Introducing CharlesWatts.Football

Sometimes in life you’ve got to take a chance on something when it just feels right.

I’ve had a brilliant time covering Arsenal since 2017, first with football.london and then with GOAL, where I have been since 2019.

But there’s always been this nagging thought in the back of my mind, certainly for the last few years anyway, that I should be doing things a bit differently.

It’s not that I’ve had people telling me what I should be producing during that time, because I’ve always been given the creative freedom to do more or less what I want.

But I’ve still felt a bit restricted, like I wasn’t really able to provide Arsenal fans with the type of content that they wanted or deserved.

That’s a feeling that has grown recently and at times during the past couple of years it’s almost felt like I was just going through the motions week by week.

The passion that I’ve always had reporting on Arsenal had taken a bit of a hit. I knew I had more to give, but I wasn’t really able to spend the time producing the type of content that I wanted to produce.

So towards the end of last season when I was told my job was going to change and I was going to have to start spending some of my time reporting on Chelsea and Tottenham, I knew that I needed to push myself to go down another path.

There was no simply no way that I was going to have the passion or the motivation to spend my time writing about football clubs that I had no connection to and quite frankly, that I disliked.

It’s always been about Arsenal for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love football. But Arsenal is what truly matters to me.

I was asked on the first day of my first journalism course back in 2001 to walk up to the front of the class and tell everyone why I wanted to get into journalism.

It was an easy answer: “I want to get paid to write about Arsenal.”

Professionally, I’ve been able to immerse myself in this wonderful (and bonkers) football club since 2017. So when I heard that was going to change, there was no doubt in my mind as to what I had to do.

It was time to go out on my own and be my own boss. To produce the type of Arsenal content that I truly wanted to produce for Arsenal fans all across the world.

And that’s what I now plan to do.

Whether it be here on this new website, or on my YouTube channel which I’m now going to spend a lot of time trying to develop or via the airwaves with my Inside Arsenal podcast, I feel like this is a real opportunity to give Arsenal fans the type of coverage that they truly want for their club.

You’ll still get the stuff you’ve come to expect from me. News stories, analysis, match reaction and press conference coverage, but you’ll also get a lot more debate, conversation and a chance to have your say and get involved across my various Arsenal platforms.

And you’ll be able to find it all here from now on.

That’s what charleswatts.football is all about. It’s going to be your gateway to Arsenal Football Club.

This is what I’ve always wanted to do and I can’t wait to get started.