I’m not going to lie, when I saw the Arsenal Women travelling squad to come to Melbourne, I was slightly disappointed not to see a few names in there, but when I finally got in front of our women to watch them train, it all made sense. Even though there were experienced senior players, mixed with young academy girls, you couldn’t even tell the difference and I think that says a lot about how Arsenal are building as a club from the bottom to the top.
I’ve got a very tactical mind and when I watch football I try notice the little things, how players react to certain things, how they carry themselves and how well they work with their teammates, because for me, things like that can mean more than just quality, and the way our senior women helped build our younger players at training was amazing.
What really stood out to me was the togetherness and what a trip like that would have done for the confidence of the young girls in the team. Being able to play with and learn from such talented players must be a huge advantage, when you’re young and trying to break into the first team. I think a lot of those younger girls made their case to Jonas Eidevall and has left him with a lot to think about for next season.
When asked about the young academy girls after the Melbourne trip, Eidevall said:
“It’s been a great experience coming to Melbourne. We’ve had fantastic fan engagement both in the training session yesterday and also at the game today, and I think from a performance perspective it was really nice to see a team play that really had a mixture of experience and youth.“
“I think the team as a whole did well, but it’s really really nice to see young players coming on and making such good performances today. They were brave, fearless and qualitative. Big kudus to them but also to the work of our academy and academy manager. James Honeyman. and under-21 coach Elliot. I think it shows that they’re doing a lot of good things, and it showed that the players are ready for the opportunity tonight.”
I think we must give a lot of credit to how the club is being run recently, and the opportunities the club is giving the younger players to come through. Arsenal feels like a one club team, from the women, to the men, to the academy. It feels like they’re all working towards one goal and that’s to get Arsenal back to being one of the most successful clubs in the world and you don’t get that feeling from many other clubs.
What’s your thoughts Gooners?
Daisy Mae
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