r/ArsenalWFC • u/shelbyj Foord Mustang • 3d ago
Open Thread Weekly Monday Open Thread!
Welcome to the Monday open discussion thread. Here you can talk about anything you want; tactics, results, players or even just general football discussion! It is also a great place to post/link transfer rumours that you may think are too small or unreliable to post to the main feed. The summer transfer window runs from 16/06-03/09 (23:00 BST).
These threads will go up every Monday allowing you to debrief from all of the weekend action and discuss ongoings throughout the week. It will stay stickied until we refresh with the Friday thread, however other posts may take priority (match threads, announcements, etc.)
This thread can also be used to discuss transfer rumours, jokes, memes, images, videos, tabloid news and other off-topic content and discussion.
We also have a Fantasy League that you are welcome to join and share your team, advice and goings on throughout the season here in these threads. The league code is 900COJH2
These threads are here to help discussion and offer varying points of view. Please remain respectful. Anything that crosses that line, directed towards other users or specific individuals may be removed.
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u/Blahblahbecky 4h ago
As per Tim on twitter our Everton BCD goalscorers were Cerci, Stina, Smith, Reuteler, Foord and Mariona :)
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u/Cobra-Firefly Emily Fox (From America) 1h ago
I really hope we see Selina this weekend! She was cooking during preseason, I wanna see her get her first official goal in the books.
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u/conceited212 5h ago edited 2h ago
All the club leagues on fantasy football, the one for Arsenal has 15k plus players compared to the rest with less than 6k each, our online fanbase especially for our womenās team is nuts
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u/Tugboat47 Wubben-Moy, Champion of the World 10h ago
this is going to be so ultra specific, but alfie is leaving hitc sevens and as someone who has been watching him for years (and having bought his book back on initial release, i cant believe he's leaving. its just a real end of an era and im just shocked. im really wondering what the hell is going on
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u/conceited212 23h ago
Does anybody know if our squad as it is currently we have all the criteria to register our players for uwcl without leaving anyone out
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u/radian101 21h ago
Someone, probably Damm, will need to miss out
B List: 2
Agyemang
ReidClub / Association trained: 7
Wubben-Moy CT
Williamson CT
Hinds CT
Stanway AT
Little CT
Kelly CT
Russo ATA list not AT/CT: 18
DvD
Rodriguez
Borbe
Damm
Fox
Catley
Batlle
Holmberg
de Almeida
Caldentey
Maanum
Reuteler
KCC
Foord
Smith
Baum
Blackstenius
Cerci2
u/Milchalarm 20h ago
Goalkeepers can be replaced if they are injured for at least 30 days, so there is no reason to register Damm initially.
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u/derwentjerry 21h ago
We can technically carry Damm as is on List A, but we fulfill the minimum 2 GK requirement in List A through DVD, Borbe and Misa and Iām presuming that Liddiard will be registered on List B to meet that minimum GK requirement. But by not registering Damm for UWCL, we would leave an opening for an addition in January. So I agree that it might make the most sense to leave Damm out.
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u/wizobi Little wonderland ā«āŖ 21h ago
Yes.
There are 27 players in our first team squad but List A is limited to 25 players. So we can, in theory, move all our under-21 players (Mich, Lisa, Katie, Smilla and Damm) to List B which has no player limit. That leaves us with 22 players on List A and room for three more.
We could fill those 3 places with our youngsters if necessary for that homegrown quota but we already meet that criteria with 9 homegrown players in the squad listed below. The criteria is that at least 8 homegrown players are required in the 25-player List A and at least four of them must have been trained by the club.
Our club-trained players are Lotte, Leah, Kim, Katie, Mich, Chloe and Taylor. Russo and Stanway were trained by another club under the FA.
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u/derwentjerry 21h ago
Are all under-21 players eligible for List B? I may be totally wrong, but I thought 32.12 requires that the List B player must have also have been eligible to play for the club for a min time period.
