‘We want to win the league’: Arsenal’s new recruits ink in WSL success

Georgia Stanway looks at her arms and then down at her legs on day one of Arsenal’s pre-season. “As you can see, I’m covered in tattoos,” she says. “I only see the bare skin, the space, so I need to keep collecting more”.

Tattooing and being tattooed is her creative outlet, her way of expressing herself off the pitch. But seeing space is key to the 27-year-old England midfielder being exceptional on the pitch.

Stanway’s unveiling video, after her move from Bayern Munich, showed a delicate, cursive script reading “whatever the weather” tattooed on her arm. It was a bold statement to get the lyric from North London Forever, Arsenal’s anthem, etched into her skin before she has stepped on to the Emirates Stadium pitch in red and white. “It shows I’m going to give absolutely everything for this club. I want to hit the ground running , play my game, connect with my teammates, connect with the fans and look forward to an exciting future at the club.”

Stanway is emblematic of Arsenal’s summer of change, one of seven signings so far. Meanwhile, Lotte Wubben-Moy, a lifelong fan who joined Arsenal’s academy at 13, represents the core and culture that is a point of focus at the club. It is a culture players want to be a part of, so much so it leads to players getting a tattoo on day one of being there. “She has set a very high bar,” says Wubben-Moy, with a grin. “That’s Georgia. She goes all in and I like that.”

Wubben-Moy is ready to stake a claim in Arsenal’s starting XI after struggling to nail down a position in defence despite having performed exceptionally well when covering for injured players. “I’ve always felt ready,” says the 27-year-old. “When I get my moment, I deliver. Historically, as a club, we’re built on defensive solidity. If we have a solid defence, it allows us to create and score. That should be the stepping stone towards victories. So I will continue to contribute to the defensive solidity in whatever way, shape or form that is. But I want my spot”.

There was widespread recognition that Arsenal’s squad needed a revamp, that the age needed to be lowered and changes made if they were going to take the next step. That meant big names leaving, most notably Beth Mead and Katie McCabe. “They’re both absolute legends of the game and we have so much respect for them,” says Jodie Taylor, the former Arsenal striker who became the club’s technical director in January. “But we always knew this window was going to come with some changes.”

“Change is inevitable in women’s football,” says Wubben-Moy. “If you speak to a player and they don’t say they’re nimble, you’ve got someone that’s not built for the game. We’ve become a nimble team, a team that can move with the ebb and flow of women’s football.

“That’s not just within the playing group, it’s something replicated within the staff, the boardroom, the commercial team, the comms team. Everyone is so willing to move and to dictate what we want.

“If you’d asked me about change four or five years ago, I’d have been a bit intimidated, but now I know what to do and I’m part of the driver of it. The opportunity we have and that I see for us as a team, as a collective, is something that really excites me.”

Arsenal’s approach to Stanway’s recruitment was a contributing factor to her wanting to join the club. “Arsenal came in early doors,” she says. “I really enjoyed they were super loyal from the beginning and wanted me even when I wasn’t available. It’s nice feeling being wanted.

“The last four years in Munich were unbelievable, but I knew I wanted to take the next step and I felt at Arsenal there was an opportunity for me to be able to progress, to make my game better and to play with world-class players.”

Arsenal have done most of their business early, with Stanway joined by experienced internationals Selina Çerçi, Géraldine Reuteler, Ona Batlle and Misa Rodríguez, as well as young talents Lisa Baum and Isabella Damm. No major international tournament and seven signings in for day one of pre-season is a big boost for Renée Slegers and her coaching staff, particularly after two seasons of slow starts to domestic campaigns.

“The market is not easy, though, it’s constantly changing and the pool of elite talent is small and several clubs are fishing from it,” says Taylor. “You try and plan as much as you can, but you also have to be reactive in the market. We’re always trying to keep an eye on the future, but we have to be quite agile.

“We can talk about positional needs, qualities, ages and succession planning, but if a player’s not available or they just don’t exist, it can be like trying to fit square pegs and round holes. As well as looking at current needs and positional profiles, we talk a lot about our core style of play, but we also want to play with variety, be unpredictable and have different qualities in players too.”

The players that have come in have brought energy, says Wubben-Moy, who was on an emotional rollercoaster during Arsenal’s men’s Premier League and women’s Champions Cup winning parade, with the bus looping past Highbury Corner, where she filmed her contract renewal video, and past Islington town hall, where she got married to cyclist Tao Geoghegan Hart a few weeks later.

“I like to focus on what they’re entering, which is a culture that has been created by history, by players and staff that are the core of this team and who have all lived through the changes to different degrees: Kelly [Smith], Renée, myself, Leah [Williamson], Kim [Little], Jodie, too. We’ve been privy to lots of different things all of us are holding on to and releasing, in a healthy way, the things we know we need to. It’s efficient, we’re focused, we know what we do next.

“It’s like you’re cooking the most beautiful recipe and then you add the final small ingredients that make the marginal difference, that elevate, and you create something that’s beautiful and that you can relish and enjoy. That’s what we’re in the process of now with a beautiful long pre-season. I’m desperate to get it out of the way so we can then serve what we’re cooking to the fans and be like: ‘Let’s eat and we’ll all eat together for the whole year.’”

The average attendance of more than 34,000 fans for WSL games at the Emirates last season and the club’s pioneering history in women’s football, as well as Champions League win in 2025, are huge selling points, and all concerned at Arsenal want more, including a first Women’s Super League title since 2019.

“We’re in a great place,” says Taylor. “But we would have liked to have won more trophies last season and that is our huge ambition coming into this year. I’ll flat out say it: we want to win the league. We are an ambitious club and with the signings we’ve made we feel like we’re in a great place to do that.”

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