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Weird Match
As you all know I currently live in Los Angeles and for the past 20 years being in this time zone, I’ve had to wake up to watch Arsenal at 4am, 6am, etc depending on daylight savings time. That’s the price you gotta pay to live in California and let me tell you, if that isn’t being a “real fan” then I don’t know what I’m doing.
Since 2019 I’ve been waking up at that time, mostly both weekend days because the girls also play and sometimes they don’t have back to back matches, meaning that my alarm’s activity is on fire on Saturdays and Sundays.
It’s hard to stay awake at those hours specially when it’s super dark and I’m very comfortable and cozy in my bed snuggling with my wife, who is usually more excited about the matches than I am. But I gotta tell you, yesterday I did not fall asleep, I was kept up by how weird that match was.
I’m sorry but this was one of the most boring matches I remember watching, ever. My highlight was seeing DvD start and playing well but aside from that, it was a truly forgettable match. There was very little football played. So strange…
I know I’m gonna get some hate for this but Sophia’s tackle on DvD was absurd, uncalled for and very dangerous. This following a red card but a bad tackle too so there might be something there for the coaches to address because it’s gonna cost us again and even worse, she’s gonna end up hurting someone really bad.
Of course I’m exaggerating and there have been worse matches and I do have to say I enjoyed seeing Chloe back and of course when Beth came in. Also my goodness Borbe has been very, very solid. I wouldn’t pick her over Daphne if fit but she has been an unreal option and cover for Manu. Who seems to be recovering well.
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I can’t do this to you
Regardless of your background, ethnicity, gender, politics, marital status, height, allergies, hair color, music preference, there’s one thing we can all agree on, something that is universally accepted and that is that we, the world as a whole, does NOT need another man with a podcast. The world also doesn’t need a man that used to have a podcast to revive it.
As much as I like to be an ally and “help” this is very self righteous, specially when I volunteered said help. I know it is welcome and I have made many friendships through it all and hell, I’ve also have been able to open some doors that I only could’ve dreamed of… Doors I plan on going through very soon, but that’s another story.
The demand just isn’t there either lately to be fair and if That Arsenal Women Podcast is to continue at some point, I will need to revamp it, from the ground up and make it comparable, from an aesthetic and social media strategy, to whatever is out there. Yet, whatever is out there is not really a thing, there are not many so I always felt having another voice in that very much NOT busy space, was a good thing.
I have the intention of bringing new and different things to the podcast space but I just cannot commit to it. I cannot allow my life to revolve around a club, any club, for any reason unless I am being paid to make it a priority. Make no mistake, AWFC and AFC are the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing on my mind before going to sleep. But to make really, really good quality content and all that it entails, that takes a looooooot of time and commitment.
We see some podcasts and YouTube shows that just aren’t up to par with what the standards are nowadays. The hosts might have the best intentions in the world but if the lighting is awful, the camera angles aren’t flattering and their dirty laundry can be seen, literally, then we won’t truly be excited to watch nor will we be likely to watch or listen often. No matter the quality of the conversation.
My short lived Youtube version was a failure by every measure had I measured it but they whole concept was more of a commitment to myself and to the players, to carry something out that I felt could be different and fresh, regardless of who watched it or liked it.
This is why I always say that YOU should have a show. YOU should have a podcast. SHOW should have a live stream. You will all do better than I ever could specially a younger generation that has more technological nous and can do things in one minute that would take me 5 hours.
I think the woso world is in a weird phase… it seems to have grown in a way that wasn’t contained, so to speak, and its just a massive mess at the moment with so many matches, so much social media, so many matches again, not too much money still, etc. It might be the perfect time to document a lot of these things.
At the same time, I’m not utterly in love with AWFC at the moment as I see things and patterns that don’t make me feel like the board or club “deserves” my all. The squad still has some OG’s that I will die for, but some other players I just do not connect with and if they will be at the club for many years to come then I have zero problem admitting that I will not be as enthusiastic.
Just being honest.
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Pay Our Players
That is the amount of money that our club is paying one of our players, and he’s one of many that are making around that amount. That is a lot of money and the contract and wages as a whole will give all of them generational wealth. That is the way modern football goes and I’m not criticizing it nor am I implying that male players should be making that money also because the reality is, in the big scheme of things, that just a handful of people are lucky enough to make it to a position where they earn that much, and I’m sure they deserve where they are.
To be fair I do criticize it and I criticize the money, the toxic masculinity of it all and how unfair the disparity is. And I’m not saying that equal pay is the solution or anything like that because I’m not smart enough to make a case for it without proper data or reasoning behind it other than “of course women deserve that much money” and so do trans athletes and disabled ones as well. There is soooooo much money out there and I think that’s my point, as clumsy as I’m sounding.
