-
A lovely daaaaaaaay
You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. We played the very stupid game of choosing THE FORMER MANAGER (I’ve been waiting months to say this) over Viv and here we are. At a not so ideal place, with morale down, in a whole in the league. But now that he’s gone forever, we can all breathe a sigh of relief, specially the players, and move on with optimism and hope. Gratitude towards the former manager for the trophies, and some great moments and also thank you for leaving, specially. I also don’t buy for a second he chose to leave but if I were to play devil’s advocate and believe it I’d say that’s a big choice and big move and I respect that.
In case you haven’t heard my latest podcast, I spoke on there about why I’m very hopeful as it relates to our squad and the season to be quite honest and among them is that the girls are sooooooo very close to clicking and they aren’t playing badly, so a new manager, with new energy etc can help the process along much more effectively and moreover, it’s a big deal that this is happening right now and not later in the season.
You’ve read my constant criticism, you’ve heard it too… so not only am I thanking you for putting up with me but I also need to say how much I respect the club for this decision/situation. It happened, they made or allowed the decision and it’s a pretty huge deal honestly. I’m proud of the club and I’m happy we can just move on as quickly as possible and again, I’m just so very happy for the players.
Apprehension and anxiety and uncertainty are part of it all and I totally understand how everyone might feel and how we all have different and strong opinions. They are all valid and I can see why folks wouldn’t want Casey Stoney for example, someone I rate very highly. My choices are beyond the on the pitch related things so I have a different perspective than some. But to the footballing point… people say Stoney is too defensive… ok and? Why is that a band thing? Have you seen what a solid defense does to a team in more ways than one? Do me a favor… but again, I get it.
I get not knowing who Renée Slegers is, I don’t know anything about her and I’m a dutch football fan. All I know is that she is NOT Jonas and I cannot begin to tell you how good this feels. Will we regret it? No. In life you make decisions and you learn. You take accountability and you learn. You lose some, you learn some.
After 4 male coaches, it’s about time that we have a female manager. It’s criminal we haven’t had one and it’s about damn time.
I will never get over how we chose this person over Viv, over Beattie, over Jordan, over Vicki, over Mana… absolutely insane but again, let’s move on. But also I can’t believe it. hahaha.
Going back to Renee. This is one of the beauties of the world we all love aka football. Very few people will know about her but she might be the most incredible person and we just aren’t in the know, no matter how many podcasts we listen to, no matter how close to the club we think we are. I sure don’t know anything about anything and I think sometimes people forget that Arsenal is a 2.2 Billion dollar entity and we are a drop in an ocean of money and also in an ocean of history and pride.
Also, my good friend just posted this:
What a lovely day, my friends!
d ❤
THAT ARSENAL WOMEN PODCAST on:
You can listen to my music HEREarsenal, arsenal blog, Arsenal Football Club, arsenal podcast, arsenal women, arsenal women blog, Arsenal Women FC, arsenal women football club, Arsenal women podcast, AWFC, AWFC podcast, blog about arsenal women, blogs about arsenal women, Casey Stoney, FIFA WWC, that arsenal women podcast, the matildas, UWCL, Vivianne Miedema, women’s football podcast, woso, Woso podcast, WSL, WSL Blog, WSL podcast -
It’s time…
Here’s the latest episode of That Arsenal Women Podcast
d ❤
THAT ARSENAL WOMEN PODCAST on:
You can listen to my music HEREAlessia Russo, arsenal, arsenal blog, Arsenal Football Club, arsenal podcast, arsenal women, arsenal women blog, Arsenal Women FC, arsenal women football club, Arsenal women podcast, AWFC, AWFC podcast, beth mead, blog about arsenal women, blogs about arsenal women, Caldentey, Daphne van domselaar, Jonas Eidevall, Katie mccabe, Kim little, Leah williamson, lia walti, that arsenal women podcast, UWCL, Vivianne Miedema, women’s football podcast, woso, Woso podcast, WSL, WSL Blog, WSL podcast -
Highbury Squad Ep #2
arsenal, arsenal blog, Arsenal Football Club, arsenal podcast, arsenal women, arsenal women blog, Arsenal Women FC, Arsenal women podcast, AWFC, AWFC podcast, beth mead, blog about arsenal women, blogs about arsenal women, FIFA WWC, Katie mccabe, Kim little, Leah williamson, lia walti, that arsenal women podcast, UWCL, Vivianne Miedema, woso -
200 for Bethany
If you want Jonas out content all you have to do is listen to my podcast for the past few months or basically read any of my posts since like February. I am 100000% Jonas out and have been for a long time, but today is not about that.