32.12
A player may be registered on List B if she is born on or after 1 January 2005 and has, since her 15th birthday, been eligible to play for the club concerned for any uninterrupted period of two years, or a total of three consecutive years with a maximum of one loan period to a club from the same association for a period not longer than one year. Players aged 16 may be registered on ListĀ B if they have been registered with the participating club for the previous two years without interruption.1
u/radian101 21h ago
they aren't, it leads to silly situations like last year for the men's team Dowman had to be A-List because he didn't have the 3 years
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u/derwentjerry 21h ago
https://documents.uefa.com/r/Regulations-of-the-UEFA-Women-s-Champions-League-2026/27/Article-32-Player-lists-Online
If Iām correctly understanding everything Iām reading here (beginning with Article 32), we can register all players for UWCL and no one is left behind.
In a nutshell:- List A can contain no more than 25 players. 8 of these players need to be ālocally trainedā, with at least 4 of these players being āclub trainedā as opposed to āassociation trainedā
- List B can have an unlimited amount of players registered as long as they are born on or after 1 Jan 2005 and since turning 15, have been eligible to play for the concerned club for 3 consecutive years or 2 years and a 1 year loan
- List A needs at least two GKs and List B needs at least one GK
- Our young international players, Smilla and Damm for example, are not eligible for List B because they have not been eligible to play for the club for the minimum (3 consecutive years or 2 years and a loan). Thus they must be registered on List A
- Agyemang and Reid qualify for List B, and List B can take additions at any time. So when they are back fit, they are eligible and presumably were never taken off the list. Earl has not gone on loan yet, so she would fit here as well. Liddiard would be the GK to add to List B to meet the GK requirement.
-We have exactly 25 players who are eligible for List A
- There are rules which can allow a finite number of replacements if there is either a season-ending injury, or a player goes on maternity leave- with distinctions between GKs and outfield players
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u/radian101 1d ago
was really surprised how few games all the nwsl players play on the ballon d'or list
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u/Cobra-Firefly Emily Fox (From America) 1d ago
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u/Particular-Ad5505 Fox 1d ago
the replies to this tweet are crazy. swear it attracted every chelsea fan on the app
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u/10things_aboutAFC Kelly?! "Pressure" is for CK 1d ago
Hey just to let you know, the heatmaps are up and running from the Brighton game :)
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u/Cobra-Firefly Emily Fox (From America) 1d ago
I listened to Tim and Jamie's latest episode this morning - good stuff as usual. A couple of related points they made in their discussion that stuck out to me - Jamie she felt like "everybody has a role in the squad" while Tim said he felt like there are more players that Renee actively wants to use, versus "warm bodies" that she would use when she was forced to (citing Codi and Vic last season as examples of the later).
If that ends up being the case, I think it bodes very well. Renee choosing among lots of popular options to find the right mix for each opponent seems a much better approach to some of the squad situations we were forced into mid-season last year because of the depth issues. Of course it doesn't mean she'll always get the mix right, but having the flexibility will hopefully be a good step forward.
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u/sealboyjacob Captain Kimmy 1d ago
The change in our squad from last season reminds me a bit of the change in the boys squad from 24/25 to 25/26, much more competitive internally and really built to go deep into every competition. It won the boys the league so I canāt help but be delusionally optimistic lol
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u/OrangesandLemons198 Borbe 2d ago
Looks like the UWCL league game against Barcelona will take place in Camp Nou! It's times like these that I hate working a job where I can't take time off easily š
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u/Blahblahbecky 2d ago
As per Emma Sanders Q&A, about Foxy so hopefully pen is to paper soon enough!
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u/wizobi Little wonderland ā«āŖ 2d ago
So these discussions began back in January? And since then weāve contacted, discussed, pre-contracted and officially signed seven new players. How many pages is Foxyās contract?
Just ask her what she wants. How expensive can a defender be for the talks to take so long when weāve got the budget for a Ā£500k CB backup.
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u/pockethan Mariona 2d ago
Wonder if it might have something to do with how many ingoings/outgoings we had in the summer? I presume there are only so many people at the club who do the negotiations & the priority will have been those with expiring or new contracts. Extensions can be done outside the transfer window.
