The revamped U23s is putting England stars on the path to the senior team
Grace Clinton and Jess Park are recent examples of U23 to senior success stories, but much more has gone into it than just creating a simple pathway...
While all eyes are currently on England’s opening Euro 2025 qualifier with a fellow top five ranked nation in the form of Sweden under the Wembley lights on Friday night, there’s another meeting between the two same nations 24 hours in advance.
The U23 Lionesses face-off against their Swedish counterparts in Telford on Thursday night in Emma Coates’ side’s final game of the new European League, a competition created to offer regular competitive games at U23 level, with the lack of a major tournament for the age band.
Kicking off last September, the competition has run throughout the European season with many camps shadowing those of the senior teams, allowing for example the U23s to train alongside Sarina Wiegman’s first team in Spain last month.
Nine teams have taken part, with Norway, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium and Portugal joining England and Sweden, with all sides having faced each other once either home or away.
“Our job is to develop the players as individuals and as a team develop our style of play…”
The Lionesses are unbeaten with three wins and four draws to date, but so are Norway and Netherlands, with the former the favourites four wins and one draw as well as two games in hand on England, and the Norwegians have at times utilised the chance to field overage players to bridge the gap to the first team, such as last month in an eye-catching 4-0 win against Spain.
The competition has come with little fanfare, though there is a working group currently studying how to create more attention around it when next season comes around, such is the level of talent on show across nine major European nations.
It is though not solely about winning games of football, but ensuring there is a clear pathway to Wiegman’s first team, and since the competition started back in September both Grace Clinton and Jess Park have made the permanent step up.
“The two go hand-in-hand, you can’t separate them,” says head coach Coates, who stepped up last summer from her previous role as U19s head coach. “Our job is to develop the players as individuals and as a team develop our style of play.
“We have to learn about how we win football matches because ultimately that’s the pressure they will be under at the next level, so we want to go and win the game on Thursday. Of course, we want to develop our style, and this week is a really exciting one with both teams playing Sweden in the space of 24 hours.”
Others are on the cusp of following in the footsteps of Park and Clinton, such as Chelsea forward Aggie Beever-Jones.
After a successful loan spell at Everton last season, the 20-year-old has scored six league goals for the WSL champions in the current campaign and appears to be the next in line for a senior debut when the opportunity presents itself.
February’s camp in Spain ensured should Wiegman need to call on someone she could do, and that is exactly what happened when Beever-Jones was drafted in for the second game and ended up in the matchday squad.
“Ultimately, we’ve all been preparing for this,” says the forward. “For me, I go back to the NPCs [National Performance Centres] at U14 level and I think the pathway has always been there.
“Seeing two girls like Grace and Jess, and also Khiara [Keating], recently make that step makes it more tangible for us and Sarina’s definitely looking around.
“We say it in our meetings, ‘Who’s next? Who’s willing to put the work in and get that call-up?’ The pathway is definitely there and it’s an exciting time for all of us.”
When the U23s faced Spain in a friendly in Marbella during the February camp, the whole senior squad and staff, including Wiegman, were in the stands watching, with several players able to train up with the first team.
“That camp was so…I guess helpful? On so many levels,” says Coates. “We’ve had a couple of keepers train across today,” she adds, speaking on camp at St. George’s Park ahead of the Sweden match.
“That’s been a great opportunity and part of the benefit of again being on camp at the same time.”
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It’s been a bumpy and at times uncertain road for the U23 age group over the years. In 2018, The FA replaced the group with the U21s, but moved back to the U23s in 2021 to help bridge the gap between the U19s and the first team, and allow players of a slightly older age than 21 to still gain international experience and make the step up to the senior team.
With the season ending on Thursday, some at the upper end of the age band such as Lucy Thomas, Poppy Pattinson, Molly Pike, Ebony Salmon and Jess Naz may see their time in the squad come to an end, but there is also plenty of young talent within the squad to make up a future core.
One of those players in the shape of Tottenham Hotspur forward Naz has felt the benefit of the age group shift, allowing her to continue playing international football, while enjoying a successful season with her club which could yet still end with an FA Cup final.
“You can clearly see there is a pathway now and there was a big gap before between the U19s and seniors,” she says. “To have the U23s is perfect as well to get games, and for it to be such competitive games is even better.
“The crossover in Spain was really great, seeing that environment up close and seeing the things they’re doing that we’re also doing, I think it will really help those who do transition into the team.”
She adds, “You can see that with Grace and Khiara recently, Sarina is giving people chances if you perform and that pushes us to work on what we need to work on and if we keep our form, there’s no reason any of us can’t get a call up.”
Beever-Jones echoes those sentiments, while also adding that with football being full of ups and downs, she knows she has to take any chance she gets, reflecting on her senior call-up in Spain in February.
"It was a really, really nice camp. We were aware with it being a joint camp there would be a chance for a few girls to get that opportunity and I was lucky enough to get that. It was very surreal to get called into the matchday squad especially, but I really enjoyed it and to just get a taste of it makes me want it more, you know?
"With the way the women's game is going, football can have a high or low at any opportunity to having the chance to make that jump and then let's say you're not in the form of your life and you may need some extra game time, knowing the U23s is there to help offer that support and have the European League we have makes it more competitive, it's not just game time.
