Tenth Week: Emirates Stadium to Afternoon Tea

Hi Everyone!

Similar to last week, many practices are going on in majority of the pitches at the training center. I am still involved in the tripling and helping out with anything that needs to be done throughout the week.

Emirates Stadium

Jeff Lenihan (the other intern from University of Nebraska) and I had the opportunity to tour Emirates Stadium. But unlike any typical stadium tour, we actually had exclusive access to be on the pitch. Emirates Stadium has just completed their first renovation since the building of the stadium in 2006.

During the renovation of the pitch at Emirates, they applied Desso in the pitch. As stated at a earlier post, Desso is a long fiber that is put in the ground and acts like a grass. Other additions that are places in the stadium is the artificial grass called 4G surrounding the outside of the pitch. What makes the 4G different is the thicker fibers on the artificial turf and requires no infill. The grounds staff are in high gear since the first home game is coming up on the 14th of August for the grass to grow to be game ready.

Hale End Academy

We also toured the Hale End Training Academy on the other side of London with Paul Ashcroft. It is not as big as the training center in London Colney, but it provides enough room for the Academy players that range in under 14s. They currently have 2 grass training pitches and are adding two artificial training pitches plus a community area for the kids in the community to place soccer at the academy.

White Hart Lane

Another tour was at White Hart Lane, home to the Tottenham Hotspurs. It was cool to see an old stadium compare to Emirates Stadium. But as we were there for the exclusive tour, we saw the demolition work slowly tearing down piece by piece near the north stands. The team itself will be playing at White Hart Lane for one last time, then they move to Wembly for one season and eventually move into their new stadium, which is being built around the old stadium.

This weekend I also got to experience my first afternoon tea with my roommate Rebecca and her friend Carmen near Holland Park in London. It was very cool to have small pastries and sandwiches to eat with our English tea. After our afternoon tea, we went shopping at a outdoor market in Notting Hill.

I will be working my last weekend overtime this week and get to enjoy the heatwave in England. Can’t believe there is only a few weeks left at the training center for my internship. Hope you are all enjoying my blog posts as the weeks wind down to my last day. I have enjoy my time in England and learning a lot on a daily basis during my time at Arsenal.

Until the next posting, Cheers!