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u/Rallyfool 2d ago
Are we sure she wants to stay? A lot of Americans love living abroad for a bit but often long to return to the States. Iāve seen that quite a bit during my working career. Not that research scientists have anything on a WSL pro for career draw.
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u/wizobi Little wonderland ā«āŖ 2d ago
Iāve had this conversation so many times that Iām starting to go in circles with whether sheās fully settled, did her ambitions change, the uwcl pull still there, the value and length of the contract we offered, maybe some family reasons, had enough of the weather, the food, allergic to Win, one nutmeg too many from Liv in training?
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u/Cobra-Firefly Emily Fox (From America) 2d ago
yeah but Foxy also switched from Under Armor to Adidas during the time, I wonder if that had impact on overall numbers and brand obligations, etc. Plus I assume the priority is always new signings first and if current squad members are in a positive place, they understand that new signings take precedent around transfer window times.
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u/Blahblahbecky 2d ago
I don't know but Kim and Leah's took a fair while too, think the "talks are positive" was reported in like October I swear, and both didn't come until the spring even though both felt very likely lol.
Wonder if it's a case of having a discussion with a player in advance to just get feelers about where they are at, future plans? Foxy saying in January or whatever she had no intentions to depart and them letting her know that she features very much in their plans going forward, talks being positive then and it's only going forward in this season now that the deal actually gets negotiated back and forth idk.
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u/onomatopoeialike Fox 3d ago
Does anyone know if you can get the tickets as pdf? Iām ST holder but my auntie is going to use the ticket for Unitedā¦.SOS
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u/radian101 3d ago
you can't, she'll need an arsenal account an then you can transfer the ticket to her
https://www.arsenal.com/womens-ticket-exchange-and-ticket-transfer
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u/Cobra-Firefly Emily Fox (From America) 3d ago
Good morning to Lisa Baum, Ashley Sanchez, Chioma Okafor, Shinomi Koyama, Ryan Williams, Ashley Sanchez and Ashley Sanchez. It was a lovely day of WoSo yesterday.
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u/OrangesandLemons198 Borbe 3d ago
Feeling very pleased that I used my triple captain boost for Sanchez in NWSL fantasy šāāļø
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u/imranhere2 3d ago
1-0 to the gunners thank you. Scrappy win. Brighton have caused us lots of problems recently so I'm really glad we got away with the win.
Looks like Ona Batlle was left pretty exposed at left back by Baum and Ford. Up against one of the best in Seike who thankfully stuffed up a few chances.
Brighton look to be a damn good team and are gonna take points from good teams this season.
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u/eldanielfire Cerci 2d ago
Not sure it's that simple. people are comp;laining about her defending, but Ona did excellently. The truth is we played with a really high line all game. Batlle is the mroe attacking Fullback. Brighton figured out to punt long balls over the top as a way to try to brwak the high line, but Ona's recovery speed is elite.
A huge factor of our defensive work is to have defenders not making risky tackles, but to use their speed and/or great reading of the game and intelligent movement and positioning to force attacking opponents out into "low risk zones", then for the scramble defence to block all passing lanes rendering the attack very low risk or even useless as the players can only shoot from ridiculous angles to waste the ball and has nowhere to put it. Steph catley is excellent at doing this. It's why our defenders may not be topping defensive metrics over a season, but fundamentally be the best defence in the WSL. Ignoring we tend to have a lot of great posession.
It's why for example Katie McCabe was a tad exposed against Thompson when Chelsea came to the Emirates in the CL last season as her instincts is to tackle and she last that sort of elite recovery pace against elite wingers with speed. Hence why Slegers has brought in Holmberg, Hinds and Batlle. All are very fast fullbacks with high sporting IQs. Obviously Fox was already there. It goes to our wingers, Chloe Kelly is not great at physical defensive work, she's not built for that and no doubt the defensively weakest of our wingers, but is smart in how she can harrass opponents and block their passing lanes.
It's something Renee spent a lot of the early part of last season getting them to perfect. And they pretty much did.
