A very subjective look into AWFC

Yes, this is me talking about transfers again, but more than actual transfer rumors with some minuscule part of truth to them, I’m talking about the totally baseless rumors that some social media accounts post without any way to back it up. Its very irresponsible and I almost wish they were better at lying because they post about X player coming to Arsenal without any quotes, comments or anything like that.

I’m the first one to admit that I am probably wrong and up until now I haven’t seen anything with any substance but I read 3 different twitter accounts (with 5 and 6 digit twitter followers) claim that AWFC were in talks to buy 19 year old Dutch player Esmee Brugts. Normally that wouldn’t be that big of a deal because these type of accounts love to click bait, and I was one of those people that took it. These accounts might mention a quote or a quote of a quote, you get the idea. At least most of the time they try to mask their way into making us believe they are legit accounts with inside info.

Of course some of them might have contacts and people leak things to them, I don’t doubt that. But in Esmee’s case I never ever saw any outlet backup absolutely anything related to a comment, a misinterpreted article, etc etc etc. It just seemed like these few accounts agreed to start a rumor just for the hell of it. I might be wrong and I clearly haven’t scoured the whole of the internet but it seems to me that they just wanted to start this and for what I can tell it’s worked because I saw quite a few tweets and replies about it.

As you know I love dutch players and Esmee is pretty, pretty good. I don’t see her as the footballing promise or “the future of dutch football” like tons seem to think but only because I haven’t seen as much of her as I would like. Also when DVD is on the pitch she’s pretty much the only player I focus on 🤷🏾‍♂️

Would I like her at Arsenal? Sure, but she’s nowhere near a priority for me. And to be perfectly honest, where I see women’s football going in terms of athleticism, dynamism and more, I think other players fit the not so distant future much better. More Katie McCabes is what I mean.

Is that too much to ask!??!!?!!

haha😅😁

d ❤

THAT ARSENAL WOMEN PODCAST on:
YOUTUBE
APPLE PODCASTS
SPOTIFY

I truly wish I knew anything about Amanda Ilestedt but I know absolutely nothing. I wanted to share a video about her, such as highlights and what not but I couldn’t really find anything. I’m not really surprised because that’s just what happens still on this day and age, where there’s just not extensive footage of any/all players like it seems to be on the men’s game.

Here’s what I know: she’s a defender, she’s Swedish, she’s won a ton and comes from PSG. That’s it. Sorry, that’s what I got. I do have to share one video that I found because it is actually pretty cool.This is after all a blog that sorta mixes music and women’s football so here’s Amanda talking about ABBA:

From what I have read and seen on twitter, people seem to be very excited about her, her experience and abilities. I’m not disagreeing but unless I know the player well, I don’t really feel a certain way until I see them play, but more importantly I trust Jonas and the board.

The main target I had in mind was an experienced center back and we got her.

This is big.

It makes me feel extremely calm and confident that things are getting done. This motivates the entire fanbase and it sends a clear message to the rest of the league that we’re not messing around and that we are showing ambition, drive and we’re addressing our weaknesses. Yet, we still need another center back, with Leah missing we definitely need someone to partner Amanda in case Jen isn’t seen as the first option.

Let’s hope we keep the momentum going and we sign a couple of more players by the end of the month.

d ❤

THAT ARSENAL WOMEN PODCAST on:
YOUTUBE
APPLE PODCASTS
SPOTIFY

I’ve always been fascinated by the inner workings of a football club. All the little processes and systems in place that give entire club exist. The conversations, negotiations, the food inventory, transportation and things of that nature. Some people want a tour of a stadium and others like me would love to be sat down and be told about the most random of things.

There are also not so random things that I want to know about such as transfer policies and moreover I want to know if fact, players have a say in said transfer policy. What I mean by that is that wonder if a manager or director of football, etc ever take a meeting with say Kim Little, McCaber or Viv and pick their brains as far as which player they think would fit in and why.

