I turns out I was wrong when I said that Kelly Smith wouldn't go to the US. According to the BBC (it's kind of an oldish article), she's not the only one to go. Several of Arsenal's players are leaving. But they're not the only ones, including Kelly Smith, England's women's league will lose Karen Carney, Alex Scott (Aresnal), Anita Asante and Eni Aluko (Chelsea).

Local heroes: Kelly Smith on growing up in Garston, Watford: England's best female footballer was born in the Garston area of Watford in 1978. Now 30, Smith is expected to move to Boston in March to play in the United States' Women's Pro Soccer League (Guardian)I'm not sure she'll go. In the article/interview, which is quite good, she talks about how hard it was for her when she used to live in

A report by the Commission on the Future of Women's Sport which the BBC's Gordon Farquhar blogged about earlier this month points out that just 2% of media coverage on elite sport focuses on women. Now I first got into writing about football by following one of my best friend's journeys through the matches, tournaments and politics of women's football in Oxford.

From the Guardian:The script was followed to perfection as the England striker Kelly Smith, in her farewell Arsenal appearance before joining the professional American club Boston Breakers, hit a hat-trick as the Gunners swept to a 10th Premier League Cup triumph by 5-0 against Doncaster Rovers Belles in the women's Premier League Cup final at Scunthorpe.

This is exactly what we don't need. I know that we've got Arshavin and Cesc is supposedly coming back soon, and Eduardo is slowly getting back to match fitness. But, seriously, we need Theo. He's strong and fast, and we're not the same team without him. Sure, we can win things, but I really think he's that important to the team.

Yesterday was the women's FA Cup Final and as it was in my current hometown I decided to take a look out of curiosity as I must admit I know little about the women's version of the game.

The FA Cup final remains the highlight of the women's football calendar in the UK, with live BBC coverage it is the one day of the year in which the women's game comes to the attention of a mainly ambivalent general public.

Seriously, is there a bigger frakking joke of an organization on the planet than UEFA?

Apparently they have now come out and said that they will not be instituting a regular program of reviewing suspected acts of simulation for possible suspensions. So, basically, Eduardo gets suspended, and none of the other scores of players who have committed or will commit virtually identical acts will.

Morning all, as you might expect, being in the depths of the Interlull, things are a bit quiet.

The club has officially responded to Eduardo's two match ban, saying:

We strongly believe that the decision taken is deeply flawed and not based on any forensic review of the video evidence available.

The speculation presented in the Sun today is quite old news as Arsenalinsider informed you all of any likely impending Boardroom struggle back in July, when Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith was rumoured to have finally found a buyer for her shares. The 15.9% stake was always going to be the crucial holding in the final ownership direction, and there were only two players who were going to fight it out.

Sky Blue's presence in the final is a bit of a surprise as they just barely qualified for the playoffs. Of course, in a league of seven teams playing a fairly short season I'm not sure the standings mean all that much. They had a rocky season - they fired their coach at the start, and the next to take the job quit just a few weeks ago.

Who says we haven't won a trophy? Today we just have, yet again. While the men in red and white can't quite seem to get over the finish line in any competition so far, the Arsenal ladies today triumphed in FA Women's Cup. Sunderland were conquered 2-1 at Pride Park.
Vic Akers, the manager of the ladies has one game to go.

Um, I guess I could blame it on the fact that my teams have been shit this week. And also on the fact that I've been busy cleaning (my parents were here for the weekend) and now I've got this brand new bike, which will take up some time. It could also be that my Wii is finally hooked up again. Or that I just plane forgot to post.

Firstly, congratulations to the youth team who secured the FA Youth Cup last night at Anfield, winning the second leg of the final 2-1 and 6-2 on aggregate. Top work chaps, and well done to manager Steve Bould too.

Whilst we're on congratulations, let's all big it up for Vic Akers, who's standing down as Arsenal Ladies' manager after an amazing run of success.

Being a regular blogger is not as easy it would appear to be to those aspiring writers who write to me from time to time, wishing to become contributors. It is not just a case of putting your thoughts down on paper, it is often about informed comment within the context of our club.

If you haven't seen it already, Eboue scored a goal for Ivory Coast in an international friendly against Germany yesterday.

The goal was brilliant showing he may very well be the perfect striker: the strength of Drogba, the creativity of Henry, and the finishing of Owen. He's the complete package, folks.

That's how close it was we had two shots on target, they had one. So it goes we did an experiment with an experimental line up, and it didn't deliver. If it had, Wenger would have been the greatest genius of all time, the wonder kid, the inspiration of a generation of managers [...]