“The girls who come back to us, their attitude you can't fault, they're working hard every day and that's what so great about this group, we're all buzzing for whoever gets the call-up.”
"My job is to make it so when they step up they can focus on the football…”
Beever-Jones is one of a few who has now enjoyed a taste of senior football, with fellow forwards Ebony Salmon and Katie Robinson also capped at senior level, with the latter even going to the World Cup last summer.
Coates is acutely aware coming back down a level can be a tough transition and it’s about ensuring a player looks at it as an opportunity rather than being dropped out of the first team, as well as ensuring what they get at U23 level is as closely replicated to the first team set up as possible.
"My job is to make it so when they step up they can focus on the football,” says the former Leeds United player. “They don't have to learn the style of play, the schedules, sitting in front of you guys, It’s preparing them for all the different things. When they do make that transition, it's a seamless one, so it's a bit of everything.”
It also comes back to Coates’ earlier point about development and results going hand-in-hand, in that her front line of Robinson, Salmon and Beever-Jones is an incredibly competitive one, but one she admits she doesn’t want for too long, because her main role is to ensure they become permanent features of Wiegman’s first team.
"I say to them all the time, with the nicest respect I don't want to work with you for long!” she chuckles. “I want you to go on a springboard and hopefully get opportunities and stay there, that's the ultimate goal. I think the way you've seen us handle the squad, you've seen young players coming in, older players training up.
“Who needs that opportunity? Who is really close and who might have potential but is more of a slow burner and needs something else? It's how we plan for all those individuals within the team and don't get me wrong we get it wrong sometimes, we're human too, but with the right focus and having the right clarity…Kay [Cossington] and Sarina are really clear to me, our job is to develop players for the first team.
“We could go and win every single game with the U23s but if not a single player goes through I would see that as a failure. Likewise, if players go through but we're not competing, I'd find that really tough because delivering that style of play is important also.”
While there may be a core of players aged 22 and 23 ready for the next step, there’s also a solid core of players in the squad 21 and under still developing, including an impressive 10 currently playing in the Championship.
Nine of them are contracted to second division clubs, while Hannah Silcock is on loan at Blackburn Rovers from Liverpool, but it emphasises how spread out the quality is and how many young players are using the ultra-competitive Championship for game time.
One of those is Southampton’s full-back Ella Morris, who at 21 is enjoying a really solid season with the Saints and is still in a promotion race, even though her side lag slightly behind Sunderland and Crystal Palace with just a couple of games to go.
"I think it's building on what Jess said and what you said, the key word is pathway,” says Morris, who has been at Southampton since she was 14. “There is a clear way of getting into the senior team. Like Jess said, there was a big gap but now there's a transition and what we're doing is mimicking them so if one day we do step up we already know the ways they press, how they play out, the little things which make us ready to jump in and compete.
"It shows the opportunity is there to step up and go whenever Sarina thinks you're ready. When they come down, it just drives the standards because they've been in that environment. I've spoken to Robbo so much about the World Cup and the environment and it's so good we can learn from other young players like they've learned from other players.”
Even at 21, Morris has plenty of players younger than herself who could still make up a core of this squad for the next couple of seasons.
Manchester City duo Laura Blindkilde Brown and Ruby Mace are still only 20, as are Neve Herron, Mia Ross, Naomi Layzell, Tara Bourne and Anouk Denton, along with Beever-Jones, while Silcock and Morris’s Southampton teammate Lucia Kendall are just 19.
Many are also enjoying the benefits of positive seasons at club level, with Morris and Naz certainly two of those, whether it be a promotion race or an upcoming FA Cup semi-final.
"I think for me it's been really exciting to be involved in a promotion race with Southampton,” says Morris. “We've had a good season after all and we're looking to finish as high as we can.
“The individual development I've had both at the club and also when I've come here has been really good, so playing against international opposition, the range and variety of players you come up against has been really good. Competitive games help develop us at the end of the day.”
Naz adds "I think the club has gone in a really good direction. For me personally, getting more minutes in the league, more contributions, it's been good. We have the chance with the cup, so it's been a really exciting season.
"Coming here, no game here is an easy game. We have to really make sure we put a good performance out. We play different oppositions, different tests, we're really learning and building as a team. Different players have come in and I think we've done really well.”
The whole squad currently plays within England bar midfielder Ruby Grant who is at Swedish giants BK Häcken, and they now have former players such as Remi Allen and Anita Asante to rely on too, who both recently joined the coaching staff, as well as former Aston Villa head coach Gemma Davies who acts as Coates’ assistant.
The person they want to impress the most though is Wiegman, and whether she’s in attendance in Telford on Thursday night or not, Beever-Jones says it doesn’t change their approach to any game.
"I've said this a few times, but we always play like Sarina is watching anyway,” says the Chelsea star. “That's the main thing. It's a fine margin now between those getting the call up and those on the cusp and it's an exciting time for us to play these games and have these unbeaten records. We have one game left and we want to end the season on a high.”
For Coates, attention will also now turn to next season, with this the final game for England of the current campaign.
On Wednesday, her former U19s began their final round of qualifiers for this summer’s European Championships with a win, and the link between that group and the U23s is just as important for her.
"It's all about looking at who's going that way and then who's coming up next year. I'm hopeful if they qualify myself and Gemma can get out there to watch them.
“They'll have some preparation camps we will be present at like we did with the first team, because that connection is really important.”