A very subjective look into AWFC

by Demian Arriaga

PODCAST

  • That kit tho

    Yesterday’s pre season match in DC was pretty interesting, to say the least. I didn’t particularly find it very interesting or thoroughly informative for that matter but there were a few things that stood out to me that are worth talking about with the biggest and most important of all being the debut of the third kit.

    I can’t explain to you how hideous I find the current away kit. Obviously it’s all a matter of opinion and there are no right on wrong ones, but that second kit is just about the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen and it sucks that we’re gonna have to see it so often. It’s truly awful to me and the more I see the girls use the kit they wore yesterday, the better. The Stella kit was one I also found ugly as hell until I saw one in person and I changed my mind and there was also the added value and aura of it being a bespoke kit for the women’s squad and I truly wish something like that was done again.

    There are not many things I enjoy more in life than watching Leah, Kim, Katie and Beth play football on the same pitch together. So for that fact alone yesterday was good? But like I said before, I wasn’t enthralled and didn’t see anything exciting other than Kuhl’s vision and strength, and she also seems a foot taller… and Kafaji was really, really good.

    Of course its a friendly and not everything is going to be perfect and not every player is gonna be fully fit and ready to go but with a few matches coming up very soon, the sooner we know, as fans, what to expect on the pitch the better for our anxiety and for our expectations and assumptions.

    I haven’t heard any updates on Manu and hope she’s ok and without trying to sound ungrateful or rude, I’m excited to see Daphne because she’s my favorite keeper in the world and I can’t get over the fact that she plays for us and of course she has to play in order to play for us haha.

    What I saw yesterday was basically a continuation of the predictable and pragmatic way the current manager has decided this team’s identity is. With that said, let’s see what happens next match against Chelsea and I’m also curious to know how they line up and how active their new players are, etc.

    But going back… imagine if we had a better manager, someone actually good who would energize and unite the fanbase and players. It’s not much to ask for because it’s what we deserve and I’m here to tell you that if you feel the current manager is what we deserve, you are wrong and you deserve better.

    Can’t wait to this damn season to start.

    d ❤

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  • First 45 in 45

    In 3/4 of an hour we will finally see our girls play again. The lineup is out and even thought I have my opinions about it, I don’t think they are strong enough nor are they interesting enough to go on about them. I’m just happy that Arsenal Women are back and that we get to see and not just speculate about things.

    There are a few things that I’m looking forward to and literally zero of them have to do with the current manager’s pre or post press conferences. I’m so over his rehearsed corporate rhetoric that listening to him just gets me in a bad mood.

    What I’m actually looking forward to is seeing how sharp Leah is. I want to see where Kim plays as we don’t have Lia Walti in the team and this is the most important position to me. I would love to see Katie play alongside Little I’ve explained a million times on here before. Most likely it’ll be Kuhl deeper with Kim and Frida on either side.

    Another thing I’d like to see is not just Beth Mead playing but I would also love to see her play freely and be allowed to switch flanks.

    But if there’s ONE thing that I would single out that I would really like to see I have to say that it would be long range shots. Shooting from outside the box like McCabe and Nobbs would do multiple times per game. We need so much more of that it’s not even funny. And also its a good strategy against low blocking teams and you’d expect the current manager to have sorted that out by now.

    And actually I’m gonna go back to Kuhl. I’ve always liked her and I think she is an incredible player and should’ve gotten a run in the team as I think she’s better than Pelova and with love, I don’t care what anyone thinks about that. She is better. 😉

    Gonna go make a smoothie and enjoy the match.

    d ❤

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  • We’re getting close

    Every single day leading up to the start of the season feels like it lasts longer and longer. I for one cannot deal much longer with the anticipation and anxiety that a fresh campaign brings and this particular off season has been the toughest one to deal with for me personally because I am torn between expecting incredible things and also realizing that we have a ceiling as a team because of the current manager and his lack of ability, empathy and just aura.

    I wish I could tell you that I’m super confident and that I think we’re gonna win the league but I just don’t feel that way and I didn’t feel that way last year again because of the current manager and some of the players he chose time and time again, which never filled me with anything other than doubt and concern but alas, a new season brings new hope and I would love it if the current manager proves me wrong. I would love nothing more than that, trust me.

    I’m interested to see what the lineup will be just because. I know these friendlies are just symbolic but maybe it will give us an idea as to who plays where, for how long and by this I mean that we’re getting close to seeing Foord play both matches. But seriously, although I talk about her having a poor last couple of seasons, there’s no doubt she has talent and drive and is a total professional. But all these things are irrelevant when you are exhausted and the reality is that she needed to be benched much more often or rested or whatever you wanna think about.

