Arteta praises Arsenal's "brilliant" support

A busy day at London Colney firing questions AWFC's new permanent boss Renee Slegers, Leah Williamson & Mikel Arteta who praises Arsenal's support after I ask him about the importance of the fans

Hello!

Happy Friday, after another busy day, but satisfying day covering Arsenal at the club’s training ground and HQ, London Colney.

One of my many aims when I started this Substack was to give you, the reader, a splash of insight into what it’s like to for a journalist to cover sport, day in day out, and to give you a little understanding of what goes on behind the headlines.

Today was a perfect day in that regard.

The final score after a hectic Friday was: one open training session, two press conferences and a ‘round-table’, all of which were hugely pleasurable to cover, for differing ways I’ll explain shortly, after a day that absolutely flew by.

It was good to fire a question at Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta today at London Colney, who told me the importance of the club’s support, praising them in his answer.

Open training

It was a busy start this morning, with the club announcing Arsenal Women had appointed Renée Slegers as permanent head coach, after such an excellent spell as interim boss, following the departure of Jonas Eidevall.

After that particular breaking news was shared, first on the on the agenda was to take in Arsenal Women’s open training session on the manicured turf of Colney, or the Sobha Realty Training Centre, as I never, ever call it in my newspaper missives.

It’s always fun to watch players going through their paces, in what, essentially is their workplace, a matter of yards from where the media are allowed to stand and observe.

Although, when I cast my mind back to when Mesut Oil used to sulk through Europa League opening training sessions at Colney during those dark, late Wenger-era days, it was a wonder the mercurial midfielder even bothered putting on his luxuriant snood back in the changing rooms, such was his abject lethargy when it came to the prospect of training in the cold.

Of course, you’ll never get any trade secrets - as the players simply warm-up, rather than work on any tactics - although seasoned hands can gauge potential issues, for example, during transfer windows, a missing player can make headline news. Ditto in terms of injury forcing players out of scheduled training. The flip side of that being the return of fit again members of the squad, which always creates a frisson.

However, today was simply about taking a look at the team’s first training session under new management, namely Slegers’ first training session as permanent Arsenal boss.

I’m glad to say spirits were high, with smiles all round - a change to the final days of Eidevall’s underwhelming reign which saw an unhappy squad underperform.

Smiles all round on Renee Slegers first day as permanent AWFC boss. CREDIT: @laythy29 at London Colney

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Mikel Arteta’s press conference

Next up was a walk back to the well-appointed media area at Colney, via, I noticed, a corner that will forever be Geordie Armstrong’s memorial area. I wanted to take a photo but I didn’t feel it was the right thing to do. Normally when I cover the men’s open training journalists aren’t taken that way, as we normally line up alongside the nearest pitch.

So, instead, in reverence I silently paid tribute to one of the greatest servants in Arsenal’s long and illustrious history.

(By the way, for my in-depth interview with the late legend’s wonderful daughter Jill Armstrong click here to watch our chat.)

I thought Arteta looked relaxed and upbeat during his Friday lunchtime press conference.

Sometimes, depending on the news, the Arsenal boss can occasionally be a tad downbeat, curt or even downhearted, during his weekly chat with the media.

But today was a good day, no doubt helped by the fact his side have now cut the gap to table toppers Liverpool to a mere four points - with Arnie Slot’s side’s game in hand set to be the Merseyside derby, at what will surely be a white hot Goodison Park next month.

It also helps that you’ve just won the North London derby of course.

Arteta is a throughly decent human being who cares with all his marrow about the club and doing the best job he can possibly do. And this week, that meant beating Spurs - so it was no wonder he was in fine spirits.

For my part, after having covered Nottingham Forest’s draw with Liverpool at a raucous City Ground, as well as Arsenal’s “sensational” - Arteta’s word not mine - win over Spurs at at equally raucous Emirates, I thought it would be a good time to ask him what he thought about the club’s support on Wednesday evening.

“Briliant,” Arteta shot back at me with a big smile, “brilliant.”