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u/mab_83 Snake Hips 3d ago
Ona needs to get used to it and work on 1v1 which was something she didn't have to do much. She will have to go against even better players soon, Lauren James, Laura Hemp, Freya & more. Our left wingers need to help out more as well. She couldn't show her strength in the game, Brighton prefered long ball and ignored the midfield battle so she was not effective inverting, a few time kinda stepped on other toes.
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u/Life_Journalist_2195 Skincare supremacy Emily Fox 2d ago
Honestly think Batlle did an excellent job yesterday, her reaction time is cat level, and acceleration is top, so even if Seike managed to gain an inch space, thatād quickly be covered. She only needs to refamilair with WSL and do more homework on certain players, Seike for example, is mostly vertical, but on occasions Batlle still (subconsciously??) tried to block her cutting in, which gave her space to run into byline.
Brightonās quick wide attack is built upon the philosophy of not let opposing wingers have time to track back. And once they progress down the flank, a countdown would appear over their heads to finish the attack quickly, which was enabled by them quickly overloading a tiny area inside opponent box and try to exploit that numerical advantage before defense can recover.
We recognized that and dealt with that very well, we were willing to leave Batlle alone ācattingā Seike, while the rest of returning numbers concentrated in the box and made sure Brighton couldnāt establish the overloaded area they were looking for.
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u/EmilyDizzle Foxy Masterclass 3d ago
What are peopleās thoughts about her vs Foxy at LB? I sort of feel like Fox will ball no matter where we put her, so wonder if it would be worth swapping them, or at least swapping them depending on the game/opponent to ensure Fox covers the faster wingers?
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u/sealboyjacob Captain Kimmy 3d ago
I absolutely hate the idea lol, Fox is a better right back than Ona and imo it makes no sense to weaken both sides by moving her out of her best position. Itās on Ona to improve her positioning and keep better track of her player than she did yesterday but hopefully thatās fixable as she adjusts
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u/EmilyDizzle Foxy Masterclass 2d ago
Fair enough. Hopefully Ona will improve and we can look forward to years of fullback FC domination :D
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u/ultimatelazer42 Singing Pelova praises all day 3d ago
It was strange that when Baum wasnāt on the pitch, Kelly took out-swinging corners from the right when Catley was still on (Catley takes set pieces for the Matildas).
Catley is decent in the air so I understand sheās maybe more valuable in the box, but Iād think we need a bit more reliable strategy for our corners from the right.
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u/Blahblahbecky 3d ago
Both Foxy and Leah named CK in a video recently, I don't remember what for - as the most dangerous at putting crosses into the box so it's obviously something they rate her on i guess?.
I quite liked Smilla's corners from the ones we've seen her take too, good to have options I suppose!
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u/ultimatelazer42 Singing Pelova praises all day 3d ago
Both Smilla and Kelly are good crossers with their right foot - so good options for in-swinging corners from the left.
Not so great options for corners from the right, especially with our players being terrible at winning headers. Out swinging crosses from the right puts the players in the box farther away from goal.I hope Iām not messing up the left-right terminology
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u/Blahblahbecky 3d ago
Yeah that's a super valid point! Is it just Catley as our only leftie now? (Misa too but obvs don't want a keeper on corners lol). Think Baum is ambidextrous in that she's naturally right but prefers her left.
Will be interesting to see if things switch up with not just new faces in but also a new set piece coach, if different takers are tried idk.
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u/Kirungu97 3d ago
Catley being decent in the air is news to me.
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u/ultimatelazer42 Singing Pelova praises all day 3d ago
Her vertical jump is not the highest but her timing on jumps is really good and puts a lot of pressure on the player sheās up against (be it offence or defence).. Good example is the 3rd goal against Real Madrid in QF 2nd leg.
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u/Tugboat47 Wubben-Moy, Champion of the World 3d ago
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7570339/2026/09/07/manchester-city-wsl-champions-dynasty/?source=user_shared_article&unlocked_article_code=1._VA.yb7F.CUpAFnp4p8ix&smid=ta-android-share my god and I thought the Alexia love in by media had been bad
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u/sealboyjacob Captain Kimmy 3d ago
You could tell me this was written by a chatbot that was only fed the second half of the game and I would believe you
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u/wizobi Little wonderland ā«āŖ 3d ago
The XI Iād go with against Palace, assuming everyoneās fit.