    Last season the current manager chatted about “starters” and “finishers” and so many people bought into that theory. And the same people never held him accountable when he brought those finishers in the 86th minute. Where are they now? Where were they then? I have a clue as to where they are but that’s another conversation for another day.

    Like I always say: I am always optimistic and confident when we have Beth, Leah, Steph, Kim, Lia, Katie, Emily and Stina.

    I can’t NOT be confident. Of course, I know how contradicting it all is and that’s the beauty of the sport, of being a fan and of art in general and to me football is art.

    d ❤

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  • Just go to the show

    This might not start as an Arsenal Women post but I’m sure I’ll make my way around and end up chatting about them but… some things can’t be left unsaid and you might be a person that needs to hear what I’m about to say and since I haven’t talked about it in a while I figured I would address it.

    For those people in London that are questioning if they should go to see Taylor Swift… the only real answer is YES.

    Go to the damn show.

    It’s perfect. Everything about it. You will regret not going, years down the road.

    These tours happen once. Not “once every generation”… nothing like this has ever happened. This is a one off. This is the tour of tours.

    Go to the damn show.

    Obviously be smart but if you can afford it, even the “worst” tickets this is a unique experience and I encourage you to live it and enjoy it and be part of it all, even if you are starting at a column and can’t see her at all except on a screen. The energy and vibe you will get is unlike anything else.

    Buy the ticket.

    Go to the damn show.

    One of the many regrets I have in life is never going to Highbury and I have plenty of chances since 1996 until it was torn down. I could’ve gone but never did.

    Since 2019 I wanted to see AWFC play at Borehamwood and I couldn’t for several reasons, and trust me I tried but a certain boss of mine had other plans and I had to cut my trip short and little did I know that this was probably the last chance I had because now the girls will be playing at The Emirates.

    This is kinda similar but it’s not. You only have 2 or 3 more chances to see Taylor in London.

    Go to the damn show.

    Imagine there are 3 matches left at Borehamwood.

    Go to the damn show and think of me when you hear Cruel Summer.

    d ❤

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  • Two more goodbyes

    Ouch. To see Cloe and Teyah go basically on the same day is pretty sad to see and there are so many reasons why and beyond going into each of those reasons I can’t start this podcast without the disclaimer that I will be getting very passionate and might say a thing or two that I shouldn’t and I’ll try my best to be civil.

    To start, why can’t clubs send managers on loan? FFS I’m so exhausted of the current manager and it is COMICAL that he couldn’t get the best out of a player like Cloe. Its so telling of his shortcomings and bravo, only he can get a player to go from 72 goals to coming in the last 4 minutes of matches.

    Now, let’s assume that she wants to leave for personal reasons, to be closer to Canada, to do whatever… that is irrelevant to the reality that is that our manager barely played her and basically never ever started her because of his obsession and “loyalty” (?) to Caitlin Foord, and that is not a dig at her but Jesus H what the actual fuck did Cloe have to do to get a run in the team?

    What is clear to me, and has been for years is that the manager has absolutely no clue what he’s doing. And furthermore, he is so far from an Emma Hayes it’s ridiculous and it’s very unfair of me to compare him to her but my point is that this is what we deserve. That’s what the players deserve.

    A manager that believes in them, that energizes them, a manager that speaks about them like Emma speaks about Horan and a manager whose players speak about him as anyone that has played under Emma and many others speak about them.

    We are facing what I think is the most important season in years and the main reason is because every other team around us is stacking up with proven winners top to bottom and I don’t think we are and I don’t mean the players… I mean “the top” part. Chelsea have a winning coach, again, and Lucy Bronze among many other purchases. City? do I even need to go there? etc etc etc.

    I think it’s normal to be very Arsenal centric but we are getting left behind due to this current manager’s vision who nobody understands because he buys players and doesn’t play them or tells us we need to invest in the future and sends every player out on loan and overplays overhyped players who end up getting injured and its just a mess.

    I’m getting too dark and I need to shift… so lets just talk about Teyah for a minute and wish her the best and I actually think she is good enough to play for us RIGHT NOW but alas, another loan spell. London City are doing very special things so I’m happy that she’s gonna play there with Asllani and Ruesha and I know for a fact that their project is very much respected by so many people.

    Friends, I’m just zapped today and I just can’t stand this situation at the moment, just being totally honest with you.

    We FINALLY had incredible players to rotate in attack and we let Cloe go. BUT, I can only hope for the best and trust that people know what they are doing right? And then again I remember that it’s the same people that gave Viv away on a FREE.

    Again, WE GAVE THE BEST FORWARD EVER FOR FREE TO A RIVAL.

