Montemurro on Scott withdrawing from the squad

Many fans were left shocked when Alex Scott was not included in our SSE Women’s FA Cup final squad on Saturday.

Our club captain made the tough call of withdrawing from selection in the build up to the game because she "didn’t feel like she had earned her place in the squad".

Joe Montemurro was asked about Scott’s absence and the record Women’s FA Cup final attendance at Wembley after the game. Here’s what he said:

on Scott withdrawing from the squad… 

I think she’s keen to pass the baton on and keen to start giving responsibility to the good players that we’ve got. To Jordan Nobbs, Kim Little and so on and give them the opportunity to be on the centre stage. You do have to earn your stripes at Arsenal and you do have to be in positions of discomfort and find a way to battle. It’s Arsenal, it’s a great brand and we want to be the best but I think it was a great gesture from her to pass that on and give the younger players an opportunity.

on whether we have the resources to compete with Chelsea… 

It’s always a difficult question to answer. I was at a club where there were a lot of resources and it wasn’t all about resources, it’s about finding the right fit going forward and you have to innovate within those resources to be creative. Do we have the squad? We don’t have squad depth. Chelsea probably have 20 players that are all playing with their national team and whatever 11 they put out there is a strong team. We’re a little bit different. We’ve got a lot of younger players. Viv Miedema is only 21 years old so we’ve got a very, very young squad. For us the future is bright with these players. Going forward the more they’re exposed to big games and the more they go forward, the more we will grow. Do we need to bolster some stock? Yes we do and hopefully that will happen next year. 

on the record attendance… 

I’m still sort of coming down from the high of the week and the occasion. What an amazing showcase for women’s football and football in general. I think it was a good game. I think it was an open game and an exciting game with lots of chances, but a spectacle of this nature is second to none. We just want it to happen more often for the game. I think the crowds will all keep coming back if they see football of that standard. 

on what’s next…

What now? Planning for next season started a long time ago so we’re on track in building what we think is the right way, the Arsenal way. We’ve started to play a good brand of football again, probably today it was a bit broken but a lot of games in the WSL have been very, very special so we’re making small steps. We can’t change things overnight and we know that. Before the Birmingham game we went 15 games undefeated and changed everything from a negative to plus 14 in goal scenarios. We’re on track and my projects are always long-term. They’re never short-term so we’re thinking on a long-term scenario. We know where we’re at and we’ll do the right things to make sure we take the next steps.