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Head scratcher…
On my latest podcast I had mentioned to you that I would be writing as normal even during the next couple of days. It was my intention, I promise you. But a couple of things have come up and I came to visit my sister, her husband and her kids, so my usual writing routine will be interrupted, in the very best of ways.
That means that I will spare you today and tomorrow of anything deep or a long read, not that you would stop by during the holidays, BUT, if you, not only am I here to say thanks but I will do my best do continue to continue.
This morning for instance, one thing that crossed my mind was WTF are we going to do with Noelle. I say KEEP HER.
Another thing that crossed my mind was how during the NLD we had Katie play right back, I guess this is related to my previous point, but when other players weren’t making passes or taking absurd shots, the one player you need doing that is her, and I just don’t get this thing of having her play so far back.
Some situations make me scratch my head and others make me want to bang my head into a wall because the concussion will somehow help me make sense as to what the hell is going on.
This dynamic, albeit fascinating, it’s terrible and also fantastic and its one of the reasons we all love football so much, because much like love itself, its weird, unexplainable, logical and also irrational.
This last thing not only applies to football but all sports, family dynamic, holidays and so much more…
I will stop now and got to bed haha.
Merry Xmas!
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If you only read one thing today
Guardian columnist Mariana Hyde wrote this incredible piece titled: So, what is it about the brilliant, victorious sportswoman Mary Earps that bovine men just can’t abide?
This of course isn’t directly related to AWFC but if you’re new here (thanks btw) please know that sometimes I post things that are related to women’s football and transcend a team, and this article is the perfect example.
One of her paragraphs is better than anything I could ever write, ever so please read below.
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What happens? hypothetically speaking…
I have no reason to believe that Mary Earps isn’t coming to AWFC… and I also have no reason to believe she isn’t going to sign for any other team. This rumor actually makes sense to me though and I have a strong belief that we will sign her. Based on what? Based on VIBESSSSSS.
I had written a few weeks if not months ago about how I thought that Mary would want, and deserves Champions League football. Yes, I know we can’t offer that this season, but we’re more likely to qualify than Man Utd, and it’s basically because of her, ironically.
The only universe in which Man Utd beat us to an CL spot would be because of how Mary Earps plays, and the chances of us making the CL and even winning the WSL would grow exponentially if she were to join us. I have no doubt about it.
Manu is fantastic and I’m very appreciative of what she has done for our club. She has had incredible saves and I love how vocal and encouraging she is. This is why I think she should remain in the club and work with Mary as our #1’s a la Arteta. Which is absurd because I can’t stand what he is doing with Ramsdale and Raya, but we’re talking about Mary fucking Earps here, not an average keeper.
Whether you love her or not, Mary is a historic keeper. She just is. She will go down in history for her awards, both individual and collective and that’s a no brainer. Also, I know many people that know her and they all, without fail, say that she is just about the nicest human they have ever met.
I’d like to think that this goes for Manu, Sabrina and Naomi and I would never judge that or compare people just because one got an award and another didn’t. I just think that for AWFC to break the mold and reclaim the top club in the WSL, some ruthless decisions need to be made and that implies upgrades.
To Manu’s defense, amid lots of criticism, I think that a few of the goals scored against her have been of the unsavevable kind if that makes any sense. Her not diving vs Spurs is not something that bothers me one bit. I’ve played GK at an exponentially much lower level and I even I can tell you with some shots you know there’s not even a point on courtesy diving.
My assumption is that Mary would be open to competing against someone like Manu and I would bet my house that the last thing Earps thinks is that she’s gonna come into our club and just start because of who she is. I’m telling you now that you don’t get to that level by expecting anything except EARNING her spot.
I really don’t know what’s gonna happen with Naomi, Sabrina, Gio, Lina, Noelle and a few others, to be completely honest with you but I guess we’ll see when we see.
Not to toot my own horn but I knew about Declan Rice weeks before we announced him and I’m telling now that this is not the same and I know absolutely nothing about anything but, if it were up to me, I would sign her TODAY.
I would also sign Jill Roord, Alex Greenwood, Denise O’Sullivan and I’d bring back DVD, so take what it say however you choose.
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So happy there’s a break
A lot of the tours I have done have been split in two or three legs. Let’s just say that you spent a month in the USA, then a couple of weeks off and you do a short run in South America, come back for a few days and then go to Europe for a few shows too.
The days in between are precious because you can sleep in your own bed, handle whatever errand needs to be handled and of course: REST. You need to recover right? But I’ve always felt that the rest is not to recover per se, but to prep for the next leg. I usually promise myself to do nothing and rest and clear my mind but I always end up working on the material, practicing and staying sharp.
