The Arsenal Women Journal – Happy New Year, folks!

Today at 08:50 AM

Hello, Arsenal Women aficionados!

I hope everyone had a wonderful time during the holiday season, and that everyone is ready and pumped for the second half of the season.

Not much happened since we last spoke, except for three promising youngsters being handed their first professional contracts.

Renée Slegers is still our interim head coach; potential candidate Casey Stone became the head coach of Canada national team and former boss Jonas Eidevall bounced back from his resignation by agreeing to take the helm at San Diego Wave FC. No permanent head coach yet and no candidates mentioned anywhere, which indicates that Renée Slegers might get the nod, I suppose.

Once again: is it by choice or by lack of valid candidates?

As of today, 15^th of January, no major news broke about Arsenal Women new signings or even potential targets, with Renée Slegers again very relaxed about how the club is handling the transfers window and very happy with the players already on the books at the Arsenal. A few youngsters might go out on loan to get valuable minutes, and Kathrine Kühl looks destined to join Everton on a permanent deal. That might prompt the club to bring in an extra body in midfield, although some alleged ITKs indicated that a "mystery winger" could be on her way from the US.

RENÉE'S WORDS

The freshly-crowned WSL manager of the month for December spoke to the press prior to the then-postponed FA Cup tie against Bristol City and promptly batted away any questions about her position.

Three answers stood out, though. When asked if her input was requested throughout the recruitment process and whether she would be interested in the permanent role, she seemed to hint at bigger decisions being made:

"I think that’s (the head coach input) important, but there are a lot of people working behind the scenes as well, with the technical committee, the recruitment department, and Clare, obviously. And there’s a direction that the club wants to go in, so it’s not only dependent on the head coach. There are many people involved, but I want to say that we’re very happy with the player group that we have at the moment as well […] If we want the players to be in good hands, we want the right person for the club and the players to drive this forward, but I’m very happy with what we’ve achieved so far. But again, the collective responsibility has been key to our successes lately. So, it’s not dependent on one person, what's given us this much success is how the players have been stepping up, and also other staff. So very happy with that, with how everything has been."

Then, after being asked the same question about the recruitment of the permanent head coach, she dropped a puzzling answer:

"The club is in this process. It's happening behind the scenes. As soon as they have something to present, it will be presented but I won't be the one presenting this."

There are multiple ways of reading into Renée's words, but my understanding is that she could accept the job if she was given assurances about the structure in place, namely her staff and the core of players available to her. At times, she sounds distant from the club and the whole recruitment process; at other times, it sounds like she is actively working on it.

There's still a sense of reluctance in her words though, as if she wasn't sure about taking the main role, but also a feeling of Renée being part of a sort of committee that is evaluating candidates.

It's not easy to read through the lines, because everyone seems relaxed about this whole situation, much like someone who knows that decisions have been made and a plan has been implemented, but on the other hand we don't have any sort of clarity about the "who" and the "when", which is troubling, at this stage.

Then, questioned about potential transfers, she remained very coy on both incomings and outgoings:

"[…] we’re very happy with the players in the building. I think they’ve been performing well, and everyone is trying to push and get the best out of themselves and out of each other. So I think we’re in a really good place with the squad at the moment, with the players that are here. So, very happy with that, but I think a big club like us, we’re always looking to take the next step and are always active, but at the moment, there will be very little movement. We’re very happy with the players in the building." 

Nothing new under the sun, then: if anyone goes, she will be replaced; if a very special opportunity comes up, the club will make moves. There is still time before the window closes, but as things stand, we should not expect anything sensational happening around the squad.

LESSON LEARNED

The winter break was supposed to be over last weekend, but the postponement of our FA Cup encounter against Bristol City extended it for another week. This means that Renée Slegers and her staff had extra days to work with the players, prepare for the second half of the campaign and fine-tune the tactical, technical, mental and physical details that might get us the all-important "marginal gains" in our quest for silverware.

The league seems gone already, although the race for the second place took an unexpected turn right before the break, but we're still in for the FA Cup, the Champions League and the League Cup.

Should we get past Bristol City in the FA Cup, we will host London Lionesses at Meadow Park in the following round in a rather favourable draw; in Europe, we are yet to know our next opponent, with the quarterfinals draw scheduled on February 7^th, while in the League Cup we will try to defend our trophy with a difficult away trip to Brighton.

Unfortunately, the postponement of our match against Bristol City has a downside too: the game has been rescheduled on January 29^th, with the fifth round to be played in the weekend of February 9^th (if we get there), which means that we will play seven games in twenty-nine days between Crystal Palace at home on January 19^th and Tottenham Hotspur at home on February 16^th , playing a game every four days, in average.

During this period, we will travel to Stamford Bridge three days after playing away at Brighton in the League Cup quarter-final, and we will visit Manchester City four days after hosting Bristol City in the rearranged FA Cup fixture.

Needless to say, we will need our full squad and everyone at their best to navigate the longest block of games Renée Slegers managed so far, assuming she will still be our coach by then. Long-term absentees like Lia Wälti, Victoria Pelova and Amanda Ilestedt will be asked to pitch in, while inconsistent performers like Rosa Kafaji, Lina Hurtig, Laia Codina, Laura Wienroither and Beth Mead will need to step up and contribute to their true levels.

Also, some youngsters might get a chance here and there, with Vivienne Lia, Freya Godfrey and Katie Reid the most likely to be called upon.

NEXT'S UP

As said, we are entering a tricky period of games in quick succession, so starting well is going to be very important. On Sunday afternoon, Renée Slegers and her players host Crystal Palace at Meadow Park and will try to put pressure on Manchester City, scheduled to play their city rivals later in the evening.

The Manchester derby looks very juicy, with both teams separated by one point and Arsenal sandwiched between City in second and United in fourth.

By winning our home game against bottom-of-the-table Crystal Palace, who have lost seven of their ten league matches, we will have the luxury of sitting down and watch both Manchester teams fighting each other. Given that they cannot both lose, we should probably root for a draw to get into the second place alone.

Elsewhere, Chelsea will probably obliterate West Ham to keep the existing gap at seven points, so I don't have much hope for an unexpected present from Viviane Asseyi & Co.

First and foremost, we need to win our home game, though. The hope is that Alessia Russo didn't loose her magic touch in front of the goal during the break, and that our defensive line keeps those clean sheets coming. We have enough quality to breeze past Crystal Palace, but our endemic issues with low-blocks will be tested throughout the afternoon; an early goal would be more than welcome, of course, but patience might be our most important weapon, on Sunday.  

Speak to you soon!

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