If our club has enough money to pay Saka 300k a week, you cannot tell me that they don’t have 100k PER YEAR to pay our players more. And let me be clear about a few things: as much as I’m applying it to AWFC it can be said across the board for every “major” club that doesn’t support their women’s team. Yes it would be an investment but it’s a worthy one. Another thing I want to make clear is that I’m not a finance expert nor do I claim to make sense, it’s more of a wishful thinking thing.
Take all the merch they sell us, so many ranges that you walk into the Armoury and get an anxiety attack. To make all of those items you need to spend a LOT and as much as I could say: “spend it on the women’s team” I’m not a fool and I understand part of that revenue does in fact go into them. What I mean is that we can allocate more money or give them exclusive ranges much more often and have them essentially split the earnings.
I know it doesn’t work like that. I’m naive and hopeful but I’m not delusional. You can stop laughing now.
My wish is that in the very short future at our club (and in other clubs but also ours we, the self appointed leader in women’s football – and for good reason and thanks to Vic Akers) we can see our girls make a lot more money that they are making now.
We need them safe and able to retire in a healthy, responsible and holistic way.
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DVD LCL KNVB OMG
You don’t need me to tell you this but I will. DVD is my favorite player of all time and she’s the reason why I am obsessed with woso. I fell in love with AWFC because of her and what she has meant to me as a player is something I cannot express with words. She, alongside Viv, are the most incredible players I’ve ever seen and I think it is absolutely criminal that they never won a Ballon D’or, but that’s a whole different thing.
The fact that we all get to watch her play, after so many injuries and setbacks is nothing short of a privilege, specially when at some point it didn’t seem like we’d see her this season, based only on the secrecy of her club and how tight lipped they’ve been about her situation.
Either way I don’t care. All I want is to watch her on that pitch be the player she is. The world of WOSO deserves it and simply put, she is one of the architects of the modern game and of our club as a whole.
She is one of the main reasons there are traveling fans and we owe so much to the dutch contingent. That means not just the Dutch players but the fans too… they have been just as important as the English fans and they don’t get the love they deserve.
The same way you cannot deny FC Barcelona men’s dutch heritage, the same thing can be said about Arsenal Women. And I’m not taking anything away from the OG English players and from other nationalities too, what I’m saying is that DVD, Viv, Jill, Dom, SVV etc were not just the backbone of our club for a while but their relationship with fans and their role in the football zeitgeist as a whole cannot be understated.
I’m very emotional about this fixture and whatever happens I’m gonna be happy. I want Arsenal to win every match and I want Van de Donk to win every single match she ever plays, in any sport or setting, ever.
Unreal how good LCL have been this season no?? Also, they’d be even better had Daan played more matches. I wouldn’t be surprised if they finish top 3 next season.
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Serena? Really??
Sometimes Arsenal FC just shoot themselves in both feet and everyone else’s feet around them. They try so hard to do something cool but its as if they are consulting the worst people possible and even if they had good intentions they just continuously miss the mark and end up being so tone deaf.
First thins first: I LOVE SERENA WILLIAMS. She is a goddess. Every single human on earth should admire her and look up to her and I absolutely love that there are other men that, like me, think she is a hell of a role model. Not taking anything away from here.
A few days ago we celebrated International Women’s Day and they asked a few of the Arsenal men players who was the most inspirational female athlete of all time. Literally any Arsenal Woman player was there. Literally say any one of them, past or present. I don’t care if Serena has accomplished “more” than any of our players have… that’s not the point. The point is that they and the club, had such a massive opportunity to make some young men follow whatever their favorite footballers say and point them in the direction of AWFC.
Would it truly hurt to say Rachel Yankey? Kelly Smith? Leah Williamson? KIM LITTLE FFS ?!! Hell you can even just say Alessia Russo…
What an opportunity missed but that’s ok because they’ll sell us more merch in a few weeks!!!!
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Real talk
My guess is that you all have seen that gif and/or video of Foord essentially pushing and shoving the South Korean GK. It’s not a good look. Many would say “waaaaaay worse things happen any given match day” and they would be correct, so I’m definitely not here to judge her or mention anything related to HER as a person or a player, and I’ll barely talk about this “incident” to be fair.
People seem to think there is a pattern and this incident is “one more” in a series of poor behavior and I totally reject that. I don’t think she’s a violent player nor do I think that this reflects on her as a professional or a player. The beef that I have with this whole thing is not her at all, as I champion her and wish her only good things on and off the pitch. What bothers me the most is the absurd, subjective and slanted “support” arsenal fans are expressing online.
As much as I hate to do this, I have to say it: if Ruesha did that to a keeper, all hell would break loose. This has nothing to do with her or even Caitlin truly, this is only about what I perceive to be hypocrisy by the people who spend their time and energy to post/comment about the situation and a perfect example is whomever posted the most watched clip and the comments she made. You couldn’t ask chatGPT to create a more perfect example of bias and lack of objectivity. Not too different than when I talk about DvD, Beth and Viv to be totally self aware.