Normally, as it relates to football, I would write and/or speak about how desperate I am for the season to resume. I would make a “funny” comment about how it’s unfair and ask WTF am I supposed to do with my life while there’s a long break in the WSL season.
Don’t let me horribly under par comedic attempt confuse you. There’s absolutely nothing negative about this break and as a matter of fact I wish it was longer, I truly do.
The break is not only need for the year that was, but if women’s football follows the predicted path, then this break will be needed for what’s to come. More and more football matches, more competitions and more injuries, drama, emotional toll, etc etc etc. Not a good thing necessarily, is it?
I totally understand the Nation’s League, for example. Yet now I kinda miss friendly matches where at the very least, there might have not been that mental exhaustion of every single match counting, all the time. Like that has to be brutal in every way.
Yeah in music every gig counts but it’s not like if you don’t have an amazing gig the next leg of the tour is suspended. It’s wild to me that the stakes are so high, all the time, every day. AAAAAND add to that the grueling training, studying, etc.
Never not admiring these women.
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WHat about Laura?
If this question has crossed your mind, like it has done for me, you might find this perspective interesting or at the very least provide a different way of looking at the dynamic unfolding regarding the coverage of players’s recovery.
To be fair the “dynamic unfolding” sounds way more serious that what I intend to. I just really don’t know how else to describe it, yet again proving to you that I am just a guy with a blog and I’m not a proper journalist. So, just hear me out haha.
I understand the focus on Leah, Viv and Beth. We can go over many reasons as to why they are in the spotlight, with some of those things being obvious and others being not so obvious. There is the on the pitch performances, the personalities off the pitch and so on.
Laura has a lot in common with them. She’s an elite player, she’s beloved by the fanbase and by the squad and staff and is also going through hell via an ACL injury, just like the other 3 players mentioned above.
But why aren’t we getting documentaries? Why aren’t we getting more info and/or a closer insight into her life and recovery? Do we read into it?? Is it not going well and it’s not good news? Are the other players “more important”?,
I assume the answer is very simple and I would honestly be surprised if there was any other reason than the fact that she doesn’t want to be featured. She doesn’t want to be the center of attention or the center on an amount of attention at a certain time.
People are different and have different views on things and personalities vary. Being vulnerable is strength and sometimes you don’t have to prove to people you’re strong or that you’re vulnerable, you just want to be yourself or be left alone and we have to respect that because it’s not only completely understandable to want to retreat, but the other side of the coin is actually out of the norm.
We owe it to Laura to not compare, to not expect or assume anything and just let her be herself, let her recovery be what it is, let the coverage of said recovery be what it is, and we must always remember she’s an AWFC player and Arsenal are a supportive, classy, groundbreaking and most of all an empathetic club. So we must learn from that or remember all of those things and BE those things as often as we can and understand that not only is she recovering but that her recovery focus can be whatever she allows it to be just because that’s what she wants and she owes nothing to anyone except herself.
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Can’t watch Step by Step
I can’t be the only one that has a hard time watching the documentary. Obviously the end is that they come back to play, duh. I just can’t even bring myself to start it. I think it’s going to be extremely emotional but I think it’s only a matter of time til I watch it.
Of course I love success stories, and as a musician few things are more constant than being faced with adversity, but what I haven’t truly face has been a physical adversity to a degree like they have, thus triggering things inside my heart and mind that I might not be prepared to deal with at the moment.
I speak a little more about that on this week’s episode of That Arsenal Women Podcast which you can listen to down here and also, MASSIVE shout out to Caroline Barker for mentioning the podcast on her amazing show Three Players and a Podcast with Jen Beattie, Rachel Yankey and Izzy Christiansen. THANK YOU!!!
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Don’t say that…
I’m not in the business of telling people what to do but I didn’t really know how else to title this particular blog post. Oh and by the way, I will be recording a podcast later today, thought I would be doing it super early today but I started working on a song and went all in. Safe to say I wasn’t happy with the outcome and need to re do it all later today. Nice…
What I absolutely cannot stand is when people describe a player’s comeback from injury with phrases like these: “it’s as if she never left!” Like I understand what they are tryin to say but I just immediately think of the journey to hell and back that these athletes went through, just for someone to use a catchy phrase that, even though I’m sure they don’t mean it, TO ME it minimizes a lot of the work.
