believed just because they have a platform and an audience.

    Sometimes people forget that certain parts of media in general can be an extension of the club or the narrative the club wants to put out and this has been a thing for every club basically forever.

    I’m gonna do my very best to not speculate and not get drawn into this Viv situation because I think the last thing she needs is literally us talking about things we don’t know and we just assume and you know what they say about assumptions.

    d ❤

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  • Awards are weird

    I can’t stop laughing. Seriously. These damn awards are comical sometimes.

    How Kim Little is not on the POTS list is an absolute joke and whoever chooses the list, whichever group puts these things together, truly needs revision, honestly. WTAF is happening?

    First things first though: massive congrats to all the nominees who have all had a very important role to play at different stages of the season and it’s been a pleasure to see them step in when needed. Much love.

    Also…

    This is a perfect example of how these lists, awards etc are so damn weird and strange and at the same time they are right AND wrong at the same time, because as I sit here and complain but Stina wins, which is who would get my vote, I would say it was the right nomination and also the right winner, but if someone thinks it should be Lia they would also be correct.

    When Viv, Beth, Leah, Katie and Steph aren’t nominated to ME it obviously means they have been injured, played out of position for a bit, because there’s no way we could have an actual great season without them being protagonists so as much as I get the most of the nominees, the reality is that we would be fine without most of them, where as the players not nominated, for whatever reason, are the true foundation of our football.

    What I’m trying to say is that it seems like a lot of people give a lot of importance to the awards to feel like they are closer to one player or to the rest of the fan base etc and I’m here to say that whatever makes you happy is something you should do and believe and feel.

    Vote for whoever you wanna vote for! If you think Lotte is worthy of it? VOTE, if you think it should go to Stina, vote for her or if you are like me, don’t vote at all.

    The reality is that they are all and should all be winners of every single award.

    Emily Fox should’ve gotten a shout too.

    Going back to my point about the group of nominees and the others not on that list, I would like to add that this cannot be seen as a change of guard or a new generation taking over.

    I implore and beg of you to realize that Kim, Lia, Beth, Katie, Steph and Leah are ELITE and nobody comes close to them. Not now, not ever. Deal with it.😎

    If you haven’t already, you can listen to the latest episode of That Arsenal Women Podcast here

    d ❤

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  • Blacksteniused Again

    I totally forgot to record my podcast yesterday until about 8pm my time here in California but I did it. On it, I spoke about Stina, about Jonas, about what “true fans” actually do and think and much more.

    You can listen to it here via Spotify and you can also find it on all podcast platforms.

    d ❤

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  • Stina POTY

    What a Monday…

    I don’t say that for any specific or special reason other than any Monday, let alone any day that we wake up and realize we have AWFC in our lives is a great day. Drama or no drama, transfers or no new contracts, whatever it is, I much rather be an Arsenal Women fan than any club.

    Also, before I keep going I want to say thank you to all the new readers from all over the world whom I’ve seen visit this blog. I truly appreciate each and every single one of you and I can’t say enough how much it means that you are interested in what my psycho mind has to say about this club we all love.

    I love this damn club. I love that it makes me sad and happy and angry and excited. I love that I wake up at 3:30am every weekend during the season.

    I love that when the lineup isn’t correct in my opinion, I care.

    I love that the manager might stay or leave but Arsenal remains being Arsenal.

    I love that I can be a fan, my way and be just a big of a fan as whoever can go to the matches in person because of geography.

    I love that I can exchange multiple 11 min long WhatsApp voicenotes chatting about anything and everything related to this damn club.

    I love that when I disagree with most fans, my voice still matters. And to this point:

    Stina, Kim, Katie or Beth should be the player of the season.

    What Stina has done is incredible. HOW she has done it is insane. WHEN she has done it has no price and WHY needs no explanation but in case you need it its because she’s a fucking winner and a total professional.

    I have spoken about Kim being poty or Katie too but those two have had less of a stats driven year as it relates to goals being scored and its easy to focus on the strikers and the goals but in a season when Arsenal buy Alessia Russo, Stina has stepped up and has proven that she should be our #9, no question about it.

    Remember when you vote, if you do, that there is a difference between the most improved player and the player of the year.

    d ❤

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  • I called it

    Today was one of those days when the universe just didn’t allow me to watch the match and I have not seen a single thing about it…

    BUT…

    There was never a doubt in my mind, body or soul. I was absolutely convinced we would win against city. I said it on my pod, I wrote it here. I wish the performance was better and saying “the three points is all that matters” but there’s a lot more to that. And I say this because I’ve watched football enough to know winning 2-1 in stoppage time isn’t a sign of a good performance

    BUT

    WHO THE FUCK CARES?!!?

    Well I care but today is not the day for that.

    I’m happy for the girls and for the traveling fans and for our girls. Did I say I was happy for our girls? Because I am.

    I did go on twitter and someone said that we’ll be ok without Viv because we just beat city. Big L oh fucking L my friends.

    Getting a result or breaking a duck or a curse or whatever isn’t a sign that we’ll be ok.

    Just throwing that out there.

    It goes both ways too and it also applies to the other teams and that’s absurd.

