The Alex Scott column: It took me some soul-searching but I'm sticking with Arsenal in a massive year for women's football

It's fair to say a lot has happened since my last column. Arsenal Ladies have a new manager in Shelley Kerr, while I've put pen to paper and signed a contract extension with the club.

My last deal expired before Christmas, but after a lot of soul-searching I've decided that my future lies in England. It's such a big year for the women's game in this country and I wanted to be a part of that.

With Arsenal, we're in the Champions League quarter-finals and I really believe we have a chance of making the final, which is going to be held in London at Stamford Bridge.

Then, with England, we have Euro 2013 to look forward to. All the England girls are focused on those championships now and I think it would have been very disruptive for me to move to the US with such a big tournament on the horizon.

Of course, I've not been selected yet and nothing is guaranteed. I just need to work as hard as I can to make sure I make the squad and then hopefully we can achieve something special for the women's game in England.

It's great too that we have a new manager at Arsenal. Shelley replaces Laura Harvey, who achieved so much for the club and will be a tough act to follow.

We're yet to meet Shelley as a team as she doesn't start until March. But it's great that we finally know who's in place and who's going to be leading us this season.

The Scottish girls in our camp, Jennifer Beattie and Kim Little, know her from the Scotland set-up and they've only had good things to say about her. They've said she's tactically very astute and knows how to bring the best out of players. I'm looking forward to working with her.

The fixture list for the new season is out now, which really brings the campaign into focus. We start our defence of the Continental Cup against Birmingham City before the league season gets under way on April 14 when we host Bristol Academy.

Bristol have just lost Jess Fishlock, the WSL player of the year last season, to US side Seattle Reign, who Harvs now manages.

I think it's a great opportunity for Jess. She's never played professionally in the US and, being Welsh, she hasn't got the Euros to focus on because they missed out, so she can fully focus on life over in the US. She's a quality player and I expect her to have a great season over there.

People might wonder whether Harvs is going to raid the WSL for any more players, but, for Arsenal at least, I think all the girls are pretty much all tied to new deals now, so I don't see that happening.

For the next few weeks, I'm going to be living the typical athlete's life of sleeping, eating, training, eating some more and then sleeping again. It might not sound very glamorous, but it'll get me in the shape I need to be in for the season ahead. It'll be upon us in no time.