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Welcome to the Exciting new ‘Welcome to the Gunner’s Town’

Welcome to a short piece to tell you about a new look for WTTGT. It is an established site with a good name, but it has struggled to attract new writers and has no real identity in a very crowded Arsenal blogging space.

It looks a bit tired, it has no twitter following, although it is huge on Facebook. It has no consistency of content or features but it has huge potential. It is linked to the major Arsenal News sites and was just begging for some new owners/editors to show it a little love, attention and crucially some innovation and imagination.

Enter four chaps who love Arsenal. Four chaps who love Arsenal blogging and have, I hope a bit of a vision between them. Kingsley  Aje of Soccerfanbase, amongst others, Jeremy Lebor, Lawyer, Author and regular Arsenal blogger for Proven Quality, Batmandela from Invinciblog and me Dave Seager, from 1 Nil Down 2 One Up. We took over ownership of the blog and today sees the start of a revamping process. The look of the site will evolve and modernise over time and we will add new features such as forums, screensavers etc in the short term, but what we had to change from day one was the writers and the consistency of content. This is what we have worked on in the past week or so ahead of the transfer of the site and I am 100% certain that those who we have persuaded to join us will impress you and ensure you will want to start this journey with us at the very beginning.

So here’s what the week will look like on Welcome to the Gunner’s Town almost from day one. Days may vary but this will give you a firm flavour of the quality and the originality we have planned for you:

Starting on Sundays we will have match reviews where appropriate and I have tempted Matt Littlechild (@Mattlittlechild) to come out of blogging retirement to write these. I’ve always loved his style and we are delighted to have him on board. Sunday will also be Global Gooner day every week and we will welcome Gooner guest writers from all over the world.

For Mondays we have persuaded John Wood (@Woodysirish) to lend his quirky humour and frustration or elation to ‘Woody’s Weekly Wound Up.’ I for one can’t wait to see this blog. Obviously if we play on Sunday’s there will be the match review from Matt on the Monday, or Tuesday if we play on a Monday night.

Tuesdays are special at Gunner’s Town with two unique exclusives. Everyone on twitter knows and respects Scott Davis ( @ScottyDavisAFC ) and enjoys his 15 to 20 successive tweets required to get his point across. Why on earth does he not just blog we all say? Well now, he will be doing what he does on twitter in his own feature column, only on WTTGT ‘The Scott Davis Rant.’ If that is not enough, I am delighted to confirm that Steve Wellman’s (@Wellmington) off the wall Sunday Morning Gooner look at all things Arsenal that grab his imagination is moving to WTTGT from next week. ‘The Far Side View’ from Steve in Sydney is our second Tuesday exclusive.

Wednesday’s will have an international feel also with two columns covering the two major leagues in Europe that interest us Gooners. ‘Dopplepass’ from Chris Mader (@GermanGunners) will look at all things Bundesliga. Rising stars, potential targets, likely targets, ex Gooners and anything else of interest to Arsenal supporters. If that is not enough to whet your appetite Wednesday’s double bill is completed by Chris Moar. (@MoarFootball) Chris’s feature will be entitled ‘Vibes from La Liga’ and will bring you the same for Spain and the other Chris will do for Germany. We are so pleased to have secured two such experts passionate about our club and their respective leagues.

On Thursday’s we have pinned down the roving blogger Billy Dunmore (@EducatedGooner.) He may well still rove from blog to blog on an ad hoc basis and he would not be Billy if he didn’t, but I can guarantee that he will only appear on our site weekly. Yes Billy’s weekly column will be on WTTGT each Thursday and will be called ‘The Weekly Education.’  Also on Thursday we hope to have a section solely for female Gooners, writing from the female fan perspective on all things Arsenal but also on Arsenal Ladies. Top writer Anushree Anande (@AnuNande) will be heading this up but may need assistance. So if you would like to contribute to ‘Women’s Arsenal and Arsenal’s Women’ let me know?

Friday – Just when you thought it may not get better it just did. Every Friday WTTGT is proud to introduce two regulars. Firstly ‘The Michael Jeffares Column.’ Michael (@mj_afc) is a blogger we have long admired on his own site ‘Victory through Harmony’ but we are chuffed to have his commitment to write a weekly column on his views on all things Arsenal. Great to combine his knowledge, writing and the fact that he travels home and away with the Gunners into one passionate feature. Add to this on the last week day the Gunners Town Tipster, a pre-weekend look at all the best Arsenal and other football punts from Andy Wood (@YorkshireGunner.) Most Gunners who follow Andy’s weekly bets on twitter are up on the season so make sure you read this blog each week.

Saturday brings the talents of my co-conspirator and good friend Jeremy Lebor ( @jeremylebor ) to the fore.  Jeremy writes regularly for Proven Quality, and has two novels published so ‘What’s the score with Jeremy Lebor’ is a regular Saturday morning look at the week and preview of the match not to be missed.

As I said in the introduction there will be so much more to come. Guest bloggers will be continually welcome, and many other top names we have approached who will also be contributing on occasions and some on a more regularl basis. For example we are working on a Youth Football column and this will be in place ahead of pre-season.

I can however happily confirm our one definite monthly feature which I know all of you who know her or follow here on twitter will be excited about. It will be called ‘Maddie’s Monthly Musings – From Russia with Love.’  Many of you will know instantly that securing this individual is a coup for WTTGT and if you don’t know her then you have a pleasant surprise in store!

Anyway I have rambled on long enough but I sincerely hope you are now keenly anticipating what is to come from Welcome to the Gunner’s Town. It will all begin tomorrow in earnest with the first ‘Weekly Education’ from Billy Dunmore.

Please be patient with us as we get the look and feel of the website to our liking and ensure you follow us on twitter @WTTGT and like the Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/WTTGT

Thanks for reading and I hope you will embark of this journey with us. From all of us… ‘Welcome to the Gunner’s Town.

Thanks

GoonerDave66

Abayomi, Jeremy… and our Editor, Matt Cotton.

@Goonerdave66@yommys01@jeremylebor and @Findingcotton

2 Responses to Welcome to the Exciting new ‘Welcome to the Gunner’s Town’

  1. [email protected] May 1, 2013 at 3:53 pm #

    Great blog thanks for your article on my favorite club !

  2. [email protected] May 3, 2013 at 1:28 pm #

    Hey Dave,

    I've read a lot of your stuff. Especially in the initial days when I was trying to work out the way to write stuff online as I had started blogging.

    Simon used to run this site and I joined him a month after this site came up. We did ok i think, the four or five us together. The facebook following was really built in those first 6 months. But once Simon left, he was a professional journalist, I tried to keep this up for two months but with university and a real lack of quality stuff meant I had to leave. I wasn't really doing justice by heading the site but not being able to find quality writers was the issue. Now that you have assembled what looks like an elite squad, hope you can get this site chugging along finally!

    If there is any way I can contribute, please let me know. This site is special to me and i am happy that someone as committed as you has decided that WTTGT is worth a try!!

    Vivek

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