    It’s all so weird

    d ❤

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  • Laura

    We all know her, we all love her, we all want her to succeed and be the happiest person she can possibly be. We know she deserves trophies, she deserves praise, she deserves an incredible season after her ACL injury. Laura has always been such a positive person, a humble one, and someone who is clearly beloved by the whole squad and of course by us, the fans.

    I always try to put myself in the players’s shoes and something came to mind. I was curious to know if Laura would rather have the competition of Emily Fox or Noelle Maritz. Let me explain… Noelle was really good and consistent for us but she wasn’t that much better than Laura all the time and I felt that Laura was actually a better option for a lot of the matches.

    You know I can’t stand to give our current manager credit but I think that he had a pretty good balance as it related to those two players and their tandem, obviously until her horrible injury derailed her progress and her season.

    Then Emily joined the club and has been absolutely lights out. I think the only thing I would like to add to her locker would be more goals and more shots in general but overall, Emily has not put a foot wrong and I think it’s not wild to say that she has been much better than Noelle in a few different ways, although I will say that Noelle has this controlled aggression and bite a la McCabe that I do feel its missing from the squad, but anyway…

    If you are Laura, what do you prefer? The “reachable” competition in Noelle or the insane level that Emily has proven to have. I really don’t know and I go back and forth between what I think I should choose and what I think people would like me to choose, if that makes sense. Like whenever I’m like: yes I will compete with Emily because she’s the best, i revert to… welllllll maaaaaaaaaaybe I start with the mellow challenge, no?

    However you look at it, Arsenal stand to win and benefit from this whole situation, if everything goes well and if the current manager manages the players in the way that they need to be managed, and that encompasses everything that they are as players, as people, as women, as trailblazers.

    I’m really hoping that we see a season with lots of rotation among all the positions and we do so with excellent players for each and not super young players with potential. There’s a time and place for that and I don’t see this season as being it. As a matter of fact I think this is the most crucial season we’ve had since I’ve been a fan. There’s so much on the line. More on that tomorrow…

    d ❤

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  • Cool, now buy a midfielder

    The expected transfer that we all heard about a couple of weeks ago has come to fruition. I have no idea who this player is, which is her best position, what her strengths are and all of that, but that’s not saying much. I’m not an expert on all players and I don’t really do much research on players we buy unless I know them before hand. From every clip I’ve seen we have just gotten ourselves a great player.

    I’m pretty sure I have seen Rosa play before because I have seen Hacken play before and she must have played, plus I have just seen some highlights from the latest CL campaign and I remember a couple of her goals. So, again, I think we got ourselves a player.

    Excitement is one of the emotions I feel. I’m very energized by this bit of transfer activity to be fair because it addresses the sale of Gio and to a degree, the uncertain present/future of her fellow swede Lina Hurtig. Also, if she is able to play on the wing it will allow for rotation with Beth and Caldentey. I do say Foord because I’m not someone who sees her as having a big role next season, because if last season is anything to go by then it’s time we move on, to put it mildly.

    Diversity is the squad is something we have spoken about in the past and I’m glad to see someone who is not the typical blonde, not that there’s anything wrong with that. As you might know, lol, Arsenal is a London club and it should represent the city of London and all it’s beautiful people.

    Caldentey in, Rosa in, Daphne in… all great but my biggest concerns were the midfield and the defense. And I know that sounds wrong because the main issue that the current manager could not solve was playing against low blocks which implies the forwards and midfielders to unlock it all. But my theory is that we just didn’t have the right players aside from not having the right manager, which we still don’t.

    The point is that we need more players. Kim and Lia are incredible but they need a break from time to time, and they can and will get injured and I just don’t see Frida and KCC as being enough cover. We need world class players, WORLD CLASS because we have world class players and it’s the way things need to be for Arsenal to continue being Arsenal.

    Apparently Chelsea are in for Bonmati… aka the best player in the world for many. Yeah, they aren’t thinking about 5 years from now and neither is City.

    d ❤

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  • 501

    Yesterday’s post ended with me bringing up the absolutely insane fact that it was my 500th post, meaning that today it’s post #501. This to me is wild on so many levels and even though it seems like I will be talking about me on this post as well, I promise you it’s really about you.

    The reason why I say this is because as much as I created this blog for me and or my growth and consistency and all of that, I didn’t just do it without care of the content itself and how it can affect you, the reader. I definitely do not condition what I write to what I think you might want to hear and that is because I respect you and I owe you honesty. Regardless if I’m right or wrong and whether you agree with me or not, I have to be responsibly open and honest because at the end of the day it’s what you deserve.

    This is something that I want to underline: just because I say I’m being honest doesn’t mean that my opinion is true or should be seen as that. Absolutely not. These are just my thoughts, feelings and opinions. I am open with that, whereas other content creators in football (and this happens TONS in the AWFC space) have also feelings and vibes just like I do, but they find stats and player comps to fit their narrative. It’s quite impressive actually.

