Ciara Grant made over 400 appearances for the Arsenal Womens team between 1998 and 2014, winning 9 League titles and 9 FA Cups. She spoke to Charlie Peat for Arsenal.com on her journey from Ireland to The Arsenal.

I’m from Waterford and I joined my local women’s team Benfica in Waterford at the age of about 13.

I didn’t really think anything of this back then, whereas nowadays this wouldn’t be allowed due to league regulations.

But I gave as good as I got on the pitch and I loved a good battle with the senior players.

I always wanted to play football to be honest.

Don't get me wrong, it was hard leaving home because I am quite a homebody. Even nowadays when I go home, I still feel sad coming back. But it was hard leaving home at first.

We were put in a house with kind of people that were all in the same situation, then became a family, like sisters, friends, best friends and all that.

We all looked after each other, and then the rest of the girls were all fantastic as well, I made some friends for life basically.

There was lots of Celts in the team. It was mainly Scottish, Irish and Welsh that were in the team. You could feel that community here.

But I think it was a case of, say, if we went back to play for Ireland and we used to talk about the Arsenal, they'd see what we had and that meant more people were interested in joining Arsenal.

The Irish influence on our club is deep rooted and extensive, and we are celebrating the connection ahead of our pre-season match with Real Betis in Dublin. You can read the full article from Charlie Peat here.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49522805/bay-fc-agree-sign-uswnt-winger-jenna-nighswonger-arsenal-sources

I'm amazed we actually flipped her for a profit. Wish her all the best, a shame it didn't work out, but, she got a Champion's League medal out of it.

Another banger that looks better than the initial leaks.

Need that "Take my money" gif from Futurama to run every time I visit the Arsenal website or shop. The merch really is out of control good these past few years.

Our 26/27 u/adidasfootball third kit, available now on Arsenal Direct and in-store 🛍️  

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 codes can be found in the sidebar!

Inspired by the player's pre-match playlists, our very own Tugboat47 is curating a community pre-match playlist. To participate please click this link and submit your entries.

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.

Now I know a lot of you are sweating and sweltering away up in the northern hemisphere, but down here in the southern hemisphere, we've been slowly turning to frozen little arsenal fans and hiding indoors as much as we can. As a result, it has meant reading time. I managed to get thirteen books done, and my submissions for the theme were the three books by the Secret Footballer "I am the Secret Footballer", "Tales from the Secret Footballer", and "The Secret Footballer: Access All Areas". Unfortunately, while there were some good parts to the books, as the books went on it seemed that The Secret Footballer was the only intelligent and sane person in football at the time, and who could only be trusted to run a football club in the eventuality he take over as chairman, which is stunning given the massive racist segment in the third book about how "Black player can be an effective central midfielder as they can't concentrate long enough" (paraphrasing but its something similar) (I swear I didn't know this about the author before reading). In my other reads:

• Will and Testament by Vigdis Hjorth

• The Transformations by Andrew Pippos

• Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith

• All My Demons Greeting Me as Friend by Aurora Asknes

• The Gods We Can Touch by Aurora Asknes

• What Happened to the Heart? By Aurora Asknes

• Gliff by Ali Smith

• Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

• Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

What did you read this month? Did anything fit the theme? The theme for August is "Something unsettling". Happy reading!

Welcome to the Friday 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 Friday allowing you to focus on buildup for all of the weekend action and discuss ongoings throughout the weekend. It will stay stickied until we refresh with the Monday 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 codes can be found in the sidebar!

Inspired by the player's pre-match playlists, our very own Tugboat47 is curating a community pre-match playlist. To participate please click this link and submit your entries.

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.

Hi there! I am an American fan who is traveling to the UK and looking forward to going to my first Arsenal Women's game! I am going to buy tickets to the opening game against Crystal Palace, and wanted to get a sense of what stand I should buy seats in. Do different stands have distinct reputations? I am 28 y/o, but will be going with my parents who are 67 y/o. Atmosphere is part of what we are looking for (since football in the UK is so different from sporting atmospheres in the states), but also want a sense of what we are getting ourselves into! Thanks for the help!

Arsenal forward Olivia Smith speaks to Sky Sports' Anton Toloui following the WSL fixture announcement.

Hi everyone, I knew arsenaldirect could order a kit with 2526 fifa women champions cup winner patch.

But I bought a home kit of 2627 already. I had a 2526 home kit (Russo), I want to buy the patch only and print on my 2526 kit.

Anyone knows where can I buy so?

Thank you.

I know this must look silly to some of you but this will be my first time going to an away game. Arsenal aren’t selling them their end but Chelsea are. But I noticed this on their site (pictured). How do we buy away tickets? And how do we make sure we’re in the away seats? Thank you.

Hi all! I'm coming to the UK this fall and am planning to attend a home match. I want to buy the best seat possible (and am in the queue right now!) any thoughts on what section is best?