Today I wanna chat briefly about the fact that Bethany Jane Mead has made 200 appearances for Arsenal. That is insane. She’s been such an important player who has given her all and has never, ever phoned in a performance neither has she given anything less than 100% for our club. We are so very fortunate to have her in our squad.
Beyond her ability on the pitch, we can all see what positive person she is and how her attitude is infectious in the best of ways and she makes everyone around her not just laugh, but smile.
The match today should’ve been a symbolic winning performance for her, if nothing else but alas it wasn’t to be. This was by far the worst game of football I’ve ever seen under the current manager and that is saying a LOT.
This is a very frustrating time my friends. We all know that and we all feel that. Saying “I told you so” isn’t even appropriate because YOU told yourself so for months. This was bound to happen and its going to continue happening because even if the girls beat Bayern and Chelsea it would be because of the players and not the manager.
Our season could be extremely uphill by this time next week and it’s criminal that we have been put in this situation as a club and as a fanbase by the current manager and whomever thinks he is the right person. And I’m looking not just at the board but all the podcasters and bloggers that never dared to say one negative thing about him because they wanted access to the club or be seen in a favorable light.
Thankfully I am not the only person speaking up, and you can see HUNDREDS of people way more unhappy than me on all the instagram posts and comment section. Pretty wild and this is just not normal. The current manager is just not liked, to put it mildly and its clearly and unequivocally a large majority of the fan base.
Something needs to change or we will change fundamentally as a club, and that is not acceptable.
d ❤
THAT ARSENAL WOMEN PODCAST on:
You can listen to my music HEREarsenal, arsenal blog, Arsenal Football Club, arsenal podcast, arsenal women, arsenal women blog, Arsenal Women FC, arsenal women football club, Arsenal women podcast, AWFC, AWFC podcast, beth mead, blog about arsenal women, blogs about arsenal women, FIFA WWC, Katie mccabe, Kim little, Leah williamson, lia walti, Steph catley, that arsenal women podcast, UWCL, Vivianne Miedema, women’s football podcast, woso, Woso podcast, WSL podcast -
So very lucky – podcast
Hey friends,
I just uploaded a new episode of That Arsenal Women Podcast
d ❤
THAT ARSENAL WOMEN PODCAST on:
You can listen to my music HEREarsenal, arsenal blog, Arsenal Football Club, arsenal podcast, arsenal women, arsenal women blog, Arsenal Women FC, arsenal women football club, Arsenal women podcast, AWFC, AWFC podcast, beth mead, Casey Stoney, FIFA WWC, Katie mccabe, Kim little, Leah williamson, lia walti, Steph catley, that arsenal women podcast, UWCL, Vivianne Miedema, women’s football podcast, woso, Woso podcast, WSL, WSL Blog, WSL podcast, WSL transfer -
Isn’t it ironic?
If there has ever been a need for one single player to help us break down Hacken or convert chances against City, that player would be and is in fact Vivianne Miedema. It couldn’t be any more clear and obvious. Arsenal Women made a massive mistake in letting her go and this could be something that haunt us for many years to come.
More that letting her go, because players do leave, it’s the fact that she left when she still was an incredible player and ever worse, the club decided to side with the current manager and his “project” over her.
All of those people on Twitter and other content platforms stick by the manager and side with the club and implying that Viv was on decline will never be absurd. Moreover. I guarantee zero of them talked about how insanely good Viv was because they cannot come to terms with being wrong. Very similar to what the current manager does.
He doesn’t actually apologize, he doesn’t actually take accountability, because he plays to all sides and also deflects. He’s a very, very intelligent person when it comes to the media because we can look back at a lot of comments and realize that he in fact said nothing. It’s pretty brilliant actually.
But overall, I’m just glad it’s over. I’m happy this anxiety inducing match was the first of the season and now we can all breathe and move on to the next crunch match in the form of Hacken again for the CL… and goodness me, if we don’t beat them there will be no way in hell that the current manager remains the current manager.
Ok so about the match itself, I honestly thought there were lots of positives. I thought that aside from that play that Viv that made her look like a toddler playing football for the first time, I thought LWM was fantastic specially with the little to no playing time she’s had recently. I thought she was very solid and alongside Laia, managed to keep Bunny Shaw as quiet as I think I’ve ever seen her.
I also thought Katie was outstanding and by a country mile she was our best player on the day. Emily was pretty good too and all in all, the defense was good, which sadly cannot be said about the attacking on the day. It was not sharp and Stina and especially Russo should’ve scored, but they are the first ones to admit that and there’s no need to keep fixating on that on my end. Bottom line is we should’ve won.
But the overarching thing to me is how everyone knows that the current manager cannot handle low blocking teams. Well, he definitely cannot handle Viv either, and she wasn’t playing in a low blocking side.