    Imagine Birmingham City fans said: we beat Arsenal! We’re ok!!

    How did that work out?

    Anyway I’m gonna shut up and go watch Shebahn’s vlog which you can watch down here… follow her and subscribe. She’s the best

    d ❤

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  • Manager of the what now??

    I wrote about this a little bit yesterday but I just have to mention it again today because I honestly don’t remember seeing a reaction that is soooooo overwhelmingly one sided and it’s pretty insane to me that it’s just so clear and obvious and at the same time I don’t think a club can pay too much attention to it.

    In case you aren’t aware AWFC posted about how Jonas Eidevall was nominated for manager of the month… yeah, I was shocked too but what are they’re gonna do? It’s not like the make the nomination… wether we agree with it or not, it happened and the club has to post about it, don’t you think? If not that would mean the social media team have a say in what should be “promoted” and even though it makes sense for a lot of things, I think this is one of those things where they just have to report what is objectively true which is NOT a matter of opinion.

    It is a fact that he was nominated. What is also a fact is that people do not love him, they want him gone and they have all voiced these opinions on the comment section and when I tell you people aren’t happy, oh my days.

    Not sure checking out the comments for yourself will add anything positive to your life so just assume that the comments are pretty strong as it relates to people no just disagreeing with him being the manager of the month, but they also clearly think it’s the opposite but that’s not the crazy part. The insane part is that out of say 50 comments, 48 of them are not compliments, let’s just say.

    When I read all that stuff, regardless on where I stand, I can’t help but think that the club unequivocally has to see that. But do they have to listen? Do they keep in mind what some people say in the comment section of a post? Sometimes the loudest voices are the meanest ones and should be ignored.

    But what if it’s an accurate sample of that the actual collective opinion is? Does the vast majority of the fan base want him out?

    I don’t have the answer but I am inclined to think that no, this is not what most people want, with the caveat that is Viv’s new contract that, by the looks of it all will have to wait til the end of the season if at all.

    I’m not saying he has to go if she doesn’t sign. What I’m saying if I had to pick between the two I would keep Viv 10000000000000000 times out of 10000000000000000. But more on this next week.

    d ❤

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  • The skaters slipped, now what?

    I haven’t hid my opinions regarding the manager the past few weeks and as a matter of fact, I have censored myself because I could have said much more about him letting go of Jen Beattie, which is unforgivable. However, there is a reason why I haven’t been as outspoken as I would like and it has to be with both respect and ignorance.

    Ignorance simply because I have no idea why he sold Jen for example, and because at the end of the day I know absolutely nothing about tactics and things of that nature and to sit here in LA while watching Netflix and imply that I know what he SHOULD be doing is kinda nuts but also give me that team TOMORROW and I can win us a match, because we got McCabe, among many others. I don’t really believe it but also totally.

    Respecting the figure of the manager is important to me and it’s equally as important as knowing and expressing the fact that criticism and disrespect aren’t the same thing. You know that and I know that you know that and one of the reasons I write this blog is because you, my dear reader, are very intelligent and you challenge me and inspire me to do this every day.

    Part of me has felt that the things Jonas has said and how he has said those things have been a bit generic, disingenuous and kinda weird, to put it bluntly, and these things don’t necessarily amount to respecting us fans because if nothing else, it makes me feel like some of the way he says things, imply that we are stupid and don’t see things ourselves.

    For instance: take the whole skaters slipping situations. In case you haven’t heard it I’m gonna paraphrase and say that he was asked about the title being out of reach a couple of weeks ago and he said that there’s always hope and that we have to be prepared to take advantage of the opponents’s slip ups.

    This is all well and good and it sounds great, sure. But saying something and doing something are separate things. He said something and he didn’t actually do what he said he would try to do. He didn’t take advantage of that and we could be in a considerably better position figuratively and literally.

    If he wanted to be proactive and put that much pressure on Chelsea and also actually believed that they could slip, he wouldn’t have waiting for the 96th minute to bring on the greatest goalscorer in the WSL, etc. There is just no way around it from an optics perspective, obviously because again, I have no idea what is really happening.

    No, I’m not blaming him for goals missed, but I think if say Caitlin misses a sitter, it’s not her fault as much as it is his for playing her when we could have had Cloe for example. I will always blame the managers or more than blame, I will always lay responsibility on them more than on the players and this is something that I have always done.

    In life we have to be proactive and you can’t just wait for things to happen. We gotta do everything in our power to not have to depend on others and just let their demise be helpful in a “sorry, not sorry” type of vibe.

    There’s no way for us to know Chelsea would lose, but there’s always a chance because the argument is that the WSL is getting better, so why not plan for that actually and truly? Did it seem like he did? Nope.

    So the chance he was summoning and talking about came to fruition post our match but where was the result?

    That’s what is easy to complain about for me.

    And I know it’s quite unfair to judge.

    In his defense, one Everton teenage striker aka Wayne Rooney did this to the almighty Wenger, and scored a cracker against us many, many years ago.

    Weird losses can happen. They always do… but 4 losses and this draw is not weird. It’s something else.

