Friday Ramble: World Cup Week in the Life
The summer's showpiece tournament is done and dusted, but the fallout and analysis continues. Plus, I answer your questions...
Or a Saturday Ramble! For one week anyway…
The fact this piece is late is actually relevant to what I wanted to write about as WFC retains to some sort of normal schedule after five weeks of sole World Cup focus.
One question a lot of young, aspiring writers ask is what is a normal day or a normal week like, and some even asked how I planned to juggle a daily website with my role at Sheffield United.
With difficulty, is the answer!
I do enjoy it though and I’m fortunate to enjoy both my roles, and while not every week is as hectic as this, any week of an England team being in a major tournament final is a crazy one, even if I wasn’t there this time.
It’s been almost a week now, amazingly?! On the day, I went to Huddersfield Town vs AFC Fylde to mould together coverage of the game itself with the controversy surrounding the clash with the opening day of the FA Women’s National League season.
I’ve always tried to cover the lower leagues and WFC has given me another platform to do so.
With England losing, the workload post-tournament was slightly less than last year and certainly no next morning party at Trafalgar Square. I was actually in Bristol on Monday and Tuesday with our under 21s, and I don’t mind travel days because four days on a coach and a night in a hotel offers plenty of chance to get some work done - or in this case send a LOT of emails to get the ball rolling on my post-tournament plans.
On returning late Tuesday night, I was straight back into Sheffield Wednesday morning because we had local BBC and ITV stations down at the women’s team training ahead of our opening Barclays Women’s Championship game on Sunday.
Because this blog is late, I’m actually sat in the bar in our team hotel in London writing this currently!
The local media has been great with Sheffield United Women over the years, and after training it was time to do our internal content day, meaning headshots of every single player in all three of our kits, plus video promos for our dedicated away kit launch and some fun stuff in home kit for our Bramall Lane walkout videos.
After leaving home at 6am, I got home at 8pm after a full day of media which included BBC Radio Sheffield coming down to speak to six players in the afternoon and arranging for our head coach to go into the studio to record a show.
All of this while trying to arrange interviews outside of SUFC and also being in consulation with the organisers at the Thinking Football Summit where I’m heading on 7th September in Portugal to host three panels on women’s football.
On Thursday, it was another early start to head to Manchester for a sit down with Deyna Castellanos for an upcoming big interview on WFC. Deyna has been on my list for a long time, pre-dating her arrival in England, and it was a great chat which I’m looking forward to you reading.
On Friday, it was back down to London with our U18s where we played QPR this morning, and then the hop across the capital to our women’s team hotel where I now reside flopped on a sofa ahead of our game at Charlton Athletic tomorrow.
Not every week is this mad, but a lot are!
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Answering your Questions
Thundercats_UK
Do you honestly think the fact that so many of the current England women's squad are not playing this season in the Champions League, or possibly likely to in the future, if they stay at their current clubs (Man City, Brighton & Spurs) will harm the respective players development?
I don't think so, personally. Most of the Man City players such as Hemp, Kelly, Greenwood etc have shown they can do it at the highest level, as has Beth England. With Katie Robinson, she's in her progressive stage and will move up the ladder eventually, so no I don't see it as a huge issue.
FellofFallory
Are FIFA fit for purpose or do they need a little overhaul? How can we help overhaul? ;)
I don't think FIFA overall needs a complete overhaul, but certain things need to change. Infantino has a habit of thinking he's trying to say the right thing but getting it completely wrong, showing those in power never quite understand the issues at hand or what the common person is actually concerned about.
Got any insights into Mercury 13? (Investment group, Eni Aluko, looking at buying Lewes FC)
I haven't. I saw something on LinkedIn about it last week which peaked my interest. It's interesting, particularly for Lewes, as it seems to go against their MO, but you also wouldn't begrudge them gaining extra investment. I'm generally sceptical of multi-club ownership though, so interested to see how it pans out.
Does the FIFA WWC add more work, less work or does the inspiration remain pretty much constant?
terribly_bored
Clubs signing players then sending them out on loan straight away. Good for playing development or is it big teams trying to stockpile young talent that they may never even use?
I've no issue with it. Clubs don't always buy for now, but for the future. Take Brooke Aspin as an example this summer, she's not ready for Chelsea yet but they don't want to lose out to a rival, so sign her up, loan her back to a familiar environment where she'll play in the WSL.
natalie_17
What's happening with staff at United with Martin's replacement?
They are going through the interview process at the moment, so it should be soon. Carl Green and Charlotte Healy are still there alongside Marc though, so they're not short of football staff.
Why is everyone going wild over Mary Earps bid yet not United's bid for Kerolin?
Reality is Mary Earps is a bigger name in the mainstream English media than Kerolin. She's England's number one, one of the most recognised names in the game now and therefore stories about Earps are much more popular in the wider UK media than Kerolin,
If NCC keep rejecting Kerolin bids, who will United go for next?
She's still United's main target, and they don't feel they're far from agreeing a fee. They will have other targets, every club will have a longlist and shortlist of players in every position. Who depends on how they view her in the team, whether she'll be an out and out forward or more a midfielder.
What you’ve missed
Very little!
The World Cup has dominated WFC over the past month, and I’m sure you’ve all seen the daily analysis pieces on the website, but now it’s back to normal and there’s some great content still to come.
As mentioned above, I was in Manchester this week to sit down with Deyna Castellanos, while there are also big interviews with Ashleigh Neville and Ruby Grant coming in the next few weeks.
WFC will also be launching two new series, one speaking to players around the world who participated in the World Cup and the various legacies it has left in each country, as well as what will be a long-running ‘Road to 2027’ series of features, looking at those nations hoping to emulate the eight debutants of 2023.
All of this will be for paid subscribers to WFC, so what are you waiting for?!