If you wanna hear more about what Albert and I had to say about this match, please watch the show we did post match for The Highbury Squad
d ❤
THAT ARSENAL WOMEN PODCAST on:
You can listen to my music HEREarsenal, arsenal blog, Arsenal Football Club, arsenal podcast, arsenal women, arsenal women blog, Arsenal Women FC, arsenal women football club, Arsenal women podcast, AWFC, AWFC podcast, beth mead, Casey Stoney, FIFA WWC, Katie mccabe, Kim little, Leah williamson, lia walti, Steph catley, that arsenal women podcast, UWCL, Vivianne Miedema, women’s football podcast, woso, Woso podcast, WSL podcast -
New Arsenal Women Show
Hi friends!
Just wanted to share some news and that is that I’m gonna be co-hosting a new show on The Highbury Squad aka an incredible YouTube show / podcast with my dear friend Albert Umoh.
We’ll try to do shows shortly after the girls play and in today’s case it’ll be at 8:15pm UK time.
Here’s the link:
d ❤
THAT ARSENAL WOMEN PODCAST on:
You can listen to my music HEREarsenal, arsenal blog, Arsenal Football Club, arsenal podcast, arsenal women, arsenal women blog, Arsenal Women FC, arsenal women football club, Arsenal women podcast, AWFC, AWFC podcast, beth mead, blog about arsenal women, blogs about arsenal women, FIFA WWC, Katie mccabe, Kim little, Leah williamson, lia walti, Steph catley, that arsenal women podcast, the matildas, UWCL, Vivianne Miedema, women’s football podcast, woso, Woso podcast, WSL podcast -
He’s either blind or he’s lying
You might’ve read the current manager’s comment essentially regarding Alessia Russo being “the best finisher” he’s ever worked with. This comment bothers me for many reasons and I had mentioned a couple of days ago how I would like to chat a little more about it, and I’m in that mood, if you can call it that.
When I originally brought it up I realized that I was making it very Viv centric and that was not my intention, and I’ll get into this in a bit, but it really bothers me as it relates to Alessia. Because, since I don’t think he actually believes it, he is using her for some PR stunt which he can always claim he is doing it to build the player’s confidence or something like that and I’m just not having any of it. I don’t believe he is genuine about it, and about any of it actually.
I had said that I thought he was either lying or he was blind, one or the other and I stand by it. The first point, the blind one, relates to how he wasn’t able to literally, and I mean literally, see how good Viv is/was. Viv being one of the best finishers in the history of the WSL and women’s football as a whole. Yeah she was injured but he had plenty of time to see her in matches and countless times in training and there is just not a better finisher out there. And please don’t make the assumption that I don’t think that Alessia is good, I think she’s great, but I’m sorry… nobody is Viv.
Among the reasons why this is extremely alarming is that it proves that the current manager does not have the ability to recognize true talent, transcending talent, historic talent in front of him. That should worry every single fan. Like even if he’s trying to be cute and send messages via press conferences it’s not working.
The second point was that if he isn’t blind, then he is lying. Lying is not good. Lying sucks. So, what he is lying about is quite obvious and it becomes a dig at Viv all the while also lying to Alessia or whoever he could’ve said. He could’ve picked anyone and nobody would prove to be better than Viv. It’s just not up to debate. Also I know very well that saying that something isn’t up to debate doesn’t make it true, so as usual please take my comment with a grain of salt.
Again, it seems like I’m pissed because I took it as an attack towards Viv but I just don’t feel like it’s cool towards Alessia and that kinda grinds my gears. You can build her up and, not that she needs building up, she’s a fucking star, but there are ways to build someone up without a dig at someone else.
d ❤
THAT ARSENAL WOMEN PODCAST on:
You can listen to my music HEREAlessia Russo, arsenal, arsenal blog, Arsenal Football Club, arsenal podcast, arsenal women, arsenal women blog, Arsenal Women FC, arsenal women football club, Arsenal women podcast, AWFC, AWFC podcast, beth mead, blog about arsenal women, blogs about arsenal women, FIFA WWC, Katie mccabe, Kim little, Leah williamson, lia walti, Steph catley, that arsenal women podcast, UWCL, Vivianne Miedema, women’s football podcast, woso, Woso podcast, WSL podcast -
Fixture pileup is already insane!
In case you haven’t seen it laid out in this way, please take a look at the amount of matches played in September alone: 6 total matches in one month and 4 of those in 11 days. From those 4 in 11 are 2 Cl qualifiers bookending the season opener vs City. WTF…
Just for perspective, this is what is you will most likely see:
09/04 – Home vs Rangers (CL Qualifier)
09/07 Home vs Rosenborg (CL Qualifier)
09/18 Away vs Hacken (CL Qualifier)
09/22 Home vs Man City (WSL)
09/25 Home vs Hacken (CL Qualifier)
09/29 Away vs City (WSL)
But when I see the very few days in between it just raises a lot of concerns for me and this hasn’t changed and won’t change, not just because the fixtures themselves but because of the lack of signings by the club and to me it’s becoming pretty negligent. It honestly makes very little sense that we haven’t brought more players in but maybe its only because of the lack of purchases and I’m totally forgetting the academy players coming up.