    The only reality is actual reality. What happened happened and it’s pointless to assume that if Viv came on she would’ve scored. There’s not way to know that, but the chances are high af.

    Somehow, someway Jonas is nominated for manager of the month and holy shit the comments on instagram are insane, absolutely ripping him to shreds and I’m not one to defend him but it’s not his fault he got nominated!!! hahaha poor guy. Can’t win on or off the pitch at the moment.

    But again… the girls will. They’ll beat Citeh.

    d ❤

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  • NO future without the present

    Love the signings, love the U21s doing great and absolutely love the investment in the future that our club is making. This is beautiful and fill us all with hope and positivity and optimism and its a sign that our club are doing things the right way aka the Arsenal way.

    At some point though, if we don’t appreciate the present and we don’t sort it out NOW, then the future is that much harder and every single decision can have and will have an impact on the future, short and long term, of the club, the players, their mentality and more.

    When Jonas is talking THIS SEASON about how we need to address the set pieces for NEXT SEASON, it’s an example of that, and there are tons more.

    For instance, not renewing world class players aka Viv. The club needs to do everything they can to get her to stay and if she doesn’t, she doesn’t but you have to buy somewhat of an equivalent and not just hope that we have the new Viv in our ranks already and btw this has nothing to do with Michelle signing today because I know nothing about her, literally nothing and I mentioned what I said about viv on my podcast anyway.

    Kim and Lia are still our present and have much more to give and Pelova / KCC have lots of potential but a. they are not Kim and Lia or the next either one of them and b. if they are to be in say 4 years, what about the next 2 years?

    Made and proven players are a must and we need to embrace that and buy players accordingly because the lack of experience will cost us again and again and again.

    Or maybe not! Maybe young players absolutely kill it from the word go BUT injuries… overplaying… over loading of responsibility…It’s a lot.

    Mature players are more equipped. That’s just a fact.

    Some players are irreplaceable right? Viv is a 10/10 but if you can’t have her and need another player, then you get a 9/10 not a 7/10 right? It’s pretty damn easy and this should be applied to every single position. That’s what Lyon, Barcelona and others do. We have done that in the past and we must continue.

    All this to say that I’m super excited for the future and the near future too, but nothing will get us more excited than winning NOW.

    d ❤

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  • I want to but I won’t…

    We are all trying to figure out life. As people, as fans, as footballers, as musicians, as students, as teachers, as employees… you name it. During our journey we discover things about ourselves as it relates to what works, what doesn’t, how we relate to people and more importantly, how we relate to ourselves.

    In that quest we inevitably get to the figurative slap in the face that is realizing that self control is paramount to self reflection, to empathy and of course, to interact with other people.

    Self control is easier for some people than for others. Sometimes people with little self control find self control when they need it the most, and the total opposite also happens, and as a football fan I am absolutely in both camps.

    Things matter to me more than they should and things that should matter to me absolutely don’t and that dynamic is very interesting to me and if you are confused and you are lost and you have no idea about what I’m talking about, don’t worry. I don’t think I make sense either.

    I get triggered by things and I know I shouldn’t but I do. For example… soccerdonna, who I don’t even follow, posed the question/game of start, bench or sell? applied to Kim, Frida and Pelova.

    Why does that bother me so much? It’s just a silly game? Why do I care about a post? why do I care about what people think? Well, personally I thought the framing of it was pretty absurd and also… it’s just a game.

    Of course I didn’t comment but what I wanted to say, among many things, is that lumping them together to a degree caaaaan imply that they play the same position or they are equally as good.

    It bothers me because to even pose the question that Kim Little should be anything but a starter is pretty damn insulting to me and it makes me think that the people that ask these things are children that have absolutely no ability to see someone legendary in front of them.

    This is my way of commenting without commenting and my way to carefully, and with self preservation in mind, express my disapproval not about the post itself but about myself and my reaction.

    It’s silly.

    The answer is also very easy and clear. I don’t know what people are smoking and if you hide behind “no player is bigger than the club” aka Kim, and think, let alone say we should bench or sell her because you think others are anywhere near her… I’m telling you now, right this second, that we would need to buy 3 world class players to come close to rivaling what Kim Little does on the pitch and they would fall short.

    For the millionth time…. appreciate what we have because life comes at you fast and you might regret not doing that.

    d ❤

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  • Bouncebackability

    Yesterday I uploaded the latest episode of That Arsenal Women Podcast and if you didn’t fall asleep towards the end you can hear me talk about how I am VERY confident that we will bounce back against City and I actually predicted a win. I stand by it.

    I believe in the players. That has never ever been an issue and I honestly think that with the squad/legends that we have, to not believe in them is a very big mistake. The fact of the matter is that they have proved time and time again that they have the ability to bounce back, which is a metric that you hear about tons hear in American sports.

    I refuse to accept that anything except a proper showing will happen. Now, the question is: will it be down to the players, the manager or both?

    Ideally it is both, of course, but I see this as a game where the players can take ownership and play how they want and how they are supposed to, regardless of the self imposed parking breaks that seem to be set by the manager.

    One thing is for sure: Viv needs to play.

    For more on this please listen to the episode here:

    d ❤

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