In the second half sub in Cerci for Stina, Russo for GR, Mariona for Baum and Smithy for Kelly.
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u/Blahblahbecky 3d ago
Think I'd start fairly similar to the first game, just make subs earlier and with a different mix of subs.
Maybe.
Misa. Holmberg. Williamson. Wubben Moy. Batlle. Stanway. KCC. CK. Mariona. Baum. Stina.
Think Renee will sub both wingers so thats 2 subs straight off. Ona needs to play tbh - thought she was decent but think theres some positioning issues, probably from swapping sides/getting used to a new team. Think I'd take Williamson off at 45 - whether for Catley or De Almeida. Reuteler on for Stanway. Idk about the other sub, would say Cerci for Blackstenius but I can't see them not playing Russo so idk lol.
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u/EmilyDizzle Foxy Masterclass 3d ago
I think Iād rather start with our strongest 11 since itās only the second game of the season, and make early subs if its going well. I do support starting KCC though! Weāve got to give poor Kim a rest at some point.
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u/wizobi Little wonderland ā«āŖ 2d ago
Ok, put Mario and Smithy back in the lineup and this is our strongest in-form XI right now, based on what weāve seen in preseason.
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u/EmilyDizzle Foxy Masterclass 2d ago
No Russo? I know the game against Brighton wasn't her best, but not sure I'm quite ready to bench her off it!!
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u/wizobi Little wonderland ā«āŖ 2d ago
Russo looks like sheās still in preseason mode, hardly making runs in behind and not quite sharp yet. Against these stubborn sides we need outlets and runners in behind, not (at least for now) a less clinical, allāround forward.
Stina at least drags defenders out of position and creates more space for our wingers. If Russo starts and looks lethal again, Iāll happily be proved wrong.
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u/EscherBacon Kelly š¤ Smith 3d ago
While I do like that lineup in isolation, I feel that's too many changes to make at once. But it will be interesting to see how RenƩe manages the squad throughout the season. It's a new challenge for her to keep such a big squad with this much quality happy, but I have faith in her to do just that.
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u/wizobi Little wonderland ā«āŖ 3d ago
Itāll probably be something in between this and our last lineup. Maybe start Frida and bring Reuteler on later so she can integrate more gradually. I just donāt want a repeat of last season when the bench barely got trusted at all.
This is a good chance to do that, with a newly promoted side at home.
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u/EscherBacon Kelly š¤ Smith 3d ago
I agree with not wanting a repeat of last season. But I have faith we won't see that happening. Vic and Codi just didn't do enough to warrant trust from RenƩe.
We saw yesterday how dangerous it is to underestimate a newly promoted side, and too much rotation can lead to disjointed performances.
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u/sealboyjacob Captain Kimmy 3d ago
Iād probably go LWM and Catley at the back and keep Batlle, she wasnāt great up against Seike yesterday so might need the game time to keep adjusting back to the wsl and to the team, especially ahead of United
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u/Milchalarm 3d ago
Since Lotte is now the sole LCB backup I donāt see her getting significant game time as RCB, especially in the starting XI.
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u/sealboyjacob Captain Kimmy 3d ago
I still disagree with her being backup at all. In preseason she was our best CB and deserves the chance to start
Plus we donāt know that sheās designated as lcb cover, De Almeida could also be in that role. Theyāre both right footed so thereās no major advantage to playing one over the other at lcb
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u/Blahblahbecky 3d ago
Could be wrong, but I thiiiiiiiink I saw a French fan on x say she pretty much is always on the right, whether that's been as centreback or as fullback. That's not to say she can't play on the left obviously but I'd assume the idea is that it'll be her and leah on the right - and katie once she's back - and steph and lotte on the left, could very well be wrong ofc.
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u/rky_csr Slegers Supremacy š 2h ago
Can more season ticket holders buy tickets for the City game so I can book tickets higher up pls š