And yeah, now that I read that again it might be a situation where it’s actually “better” than it really is and we have a decent enough squad in terms of numbers but I don’t know about you guys but it definitely feels top heavy and not enough cover in the middle of the pitch.
Also, there’s something to keep in mind. Just because we have someone to cover for X player is not enough. For instance, say Emily Fox gets injured, then we have Laura to cover, but what happens when Laura gets also injured or when she gets suspended let’s say? We’re FUCKED is basically what I’m getting at.
We have NO cover for Lia. Nobody comes close to doing what she does so it is baffling that we haven’t gone for someone like her, which I know is not possible, but Keira Walsh is there… just sayin. Oh and by “there” I mean like she’s alive haha, there’s apparently no way she’s coming.
Insert heart break emoji.
d ❤
THAT ARSENAL WOMEN PODCAST on:
You can listen to my music HEREAlessia Russo, arsenal, arsenal blog, Arsenal Football Club, arsenal podcast, arsenal women, arsenal women blog, Arsenal Women FC, arsenal women football club, Arsenal women podcast, AWFC, AWFC podcast, beth mead, Emily Fox, FIFA WWC, Katie mccabe, Kim little, Leah Walti, Leah williamson, Matildas, Steph catley, that arsenal women podcast, the matildas, UWCL, Vivianne Miedema, women’s football podcast, woso, Woso podcast, WSL podcast -
BK Hacken it is
Oh my god this is so embarrassing. I clearly had no idea that we are in fact NOT yet qualified for the Champions League as we have another round of qualifiers and this time the opponents will be Hacken, but you knew that and clearly I just found out early this morning.
This is one of the things that I miss out when taking time off twitter and what I mean by that is the constant bombardment of news, all day long, so normally I would have known this but I was under the complete ignorant belief that the girls had made it and I even posted something about it on instagram and probably wrote on here with so much confidence.
Hacken should be a much tougher opponent than what the girls have faced so far. If they play like they played against Rangers we’ll be good, but I don’t see how we can play back to back performances like the one against Rosenborg and come out with a win. I truly don’t see that happening but maybe Hacken aren’t as good as Rosenborg? I have no idea.
I went from being super relieved and upbeat and optimistic to saying “oh shit….” And it’s not that I don’t think we can beat them… of course we can, and we probably will. But the shock realization is kinda jolting, not to be redundant, and I am suddenly overcome with doubt, if I’m being perfectly honest. What it boils down to is my lack of faith, support and empathy for the current manager but you know how I feel.
With that said, my faith in the players is unwavering and I cannot be convinced by anyone that we can’t beat any team on paper, specially with Lia getting more minutes and also Laia growing in confidence and feeling like she “finally arrived” and I’m paraphrasing but she now feels more comfortable with how her life is at Arsenal. This is a no brainer of a partnership along Leah… truly a no brainer. Euro cup winning Captain and World Cup winner, a twice CL winner and to this last point, this is someone that knows what it takes to win so the more we play her and Caldentey the better.
Speaking of Caldentey, an incredible player, I cannot fathom how incredible her and Viv together should have been. No, I’m not over Viv and I will never be over her leaving, FOR FREE TO A DIRECT RIVAL!!!!!!! Hahaha that is just never not insane and every time I think about it I write it.
Caldentey is incredible and so is Kafaji and of course theres a narrative about her facing her previous club, duh. But I’m excited about them getting more and more minutes together.
Lastly, we will not do a thing without Beth Mead. She needs to be playing if she is fit. I don’t care is Foord scores 89 goals in 3 matches. Beth is the right choice, always.
d ❤
THAT ARSENAL WOMEN PODCAST on:
You can listen to my music HEREarsenal, arsenal blog, Arsenal Football Club, arsenal podcast, arsenal women, arsenal women blog, Arsenal Women FC, arsenal women football club, Arsenal women podcast, AWFC, AWFC podcast, beth mead, blog about arsenal women, blogs about arsenal women, Caldentey, FIFA WWC, Katie mccabe, Kim little, Leah williamson, lia walti, Rosa Kafaji, Steph catley, that arsenal women podcast, the matildas, UWCL, Vivianne Miedema, women’s football podcast, woso, Woso podcast, WSL, WSL Blog, WSL podcast, WSL transfer
A very subjective look into AWFC 