Category Archives: JW Diaries

JW Diaries: Day 1 in Singapore

1 Reply

Having touched down in Singapore after a 14 hour flight at 7am, today as ever here, the first thing you notice is the heat; It is extremely hot and sticky!

A quick cab ride to our hotel ends in disappointment that we can’t check in until midday; meaning that no shower and wearing the same cloths for a few more hours.

This gave me the opportunity to go to the stadium and pick up our sets of pre-ordered match tickets.

After checking in, showering and a hours sleep, it’s a drink in the hotel bar and at £13 a pint there was just the one!

The Arsenal hotel was only a 5 minute walk away, with the team out at their training camp, we had a chat with some friends working for the club.

Camped outside the hotel there was around 30 locals waiting for the team to return hoping to get photos and autographs, all have been successful!

I was hoping to have a few words with our CEO Ivan Gazidis especially with the speculation coming out from the UK with a possible move to Milan, he was out watching the training; a better opportunity awaits tomorrow.

The story about Gazidis joining AC Milan as their CEO is simply not news out here in Singapore. Likewise yesterdays news about Alisher Usmanov exploring the sale of his 30.04% Arsenal stake.

Whilst in the team hotel, we ordered another beer; Two bottles of the familiar locally brewed ‘Tiger Beer’ came to a staggering £21 – ouch!

In the evening, we ventured to the Bar used by the Singapore Supporters Club, Five Square, probably the biggest bar I’ve ever seen outside of the UK! Again drinks were unsurprisingly expensive, on top of the menu price you have to pay 7% tax and 10% service charge even when you don’t use the waitresses!

Back in bed by 1am; tomorrow brings another trip to the team hotel for a ‘Fan Party’ and hopefully some news direct from our CEO!

JW

JW Diaries: A day in the sun

1 Reply

My first four matches of the 2018/19 season have resulted in 4 wins with 24 goals scored and 2 goals conceded; a very satisfactory start under the new regime at our Club.

The first three matches were played at our academy ground, Hale End based just off the North Circular Road near Walthamstow. Whilst the was no sighting of our new Head of Academy Per Mertesacker, apparently in Germany on Club business, there as plenty of talk that he has certainly already influenced our schoolboys both on and off the pitch.

I was told that the talk which Per gave recently in the well-publicised event at the Emirates with all the academy players, parents and staff was every emotional. Per spoke about his own anxieties of being a footballer throughout his career and how he overcame them.

Per was very honest and open, giving the assembled audience an insight of his “limited, natural football ability” but was able to supplement his shortcomings with hard work, determination and a desire to succeed; he explained how he made the big time over some players, who had a higher football ability but lacked desire – truly inspirational stuff!

After my second match I drove over to Piebury Corner on Holloway Road to attend an Arsenal photographic exhibition held by the excellent OpAa people who are Gooner friends of mine. They hold this event every year making money for good causes. This time round it was even more special as one of the organisers mums had recently passed away. Over £2,000 was raised on the night for the Pulmonary Fibrosis Trust who looked after John Cs mum during her final days.

Following an academy match on Saturday morning, I made a quick dash to Meadow Park, Borehamwood, arriving with plenty of time before kick-off. After a quick pint and handing out tickets, I unusually got into the ground 45 minutes before the start, wanting to see who was playing for us and how we were warming up.

I’m sure many of you know, Meadow Park is the home ground for the Arsenal Women and U23 teams as well as many U18 cup ties being played there. Arsenal have an excellent relationship with Boreham Wood; we have helped to fund the West Stand, new flood lighting, dug outs as well supplying ground staff to ensure that the pitch is to a very high standard.

Once I managed to get the teamsheet, I was able to see as expected, it was an extremely strong line up and there was to be a completely different team in the second half. Whist I have seen Arsenal score as many as 16 goals in reserve and academy matches, it’s not often the first team score 8.

I know most will think ‘it’s only Boreham Wood’ but the way we went about the match was professional in the extreme. I have been to pre-season friendlies where we went through the motions and gave the impression that the players didn’t want to be there, which as well as being unprofessional, it also short changes those that pay good money and often travel long distance to attend.