I would understand if they aren’t asked. There has to be a structure and compartmentalization from an administrative perspective I guess? I’m not sure I’m explaining myself correctly.. what I mean is that there are people who have been hired to help with this such as scouts, big data people, etc and they aren’t going to not listen to them yet is there a better opinion than someone who has faced these players or played with them for their national teams?

That’s when bias can come in. This is a total assumption on my part but I would guess that many players would love to have a say in who comes in because they are friends with them. Many players, I would think, would like to not have a certain player come in and say something about that to the powers that be. I don’t really know what my point is other than I definitely have a bias and its hard to imagine that players don’t. But that’s why I’m not a player and why I just watch the sport.

I personally think that there should absolutely be a meeting or dynamic where players are asked about transfers. Why wouldn’t they? It makes total sense to me. Having them choose the actual transfers is different than getting their opinion and I truly believe they all have the intelligence and emotional tools to voice their opinion in an objective way. And even if they were to be totally subjective, I think their opinion should be heavily considered.

Just take a second to realize how lucky we are to have the players we have, with their footballing experience and brain… players who we can ask them about so many things, including the future of the club. Beattie, Catley, Walti, Williamson… etc etc etc etc.

We are so spoiled!!!

d ❤

THAT ARSENAL WOMEN PODCAST on:
YOUTUBE
APPLE PODCASTS
SPOTIFY

I’m a little freaked out because I need to leave my house in about 8 minutes and I won’t be back all day so whatever topic I’m able to magically summon while I’m writing this, will only be expanded on in a short time span. I have, among other things, a pickleball match today which is a sport I started playing a year ago… however I started it because I thought it was Padel since I had seen so many former footballers play it. It is not however, but it isn’t much different.

Anyway, a couple of days ago I was chatting with my wife about which match I would like to come to if I could, and that got me thinking…

Do I want to come see a match against a weaker team? In other words do I want to see a 4-0 win? 6-0?? Or, is it “better” to go to a match that could potentially be much more even like against City or United or Chelsea? With a more real chance of them losing? It’s not an easy choice. I mean of course I would go watch any match and I won’t be disappointed prior to the actual match happening, but even in losing, the experience is so incredible that I would go to any game. And to be honest with you, I much rather be a fly on the wall or light post I should say, during training than any actual match I think. To see the ins and outs, who is who in “real life”, how they train, the banter, the off the ball movement, the rondos, the drills. All of it.

Now, going back to the actual match going… Do I wait for the team to be at full strength? it’s so damn expensive to go that it is less of an incentive without Leah, Viv or Beth.. of course its worth it but I don’t have the luxury of realistically saying to myself: “I’ll come back in a few weeks when they’re fit”

I’m curious to know what you would do. We all know the WSL match is more competitive than ever… but do I wait for another cup final? or a UWCL group stage match? Well I much rather go to Borehamwood than the Emirates so I guess things start getting narrowed down.

All I know is that I will do everything in my power to come this year, so if you are reading this and live in London, let’s hang out in a few months.

d ❤

THAT ARSENAL WOMEN PODCAST on:
YOUTUBE
APPLE PODCASTS
SPOTIFY

I need transfers to happen. I’m honestly losing my mind. I understand that things take time, that the World Cup is around the corner and that I have to be patient yet I am not at the present moment. I’m freaking out. Ok, maybe its not just AWFC’s lack of transfer news, I think its a combination of Arsenal men not announcing signings, AWFC not announcing signings (AT THE TIME OF WRITING THIS I THE TEAM HADN’T ANNOUNCED THE ACADEMY PLAYERS SIGNING SO I’M SUPER EXCITED!!) and just frustration associated with it. I’ve come here before and made a point about being patient and how why we need to wait and all that but my friends, today I’m over it.

One of the things that I would love to know is if the club knows which players are leaving the club, why not at least announce that? To give the illusion of actual activity? I get that it’s not my place to ask and that these questions might be silly. I just feel very curious because as a fan and someone who respects transfer policies aka I’m dead inside post dvd/dominique/roord, I can handle and want to know as soon as possible who leaves, so I can make peace with it and become even more excited and inpatient about who is going to replace them.

