All tagged Arsenal
Rivalries in sport and in business are fueling mechanisms.
They spur us on to stay alert, work harder and innovate more deeply, to ensure we stay ahead of our competition. More often than not, that’s defined as one or two specific competitors. In that respect, competitive rivalries are a good thing - they keep us focused on the end goal and make us better. The greatest rivalries are the stuff of legend.
The idea of ‘secrets’ is a funny thing. I’m not talking about secrets in a personal sense but in a work related sense. Our tactics, our approaches, our tools and knowledge. Our so-called secret sauce that ‘helps’ us achieve our professional goals.
We tend to hold these secrets dearly, with the idea that they are indeed unique to how we operate and what we do. And then the idea that if they were to get out, then our ability to achieve is doomed.
The last time Arsenal (the English football team I support) won the Premiership trophy was in 2004. It was the greatest title triumph in the history of British Football as that Arsenal team went the entire season undefeated - a feat no other team in modern football has achieved before or since.
It was the icing on the cake of years of continuous success and the expectation of us fans was that it was only a matter of time before we would win the trophy again.
Reiss Nelson is a 20 year old up and coming English footballer, who plays as a Forward for my club, Arsenal FC.
On Saturday, he came on as an attacking substitute in the 82nd minute of the 2020 Community Shield game, the traditional season opener when the prior season’s League Champions (Liverpool this year) play the FA Cup winners (Arsenal). At Full Time, the score was tied at 1-1 and so the game went to penalties.
So, if I’m honest, I’ll admit that I’d settled into a very managed emotional pattern when it came to how I engaged with football (soccer for you non-English speakers) and specifically my team, Arsenal Football Club.
Arsenal would play their games and I’d watch, but in a very managed, somewhat detached way (most of the time). If we won, that was great and it gave me a nice feeling, but it wouldn’t send me over the moon.
This month's podcasts focuses on the mental aspect of how we work - on the why we get started, how we get caught in ourselves and the mental mindset needed to succeed.
In this episode, I talk about confidence, how it's difficult to gain but easy to lose. I also spell out the key behaviors, thought processes and tactics we should deploy to get it back. Our futures depend on it.
The past month or so has been a terrible one for Arsenal supporters like me.
We knew this would be a transition year and hence (we believed) we’d managed our expectations accordingly. But as the end of the season approached, we found ourselves in pole position to do something fantastic (for where the team was, anyway). We had a real shot at finishing 3rd in the league, thereby securing a coveted spot in the Champions League (very necessary to attract the best players), and we had the chance to bring home a European trophy, having reached the Europa League Final.
Sunday morning, I woke up to watch the Arsenal-Spurs game, famously known as the North London Derby. It’s a game where form goes out the window and these two arch-rivals go all out for bragging rights as to who is the best team in North London.
It’s a game that hasn’t gone our way in recent years and as I anticipated the stress and emotional rollercoaster I would go through over the next couple of hours, I briefly debated staying in bed and waking up when it was all over. To just not have to deal with it all.
Arsene Wenger said this in response to Alex Ferguson’s comment that his team were the best in the Premier league back in the early 2000’s.
They weren’t. (Editor’s note: possible writer’s bias at play here.)
But the fact is, that people really do think that. And it’s not an unnatural or even irrational thought to have.
Last Friday, I woke up and flipped open my email to a thunderbolt of a message from my colleague and fellow Gooner, Gavin:
BREAKING NEWS: WENGER LEAVING AT END OF SEASON