Those days seem to be well and truly over, the sun was shining, we had second row seat facing the sun, there was plenty of red faces with my arms still stinging! I’m sure, every one of the 3,000 plus Arsenal fans in the 3,500 capacity crowd, went home happy.

As we know, Unai Emery is still finding his feet and although it was hard to predict the starting formation to be used once the real season starts, the team worked hard and we were worth the 8 goals scored. I was informed in the bar after the game that the ‘first half’ team went straight into one of the two coaches and were taken back to London Colney for further training!

This week will see me watching a few more academy matches as well as an unlikely but possible, short trip to Germany for a match. A lot of my week will be packing two suitcases for my trip to Singapore and a separate trip to Dublin/Stockholm, arriving back to Gatwick at 4pm on a Monday, then flying to Dublin at 8am on the Tuesday, hence the early packing! It’s hard work this pre-season malarkey, but someones got to do it!

Unfortunately, my extra day in Dublin means that I will be missing an U23 friendly against AFC Hornchurch on the Tuesday evening – c’est la vie!

JW

JW Diaries: Planning Pre-Season

2 Replies

Back in the early 80s when I first started attending pre-season friendlies outside of England, there was very little information provided as to who or where we were playing, with getting there even more problematic. Sometimes the Arsenal programme provided vague info, but usually it meant a closed season trip to the old Travel Club office at Highbury to find out.

Today it’s a completely different story, as always, Arsenal travel around the globe, information is obtainable and nowadays it’s easier to book a pre-season tour to Indonesia, Vietnam and Japan than it was to Scotland back in 1980!

Gone are the days when we booked 2 or 3 weeks in a beautiful, but sleepy village like Bad Waltersdorf high up in the Austrian mountains, working out who we are playing, how we are getting there and where some of the locations are, there were times where we made it up as we went along!

In December 2015, the Club announced a pre-season Tour to Australia taking place in July 2017, some 19 months beforehand. For this to happen, it meant that Arsenal would have been planning this at least 6 months previous with contracts signed before making it official, the China leg wasn’t announced until February 2017 making it impossible to book the whole tour until after this date. When this happened, the Sydney hotel was booked early, but travel was impossible when we could be playing in say Asia, before or after these dates.

The good thing about the long-haul destinations, as well as most European ones, is that prices don’t go up as they do for Europa or Champions League matches.

Usually, you can work out dates and preliminary schedules before all matches are announced; normally, once you know when the Premier League officially starts, the weekend before is held back for a possible Community Shield appearance and before that it’s Emirates Cup weekend. This time round, I knew there was no Emirates Cup due to building works at the Stadium and following a 3rd round FA Cup defeat, there was going to be no trip to Wembley.

As I’m sure you all know, this season we travel to Singapore, Dublin and Stockholm. I was made aware of these matches in December with confirmation of Singapore in February 2018 and the two matches in Europe later.

Soon after I booked my trip to Dublin and Stockholm, the Singapore trip was officially announced; my expectation was that Arsene Wenger would be touring once again as manager and my hope was that this was to be his last time.

On Friday 20th April 2018, Arsenal announced that Arsene would be leaving the Club at the end of the season after 22 years, whilst I was surprised, with the announcement, the news wouldn’t affect Arsenals or my pre-season plans.

Before the end of the season, the Club also announced our annual pre-season friendly against Boreham Wood, they stated that this was to be an Arsenal XI which would normally mean either the reserves, the youth team or a mixture of both. It now looks like Saturday’s ‘opener’ will be made up of first team players who did not make it to the World Cup.

Soon after the equally surprising news of the new Head Coach, my Singapore trip was booked up, therefore my First Team pre-season preparations were complete.

Academy, Youth, Reserve and Women pre-season fixtures start to arrive and where possible, these are fitted in around my first team activities!

With the new season ahead of us, my aim is to write updates of the matches I attend following The Arsenal around the world; I won’t be writing match reports – there are plenty who do this, regardless of if they are in attendance or not – I will try to give you an insight into my world.

I will also be writing a diary for my trip to Singapore, which I hope will be published daily, bearing in mind the time differences.

Whatever happens this season, there are exciting times ahead and it’s a privilege to be able to support and follow the greatest Football Club on the planet.

JW