Obviously there are grays to this conversation and again I don’t think the commentators, podcasters, etc mean any harm. I think that they see those comments as a compliment and I totally understand. I just can’t help to think what I think at the moment the second I hear things like that. I feel there can be something added to the comment that contextualizes more of the magnitude of what it means to come back.
To a degree, I think it also puts on pressure on other players coming back that aren’t returning in full force like some players do. Some of them take much longer, depending on position, technical abilities and of course on how the coach chooses to use them, and to this point WTF was the best striker ever playing out wide? Anyway that’s for another day.
It’s definitely NOT like any of them were ever out. It’s been an arduous process for us fans, now imagine how insane it’s been for these players. Not only from a sentimental standpoint for me as a fan, but also for the team itself, the results, and the success of the club as a whole.
Again, not telling people what to do or how to characterize whatever it is that they feel, it just feels a little yucky whenever I hear it.
I haven’t watched the documentary yet and not sure when I will do it if at all. Might be too tough to watch.
Enjoy your week!
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Last week of school vibes
If you still have strong feelings about the match yesterday or you’re trying to understand how we can beat Chelsea 4-1 and then lose against this team, then stick around because I’m gonna try to offer some perspective or if nothing else, steal your attention for a few minutes.
The first thing I’ll say is that I don’t feel this is Birmingham type of moment where we just knew that the trophy was gone after we lost that match. You kinda felt it and it was basically catastrophic. But as much as this one hurts, to me it doesn’t feel like it was a season defining thing, although mathematically it might be.
Secondly, if you or your friends are blaming Manu for the goal or the result, I’m here to kindly tell you that you might quit possibly need better friends. This loss is not on her. Like I get the frustration but if you think she should’ve launched herself to the ground as a courtesy for an impossible to get shot, just because you want her to “try” then that’s really not it.
Let’s just say that she could’ve saved it but literally chose not to. Well, what about the chances we missed? What about the misplaced passes? What about the passes that weren’t made? etc etc etc.
You know, I rarely listen to the players post match, or pre match for that matter. As much as I have this blog and a podcast, I don’t consume every single bit of media that the club puts out. I usually just hit like on instagram on anything they put out. But Katie reposted something where LWM was heard speaking post match and she said something that I thought was very important for some people to hear and that is that this one result doesn’t define them.
I agree with that and it’s also so interesting to me to think that this way of thinking is convenient because I would’ve taken the win vs Chelsea as a defining moment, gladly. So which one is it? The answer is probably both.
Overall I totally get the mental exhaustion, the idea that this felt like the last week of school when you’re kinda just running on fumes and aren’t totally present and hope that you can just get by. And I want to emphasize that I’m not doubting the player’s mentality or commitment, what I’m saying is that I understand fully if they were all there fully. So many international matches, travel, the World Cup, etc…
These players need a break, from the pitch, from each other, from social media, from London, etc and I’m here for it.
Season over for the rest of the year but I will keep writing, so since there’s nothing going on expect some random AWFC related content on here.
Happy Sunday.
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OH look! A squirrel!
I’m trying to not talk about the match so I will actively try to be distracted by a few other topics. For record, because I can’t NOT talk about the match, what I will say is that as usual, football makes fools of us, often. I assumed these were 3 easy points and I’m glad I was given a rude awakening, and speaking off, brutal to wake up at 3am for that loss.
One thing I wanted to mention though was how weird it is to see so many outlets talk about player’s relationships or hint at them being a couple, almost putting them on some sort of display as a package deal.
I understand the situation and I understand how you talk about a couple when a documentary about them is what’s being covered, but I’m talking about the overall idea that we are somewhat bombarded about couples in football.
I love and celebrate them all and their relationships etc so I’m not complaining. The news, gossip, articles, support posts, etc don’t affect whatsoever and I really don’t care about any of that, unless the coverage becomes an ugly thing.What I’m trying to say is that if they, on top of the million things they need to battle, now have to deal with some public persona as it relates to the entity that is a relationship, then I would assume that is not productive or helpful.
There’s a fine line and I am no one to say what it is or what it’s been too close to either side. It’s just an observation.
I told you I don’t want to talk about the game. haha
Football is football and nothing is a given at this high level.
Anyway… podcast tomorrow and I’ll be talking about the match.
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Leah’s Piano…
When I tell you that I have been impacted deeply and fundamentally as a person after watching that documentary, I’m being as serious as I have ever been.
I am not in an emotional state to actually go deep into it. I’m thoroughly moved.
If you can, please watch it.
that’s it for now, I’m bawling.
A very subjective look into AWFC 