Ladies Week at Arsenal.com

It's gotten lost among all the other stuff at Arsenal.com, but this week is Ladies Week! I know, not exciting to most people, but it is to me. I've collected the links posted so far, and I'll probably do another round up at the end of the week, but first. This little tidbit that I missed from earlier this month.

Hayes announces departure from Club

Arsenal can confirm that Ladies Academy Director and Assistant First Team Coach Emma Hayes has announced that she is joining Chicago WPS.

I know I should be sad about this, but I have to say that I'm not. I'm excited for WPS and I can't wait for more professionals to end up in the US. And now, on to Ladies Week.

Akers - It became a real hardship

Vic Akers expects his side to set their sights, at the very least, on another ‘Double’ when Arsenal Ladies reconvene after a well-earned summer break.

This season, the Gunners added another Premier League and FA Cup to their already bulging trophy cabinet but missed out on the Uefa Women’s Cup. Akers insists there will be no excuses next time as the Club bids to rule at home and in Europe.

It won’t be simple. The Ladies’ manager pointed out that as the game continues to develop at its current pace, dominating, as his side have done for so many years, will become tougher by the season.

Smith relishing the tests ahead

Despite the trials and tribulations of the past 12 months, Kelly Smith insists it has been another excellent year for Arsenal Ladies.

Eclipsing the ‘Quadruple’ achievements of the previous campaign was an impossibility, especially with a demanding World Cup disrupting the early part of the season. Nevertheless, the Gunners scooped another domestic Double, bringing their major trophy haul to 10 since 2005.

Flaherty - I can reach first-team

Gilly Flaherty insists Arsenal is the best club for an aspiring women footballer to be at. And she is ready for a more involved role next season.

Having broken into the first-team squad last season, the hugely talented defender spent the majority of this campaign on the cusp of the side. Injury and understandable youthful inconsistency meant that she didn’t perhaps make the strides she might have done.

With that now hopefully behind her, Flaherty has the courage to push on. Her talents, too, are patently obvious; the 16-year-old already plays for England Under-17s and Under-19s.

Ladies help to develop women's game

Women’s football is on the up and up.

The game has grown steadily in recent years, but the last 12 months has seen its appeal explode. It is, to a certain extent, down to Arsenal Ladies and some of its individuals.

The 2007 FA Women’s Cup Final attracted 25,000 fans, a record that was surpassed this May. Those games, both ending in 4-1 victories for the Gunners, book-ended the fifth FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Review of the season

How do you follow a Quadruple? Well, a Double isn't bad is it?

Arsenal Ladies rewrote the history books in 2007, sweeping all before them on home soil to clinch a domestic treble before seeing off Swedish giants Umea to become the first British side to win the Uefa Women's Cup.

Vic Akers' golden generation were simply unstoppable but it was stretching the boundaries of reality to expect a repeat performance last season.

A gruelling World Cup in China meant his England stars barely had time to draw breath before a new domestic season was upon them. Not surprisingly, they fell short of their highest standards while the fatigue factor wore off.