I love the idea of Russo and the symbolism behind that but I’m desperate to hear who we are signing as center backs. It’s pretty damn urgent for me… not for the club, or for other fans… for me.

However, I need to take a deep breath and relax and try to ignore myself and my lack of patience and just wait at the very least for the World Cup and see if there are any stand out CBs and other players that could sign for us, but at the same time I think we should just go for people used to the WSL?! I don’t even know why I said that, because I don’t actually believe it and I haven’t thought it through… but again: desperation.

How do you feel?

d ❤

THAT ARSENAL WOMEN PODCAST on:
YOUTUBE
APPLE PODCASTS
SPOTIFY

One of my absolute favorite things about Arsenal Women and WOSO is how their fan base overlaps with pop music, aka my world. There are all is these niche micro communities that I can observe on twitter and it’s quite lovely to see actually.

Around the time I became a serious AWFC fan I was touring with The Jonas Brothers, this was in 2019. Shortly after I started posting about my love for the girls, coupled with tour diaries etc I was quickly made aware of pop music fans, who were also arsenal women fans, and lots of them dutch. Kind of a sub group of a sub group. And I was to a degree embraced by them. Eventually I was able to perform at one of my dream venues called The Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam and I was able to meet a few of my fellow AWFC fans, and what a lovely bunch they were and they even got me an autographed Mead shirt. Too, too kind.

I love when my twitter timeline has people talking about pop artists or bands that I like or have worked with, and those tweets come from people that I know through the AWFC world. The music conversation plus football is something that is part of who I am and I never get tired of seeing that overlap. Also, it doesn’t really happen with another topic, or at least not with the same frequency. Like, I know we all care about say climate change, but we don’t see that conversation often.

The thing though is that a lot of these super fans for AWFC, aka the fiber of any club, some how some way, manage to also be massive super fans of say Taylor Swift. I admire how they can love so many things at once so passionately. I mean, I get it because I love a lot of things but as far as being a STAN or a SUPERFAN?! I don’t know that I have the emotional or time management tools to do that.

It’s impressive.

I’ve said before that there are many parallels between music and sport yet sometimes its not a parallel but several intersecting lines, circles, shapes… whatever makes sense and I know you know what I mean.

The bottom line is what both have in common is love, support, dedication and lots of investment of energy, time and money.

Without super fans no bands could ever make it, and without super fans footballers couldn’t do what they do either.

d ❤
THAT ARSENAL WOMEN PODCAST on:
YOUTUBE
APPLE PODCASTS
SPOTIFY

We have all seen the endless amount of money the Saudis are willing to through around and buy players. It’s not something brand new, but the acceleration of this phenomenon seems totally out of control and it also seems like there’s no going back. Why? because clearly money talks for a lot of people and especially for a lot of people who matter when it comes to making the decisions. Sportswashing is absolutely obvious.

There’s always this narrative of: “you can’t blame X for taking the money”

Of course you can blame them. I certainly do and I judge people who take money from certain places or people. I think it’s important to question things.

I don’t think it’s actually going to change things as in the Saudi league actually competing with top European and South American leagues. No way. What I do see happening is jacking up the prices and throwing it all into a crazy spiral in which clubs have to pay players insane amounts of money because they would just move to Saudi Arabia… or they sell the best players for ridiculous money which can then invest in their academy and so on BUT this is for potential and not other huge names because they can be also sold to the Saudis.

However, I don’t see any of this affecting the women’s sport directly. Women are built differently. Ambition in sport usually means toxic masculinity so clearly, this isn’t the case and I’m very happy. Yet another reason to go all in on women’s football. I mean, there’s one clear elephant in the room which is women aren’t seen as equal in Saudi Arabia so the idea of a financially doped league out there is impossible.

Anyways, I’m back on YouTube this week! Here’s today’s episode