_Our Young Gun series gets to know the academy youngsters kicking off their careers at the Sobha Realty Training Centre._
_Saskia Heard spoke to us recently about her love of defending, recovering from a serious injury, and what representing The Arsenal means to her._
I grew up in Bristol and lived there for about five years. My dad was a housemaster, so I've lived at schools my whole life. My family is living in Dorset at the moment as Dad got another job, I'm with a host family.
Moving around a lot as a kid was good because I have so many connections with lots of different people. Football started when I moved to Ramsgate and met a girl who also lived at the school. She and I would play football with our brothers out on the grass pitches and then we joined a boys' team when we were in Year 5.
After playing for grassroots clubs for years, I went to two open trials with Arsenal and the third time was the charm, so I was signed as a training player. The first couple of times I just wasn't ready, but that only helped motivate me more and understand what I needed to work on.
I was very proud when I joined Arsenal because I'd worked so hard to get there and I was incredibly grateful to have this opportunity. For my first academy to be such a top club like Arsenal, that was a really cool moment.
What I love about Arsenal is that we're very much a team and we all get along so well. The coaches encourage us to walk out to the pitch together and warm up at the same time. When you do everything as a unit, that helps us bond on the pitch and off it.
What I love about being a centre-back is that although you might not score, you can stop the opposition from doing it. The defensive line might not get a lot of praise, but stopping goals and blocking shots is equally important in those crucial moments; a last-second tackle can save the game.
I love a sliding tackle to be honest - if I have a game without one, I feel like I haven't done anything!
> "I was very proud when I joined Arsenal because I'd worked so hard to get there and I was incredibly grateful to have this opportunity"
Last season I was out for six months with a Grade 3 rupture in my ankle. It was right at the start of the season, which made the timing hard when I was working on my return.
The most important thing I learned from that was that there's so much outside of football that matters. I made a lot of good connections with the physios and other players who were in rehab with me.
It also meant I could really focus on school and the time away from the pitch allowed me to work on other things in the gym, like my upper-body strength and my core. It was a tough experience that definitely helped me overall.
This season we want to win the league and try to win the cup as well. For the future, I'd love to go on loan and play for a senior women's team. In a lot of ways, it's a completely different game.
At academy level there's a lot of dribbling and time to take plenty of touches on the ball. I think senior women's football is more pass and move, and there's a lot more physicality. I think that would really suit me because I really thrive in physical games.
With our first team, you can just tell as soon as they step on the pitch that playing for this club means something to them. They bring that fight and need to win to every training session, and that competitive side is what really drives teams to success.
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