From Barcelona To...

Chapter 11 - Pre-Season Begins

I woke up and was feeling a mixture of emotions, I was excited and nervous at the same time. My home had been Barcelona for 6 years and now I was walking into a new team, with new staff and new training regimes, although I had now met and spent time with the majority of the girls I was still nervous about how I would fit in with them on the pitch. Although, I always put it to the back of my mind, I did also have the lingering thought about been labelled as the 'worlds most expensive women's footballer.' I tried not to think of it, I didn't see myself as that, there were so many incredible footballers around the world. It did make me feel pressure though, none of the girls had even mentioned it whenever id seen them. I think that was down to Beth though, I had spoke with her a number of times about how I didn't want it to affect how people saw me, I wanted people to see me for me and not for all the hype that was in the media and all over socials. I think she must have spoken to them about it, which I didn't mind to be honest.

"Good morningggg" I was quickly broken out of my thoughts with a hand waving in my face.

"Morning Beth"

"You back with us?"

"Yeah, sorry, I was miles away" I smiled at Beth

"Don't worry Twinks, you've got this, you will be fine"

I responded with a smile, picked up my training bag and boots "You both ready to go? Ill drive"

"SHOTGUN!" Beth screamed, and with that both Beth and Viv quickly raced to gather there things and head to the car.

I just casually walk out to the car laughing "Childish the pair of ya"

A short time later, we arrive at the Arsenal Training Centre. I park the car, look up at the entrance and take a big deep breath.

I feel a hand grab my shoulder from the back seat "You ready Ellie?" Viv asked.

"Yep, its now or never!"

"Come on Twinks, show us what you've got" Beth winks and sticks out her tongue at me as she gets out the car.

As I get out the car, I see Leah getting out her car from across the car park. Jesus, she looks good. She looks straight at me. Shit, she caught me looking again.

"Morning" I shout.

"Morning" She says back with a slight cheeky smile on her face.

We all head into the training centre and head into the changing rooms. I had already met majority of the staff and had a tour around the training centre, Jonas invited me in when I first arrived back to England and I was glad we did that before training started as it meant I was already a little familiar with my surroundings and I could just focus on the training on day 1 rather than worrying about who was who and where I needed to be. I had already been given all my training gear too, I asked Jonas if it was ok if my squad number could still be #18, nobody else in the squad had the number so thankfully it wasn't a problem. I have been #18 ever since I first signed my professional contract with Barcelona and if I could, I wanted to have that same number for the rest of my playing career. I was also lucky enough that I was always able to wear #18 when I played for England too.

All the players gathered on the training pitch whilst Jonas explained what we were going to be doing. We started off with some warm up stretches and was put into little groups to play 1 and 2 touch juggling just to try and loosen us up a bit. There was a real buzz about the place, everyone was excited and ready to just get back at it. Pre-season training was always brutal, so we all knew what was coming over the next few weeks but we were just glad to be back doing what we all love.

We had been doing dribbling, tactical and shooting sessions during the session when Jonas announced he wanted us to play a couple of mini 5v5 games. I loved 5 a side football, I always used to play it back home in Yorkshire when I was younger, luckily there was a football cage right where I lived and if anybody ever needed me, they always knew where to find me. Of course, it was always boys I played with, but that was always part of the fun, beating the boys was always something that I enjoyed, they also made me 'tougher' as they weren't shy in swiping me off my feet. I also loved that 5 a side generally meant you could show off a bit of skill, it wasn't really about playing out from the back and long balls across the pitch, everything was tight and compact.

Jonas called out the first two 5 a side teams:

"Team 1: Zinsberger, Williamson, Walti, Maanum and Miedema" The girls all started high fiving each other.

"Team 2: D'Angelo, Beattie, McCabe, Jones and Mead"

"Let's smash these little fuckers!" Shouted McCabe.

"I'm not sure whether its a good or a bad thing having both lunatics on the same team" Beth laughed pointing at Katie and I. Obviously we all know Katie often picks up the most yellow cards during the season and isn't shy of having a push and shove during a game. We all already know a bit about my history, receiving a fair few yellow cards myself, and two straight reds whilst I was at Barca.

Katie and I just smirked at each other before giving each other a fist bump.

"Let's go!" I shouted.

The 5 a side game was in full swing, although it was only meant as a bit of fun, we were all very competitive and both teams wanted to win. There were plenty of laughs throughout though, often when somebody landed on there backside due to been out skilled or left for dust by another player.

"GOALLLL!" I screamed, laughing, as I'd just scored for my team. I walked over to Leah and offered her a hand as she had ended up on her back side.

"I hope you don't usually spend the majority of games sat on your arse" I said as I helped her up.

"Shut up Jonesy" Leah replied with a smile.

"Ey, its Twinks to you after that little dance I just did around you" I said whilst trying to contain my laughter.

Leah rolled her eyes at me "Yeah, yeah, whatever Twinks" she said sarcastically.

The game continued and ended up finishing 5-4 to my team. My team were all huddled and celebrating as if we had just won the league.

"We let you win as its your first day" Viv shouted at me.

"Yeah, ok Viv" I smiled back.

After the session we headed off for some lunch and then it was time for a gym session in the afternoon. After that, everyone headed home ready to do it all again the following day.