Mariona Caldentey Thinks Arsenal Are Ready. I Think She’s Right.

There was one interview this week that I found myself reading again and again. It wasn’t because it contained any great tactical revelations about where Arsenal might be heading this season, and it certainly wasn’t because Mariona Caldentey suddenly announced that we were going to win every competition on offer. It was because of four very simple words she used.

“Now is our time.”

That’s what Mariona told Joe Bradshaw in her interview with the BBC, and the more those four words have marinated in my brain, the more I’ve realised they perfectly capture where this Arsenal team, and we as supporters, find ourselves as we head into a brand new season.

One of the reasons I love listening to Mariona speak, whether she’s giving an interview on her own or sitting alongside Renée Slegers in a press conference, is that she isn’t somebody who deals in hype. She’s never loud, never extravagant, and she doesn’t seem remotely interested in creating headlines for the sake of it. Everything she says feels measured, thoughtful and quietly confident. I think that’s one of the reasons she’s become such an important leadership figure in this dressing room in such a short space of time.

When Mariona says, “Now is our time,” I don’t hear arrogance. I hear belief. I hear conviction. And there’s a really important difference between those things.

Arrogance says we’re going to win because we’re Arsenal. It says we’re entitled to win because we’ve got a fantastic squad and a raft of exciting new signings. Belief says something completely different. It says we’ve done the work, we’re continuing to do the work, we’ve learned from the disappointments, we’ve grown together, and now let’s see where that journey takes us.

When you look at this squad, it’s actually quite difficult not to understand why that belief exists.

If you think back to just eighteen months ago, Renée Slegers had only recently taken over on a permanent basis after Jonas Eidevall’s departure. The team was still trying to rediscover its identity after such a significant period of change. New relationships had to be built, new ideas absorbed, and there was real uncertainty about what Arsenal Women were going to become.

Fast forward to today and everything feels completely different.

This is now a squad that knows exactly what it feels like to win the biggest prize in European club football. It’s a squad that has arguably been strengthened more in the last twelve months than at any point in recent years. Georgia Stanway has arrived. Smilla Holmberg, Lisa Baum and Misa Rodríguez all joined the club. Chloe Kelly has been retained permanently following her original loan move from Manchester City. Selina Cerci is having what looks to be a great pre-season. Geraldine Reuteler is really settling into life in North London. Ona Batlle will show us exactly why she’s one of the finest full-backs in Europe.

When you stand back and look at the group as a whole, this doesn’t feel like a team that’s still being assembled; it feels like a team that’s ready.

And that’s an important shift, not just for the players and coaching staff, but for us as supporters too. Over the last few seasons we’ve spoken endlessly about transition, rebuilding, new managers, new signings and giving people time to settle. I don’t really think those conversations apply anymore.

This Arsenal side has reached the point where it’s perfectly reasonable to expect them to compete for every trophy available.

Notice I said compete, not win.

Because football simply doesn’t work like that. You can do almost everything right and still lose a cup final. You can dominate a match for ninety minutes and lose because the opposition score with the only shot they manage on target. That’s football. It’s why we love it and why it drives us completely nuts at the same time.

But what I do expect is that Arsenal will still be part of every major conversation right until the closing weeks of the season. That’s where a club of this size belongs, where a squad of this quality belongs.

Something else really struck me from Mariona’s interview as well. She sounds completely settled now, not just at Arsenal but in England.

I don’t think we should underestimate what a huge move it was for her to leave Barcelona, the club she’d known her entire career, and start again in a different country with a different language, different teammates, a different style of football and completely different expectations. Even somebody with Mariona’s experience needed time to adapt to all of that.

Now, a couple of seasons later, she looks completely at home. She understands the league. Her teammates understand her. They’ve developed real friendships away from football, something that’s obvious from their social media and the way they interact with one another. Perhaps that’s another reason why she speaks with such quiet confidence now. She knows exactly what this group is capable of because she experiences it every single day.

I couldn’t help smiling when I read those four words because they reminded me of something we’ve spoken about a lot here on Trailblazers over the last few weeks.

Culture.

Winning teams don’t suddenly become winners because somebody delivers an inspirational speech five minutes before kick-off. Winning cultures are built day by day, training session by training session, through standards, accountability, helping teammates improve and demanding the very best from yourself and from one another.

When Mariona Caldentey says, “Now is our time,” I don’t think she’s making a prediction. I think she’s describing a culture, and that’s something very different.

Whether that ultimately ends with Arsenal lifting the Women’s Super League trophy next May, none of us knows. As I've said before, football has this wonderful habit of making complete idiots of anyone who tries to predict the future with too much confidence.

But there is one thing I do know.

This Arsenal team has earned the right to believe.

And I think, after everything we’ve witnessed and experienced over the last couple of seasons, we supporters have earned the right to believe a little as well.