You don’t have to justify every single thing someone you’re a fan of does. That behavior is normally reserved for children and a lot of grown “men.” Which is a great reminder that most vocal fans online and just kids doing what kids do and a lot of times is not nefarious and they’re just being silly. That is not lost in me.
We need to be better as a fan base, no matter what videos the club puts out to make us think we’re “the best.” Attendance is one thing and another thing is just being honest with ourselves. And I need to hear that more than anyone.
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Worth reading…
Hope you all had a great week!
I had mentioned that I would write about the Oranjeleeuwinnen but I got caught up in not wanting to write about it. Just kidding, I legit had a lot of recording to do this week and didn’t want to stare at a screen unless I absolutely had to.
I wanted to share an amazing article that my friend Jamie posted. It resonated a lot with me and I am positive you’ll find it interesting.
Click HERE to read it
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Feels like the summer
Los Angeles is too damn hot today… I know most of you are reading this from the UK and Europe where it’s most likely cold and rainy but if I were to walk outside my house I would be greeted by a toasty 84°F which is basically 29°C… and even though we can get above 100°F here in the summer, today feel like one of those days.
But that’s not what I mean when I say that it feels like the summer. I saw this because it is absolute torture being mid season and there being no club matches until March 15th as far I can tell. That feels like it’s very far away even if it’s just basically 2 weeks away but damn, I miss those anxiety inducing match-days.
I wish this lack of AWFC activity was actually because they all had a break, such as an extended winter break which I would be 100% behind, yet as we know, the lack of club matches is due to the international break. Still, I welcome the other anxiety inducing INTERNATIONAL match days as there’s never a dull day in the life of an oranjeleeuwinnen fan.
I will write more about The Netherlands tomorrow or the day after but if I had to mention the one thing (not oranje related) that I’m mostly excited about in this window would be the fact that our Leah Williamson has been called up and will most likely play next week against Ukraine. To be fair, after the euros I haven’t really kept up with the lionesses and I don’t really know who Sarina’s CB preferred partnership but I would like to see Leah and Maya play together or give Leah a break and have Maya with Alex, I have no idea really, just saying random things at this point.
One thing I’ll chat about another about too is regarding how Sam Coffey mentioned during a presser how AWFC were interested in signing her but that Man City were much more professional. That is very worrisome if what she says is true.
I can understand and excuse different levels of “interest” and how that can manifest… it’s very complex but when it comes to professionalism we simply cannot have that be low. No matter what, the club has to be professional. Again, this is a she said situation so we don’t know the rest but I have no reason to doubt her and I have plenty of reasons to doubt the board.
Yes, I said that.
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Some Projects
I’m going to keep this short today and go straight to the point and admit that this post today has nothing to do with Arsenal or Viv or the Matildas. I am here today to shamelessly post about 2 projects I’m currently working on and I would love your opinion about what I’m about to share.
One of those projects I mentioned before which is another blog focused exclusively on music and more accurately advice for musicians. This is all essentially suggestions and recommendations for those who are thinking about becoming professional musicians and also for those already working in this insane industry but need some perspective and much more. It’s called Unsolicited Music Advice and you can check it out below and it will direct you to a substack page and if you could PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! IT’S FREEEEEEE
http://www.unsolicitedmusiadvice.com
The other project I’m very excited about is my own music lessons portal! I started http://www.lessonswithdemian.com with the goal of demystifying rhythm and percussion instruments and you can take all sorts of courses there. The tambourine course is FREE and anyone can take it, at any level, and all you need is a tambourine. Since it’s free you could also check it out and give me your opinion.
http://www.lessonwithdemian.com
Thanks!
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WTF is Block by block?
I don’t mean that in a dismissive way nor am I trying to disrespect whatever initiative this is (or isn’t) but it just feels like suddenly my algorithm is filled with people reacting to whatever that is and I’m so confused.
Admittedly I do not consume all Arsenal Women content. I only follow a handful of players (Beth, Steph, Katie and Leah) and don’t have any notifications etc. I miss a lot of info and I’m sure lots of clothing lines go by and I don’t even know about them wink wink. To be honest I haven’t even watched the documentary about the Champions League yet but that’s because I think I’ll get way too emotional and I don’t know if I have the minerals to deal with that right now.
Anywaaaaaaaaaay, from what I gathered many people are saying it’s a fan’s initiative, organic and spontaneous and others say it is something more artificial and planned by the club. Either way I don’t really have an opinion about where it comes from…
Whatever needs to happen for the girls to have as loud and voluminous support at home or away is something that I support. I don’t really care how it starts as long as they are happy and they feel like its something special that sets our club apart from any other one and at the same time it empowers the players to do their jobs better and make every away match feel like a home one. For that reason I’m super proud of our fan base.
I do have to say that I have some apprehension surrounding these type of planned things such as North London Forever, and if you’ve read this blog before you’ll know how much I dislike that song in many ways and how good I think is in others.
I did watch this video that I think helped me understand some stuff but I don’t really know how accurate this is and if any of you would like to share your thoughts and opinions please do so
thoughts?
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