    Kindly putting you, the reader, to a side, I have to express my gratitude to all the players at AWFC and of course the club as a whole. It has been such an incredible pleasure and creative exercise to write every single day about this super special group of players that keeps changing and evolving and I kinda regret no starting sooner but it would’ve been basically a DvD blog. The OG DvD aka the one true goat aka the player that we’re missing.

    What do I look forward to writing about in the next 500 posts? Ideally a WSL title, a new manager, more players coming in, statues for legends, maybe the first ever All Or Nothing for a women’s team, a CL title, Viv coming back, etc etc etc.

    I’m just like you though, blog or no blog, and I need the season to start soon, I wanna start waking up at 4am every weekend again and all of the amazing things that happen when Arsenal Women play.

    LFG

    d ❤

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  • She’s just a winner

    Emily Fox has been absolutely lights out. Of course the forwards for the USWNT will get lots of plaudits and rightfully so, and maybe I’m being extremely biased and seeing through arsenal tinted lenses, but Emily didn’t put a single foot wrong and had just about the most solid tournament of any single player I have seen in a very long time. I’m really impressed.

    I mean, she’s great at Arsenal but playing with her national team seems to have taken her to a whole new level. By that I’m of course implying that Emma Hayes is head and shoulders above our current manager and even though Emily has been outstanding I truly believe every single player, if the perform this way, can make our girls at AWFC win the damn champions league, but alas… the current manager is the current manager.

    But let me shut my negativity down for a moment, and focus on how amazing it was to see the video the club put out with a lot of the girls wishing Fox good luck in the final. It was lovely to see so much love and support, specially for someone who seems to be very private and to herself, yet she is clearly loved and supported by so many of the players. This makes me happy and proud.

    I hope she takes a lot of care of herself, rests a lot and does whatever mindfulness situation she needs to do because she has had one hell of a year, full of emotions that range from leaving to new country, playing for a new team, new sets of fans and of course winning the Olympics. It’s pretty damn impressive.

    Ironically, as a Venezuelan-american, I have no soft spot nor do I have any feeling of responsibility to support the USWNT, I actually rooted for Brazil and as much as I love Emma Hayes, I still rather see other teams win than any squad that has players that are outspoken about their disapproval of the LGBTQ+ community. That’s a whole different story altogether.

    Emily is a winner, there’s no doubt about that and she has come into a team of winners. Our world class squad are full of winners, full of trailblazers and incredible footballers, some of which are among the best to have ever done it and it makes me super proud of every single one of those women and I cannot wait for the reason to start.

    I will probably write more about this tomorrow but you are reading my 500th blog post. That is absurd and I cannot believe I have been able to do this, and it’s all thanks to YOU. Here’s to many more.

    d ❤

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  • Leah & Stacy

    One of my favorite things about, and certainly one of the main reasons as to why I watch women’s football is because of the intersection between the sport and activism. This is something that I have spoken about before with a few friends, specially recently and it seems like a never ending topic because there are so many heads to this beautiful beast.

    I had mentioned a few days ago that fandom brings with it a type of responsibility that is very sacred for some. Also, to a degree, not respecting that responsibility ends up manifesting in ways that are, albeit passive aggressive, kind of yucky and anti women.

    You cannot be a fan of women’s football and not be a fan of women and want them to truly succeed and be happy, so trolling players or being happy about their suffering can be seen as NOT being an actual fan. I’m not even talking “a true” fan and all that non sense, I’m Tal,ing about being a fan at all.

    A few days ago Leah posted a picture with several prominent women at a Nike event (I think) and one of those pictures shower her shaking hands with none other than Stacy Abrams who is without a doubt one of the most prominent women in recently socio-political times here in the USA, who among many things is responsible for helping black and POC to get out and vote. If you are interested you can click HERE and read a bit more about her.

    Among the cool things about that picture is that Stacy must have been told, either at length or briefly, about Leah and her accomplishments and just knowing that two women I admire and respect so much are not connected, is something very special and who knows? maybe they end up collaborating and meeting up more often and learning from each other.

    Leah is one of those people that always support black players and black social issue s and she clearly feels a duty to use her voice and her platform and that is brilliant to see. Among those reasons its because things like that tend to be contagious and it might impact younger players, and older ones too, to be more socially active.

    Now, I get that this wasn’t a meeting setup to see how Leah can help people vote in the USA, of course I know that. I’m not implying this meeting was one for social change and most likely it was just a coincidence that they were there, however, there are few more powerful things that when kind, powerful women work together, on and off the pitch.

    d ❤

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