From Barcelona To...

Chapter 7 - The Decision

Social media was wild. Twitter and TikTok was filled with pictures of my face in various different club shirts, mainly Arsenal or Chelsea. Fans from all teams was saying they definitely knew I had signed for 'there team' as they had heard it from there dads friends cousin, who was in a relationship with a woman who's dog knew someone in my family (you get the gist, basically nobody knew fuck all).

The whole thing actually just caused me a lot of stress. I was so looking forward to moving back to England, but amongst all of this I started to question whether it was really worth it and whether I should actually just stay put in Barcelona, at least until my contract expires but I knew at this point that it wasn't really an option.

I wanted to take my time during the off season to really think about the team I wanted to join, I didn't want to be a player that moves from club to club, I had spent 6 years at Barcelona and knew that I wanted to either spend the rest of my playing career at one other club or at least for the next 3-4 seasons. The decision was whittled down to two clubs, you guessed it...Arsenal or Chelsea. Both were offering the £1,000,000 transfer fee. Crazy. It was now upto me to decide which club was best for me. I spent time talking to both team managers, Emma Haynes and Jonas Eidevall. I even flew out to London to speak to them and see both of the club setups. It was wild. They both clearly wanted me to sign, but I was trying to put that to the back of my mind and just focus on what I wanted.

Obviously, with me been close to both Beth Mead and Leah Williamson from the England camps I did meet up with them both whist I was in London. They were obviously both biased about the situation...

"You can move in with me and Viv, think of all the fun we will have" Beth practically screamed at me "You HAVE to choose Arsenal, and if you don't I will seriously reconsider our friendship" Beth joked, which made me laugh.

Leah was a bit more level headed about the situation and although I could tell she wanted me to choose Arsenal, she was genuine in what she said "You've just got to do what is best for you Jonesy, no matter what team you choose Beth and I.." Leah nudged Beth at this point "will be here for you no matter what, and at least even if you do choose Chelsea you will still be in London so you will get to see our beautiful faces all the time" she said with an angelic smile.

Honestly, it was just great to see them both and actually the majority of our time together wasn't really discussing my current transfer situation which was refreshing and helped clear my mind. I always knew deep down who I was going to choose and the visits to both clubs just reaffirmed that for me.

Here we go....