While I’m as happy as any other journalist to ask difficult questions, sometimes, say, after a North London Derby win, it’s just great to watch a good man simply answer a question, relaxed in the knowledge that there’s no agenda, no inherent criticism, no hidden traps lurking.

So Arteta continued to me, reflecting on the tremendous atmosphere generated by loyal Gooners at the Emirates against Spurs by saying: “I loved it.

He added: “I said it before, that’s in our hands. We can look and feel sorry about what’s happening with injuries or the referees, but what is in our hands, let’s make sure that we do it and I saw a different bite to our crowd, a different body language.

“We were on top of every ball, we created atmosphere with and without the ball and we had real purpose. We were screaming and going into every ball in a very different way and I must say that I loved it.

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Leah Is A Gooner

After Arteta’s presser had finished, myself and another journalist raced over to another room in Colney’s media complex, full of a number of very excellent journos, to hopefully catch the start of a round-table with a true Arsenal legend.

I’m referring to Leah Williamson of course. A league title winner, not to mention lifting a raft of other domestic trophies. And of course the only England captain who has lifted the European Championship.

We literally made it to the ‘round table’ by a couple of minutes.

By ‘round-table” I mean that an interviewee - ie Williamson - heads the table, and journalists around the table take turns to ask questions one by one. I love these type of interviews. Not least because you get to have an elongated Q&A session with very interesting sportspeople, if you’re lucky. Which is what Williamson most certainly is.

I won’t give away the topics we discussed - watch this space - but when it came to my questions I asked Leah to reflect on the changes at Arsenal Women, and in the women’s game since I first interviewed her back in 2017, when I was Arsenal reporter at the Islington Gazette newspaper.

It was fascinating to hear Williamson speak on the subject, and much more, including the growth of fan numbers supporting AWFC, back from the days when it seemed I would quiz former boss Joe Montemurro on whether it would ever be realistic to hope that the Emirates would one day host Arsenal Women. My that seems like a long time ago.

Watch this space for what Leah told me.

As an aside, it’s always absolutely brilliant to get a sense up close of just how much Leah Williamson loves - absolutely loves - Arsenal Football Club.

Leah Is A Gooner

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Renee In

Finally, it was back to the media theatre for Renee Slegers first press conference as Arsenal Women’s permanent head coach.

I’ve been advocating for Slegers’ appointment for a while now, as you can see just how much the players have responded to her management skills since the departure of Eidevall - whose rather stern and taciturn manner simply did not suit players of AWFC quality and achievements.

You could see the results immediately pick up after the unpopular Swede departed following that tumultuous week back in October when such a talented side were humiliated in Germany, 5-2 by Bayern Munich, prior to the demoralising 2-1 defeat by Chelsea at a half full Emirates where, literally, the writing was on the wall, when angry fans painted ‘Jonas Out’ along the Hornsey Road Arches.

And, after interviewing Slegers just before Christmas I was stuck by her emotional intelligence, and her inclusive leadership style.

Regular readers will know I am interested in the concept of ‘leadership’, crystallised after I studied the topic during my Masters.

So, it was no surprise that I asked Slegers to describe her style of leadership, her ethos and her principles as a leader. Again, watch this space for what she told me - suffice to say her intelligent, eloquent and in-depth answer deeply impressed me.

A good day all round.

See you at the Emirates for Arsenal vs Aston Villa on Saturday, and then at Meadow Park on Sunday to cover Arsenal vs Crystal Palace as the WSL resumes after its winter break.

Cheers,

Layth

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PS:

A very well done to Freddie Cardy for all his excellent coverage of Arsenal Women for the Gooner Fanzine - as our coverage continues to grow across various platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and of course Twitter.

So, why not take a look at some of Freddie’s - and the Gooner Fanzine’s excellent multi-media coverage of Arsenal Women - with big, big plans to follow this spring.

Freddie Cardy and yours truly clocking off after a busy but hugely enjoyable Friday at London Colney…see you at the Emirates and Boreham Wood this weekend, cheers