Susanna and Georgia unpack the return of the WSL which saw Lauren James bag another hat-trick as Manchester United fans brought 'Marc Skinner out' banners to Stamford Bridge. The duo also unpack whether Bunny Shaw is receiving enough attention for her talent as well as what West Ham need to do to get back on track.
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00:00 [music] Welcome back to the Women's Super League
00:05 Show with myself, Susanna Sealy. We are once again joined by National World Rider, Georgia.
00:12 It's been a long time, I think, since we've seen you on the show. I feel very pleased
00:17 you are back. We are unfortunately missing Graham this week. He was sorry he can't be
00:20 with us. We have lots to get into as the WSL returned last weekend, so obviously plenty
00:29 of match action to get involved with, as well as Emma Hayes becoming the first woman to
00:36 win the FWA Tribute Award. She said some lovely comments after, which we will get into in
00:44 just a moment, but what do you make of her becoming the first woman to win this award?
00:49 If there was going to be someone to do that, it would be Emma. There's not really much
00:55 else to say. What a woman. The WSL is really going to miss her. She's going to miss it
01:01 as well. I know we're going to touch on her quotes in a short minute, but that's one of
01:05 the things she mentioned, was how much she really is going to miss Chelsea. I know it
01:09 kind of probably is time for her to bring on a new challenge, but it's just going to
01:14 be so strange, somebody else being at Chelsea. I am just going to dive in. I know we said
01:20 we were going to wait, but she was upset, obviously, because it is the end of an era.
01:29 Sorry, I'm just pulling the quotes up.
01:32 Yeah, no worries. She said, "We're here, we can't go backwards." I think this is probably
01:40 one of the most poignant bits, is "All I really wanted as a child was role models, and to
01:45 think children today have them is my favourite achievement." She then went on to say how
01:51 she's going to sort of sob her eyes out the last few weeks that she's at Chelsea. "When
01:57 I was growing up and aspiring to play an Epic Cup final at Wembley for Tottenham and being
02:02 Glenn Hoddle, scores of young girls and boys are thinking now about how amazing Millie
02:07 Bright is or Sam Kerr is. I think those are the moments I pinch myself about more than
02:11 I do the achievements."
02:13 Yeah, and then WFA chair John Cross, I think what he said as well was poignant, as you
02:20 say. He said, "They demand more respect because of what she's done for the women's game overall.
02:25 She's completely transformed the landscape, not just for Chelsea, the WSL, the England
02:29 national team, but for football in general." Yeah, she really has. I mean, the fact that...
02:35 And this will stay with me forever, and I feel like I bring this up all the time, I
02:37 know we talk about Emma Hayes, but when she was linked to clubs, and I think Grimsby wanted
02:42 her, and somebody asked her during a press conference, "Oh, what do you make of these
02:47 links?" And she was like, "Well, I'm flattered, but I don't actually know where Grimsby is."
02:51 And that quote's just sat with me for all these years, I think it's hilarious. But it's
02:55 just, she's been linked to all these men's clubs over the years, and it's just been,
03:00 "No, no, no." And now she's moving on, and she's not going to a men's club, which is
03:05 another thing I think is worth mentioning, is that she could walk into a position, not
03:11 the Premier League, I don't think the world is ready to open that box just yet, rightly
03:17 or wrongly, but the lower leagues, for sure, she could walk into that and do an amazing
03:21 job, but she doesn't want to. She wants to stay in the women's game, and that's what
03:24 I love so much, and this is going to be amazing to see her with the USA, and the WSL will
03:31 be a much quieter place, I think, without Emma. And I mean that in the nicest way, because
03:39 she's such a big character, she's such a leader, and it'll be so strange, but let's see what
03:45 the USA can do with her.
03:46 - 100%, yeah, and as you say, she's such a strong figure, but I mean, there's no being
03:53 around the bush with her. What you see is what you get, and that is something that you
03:57 also really want to see. She's not someone that's going to come in with flowers all over,
04:03 trying to make the women's game something that it's not. She comes in, and she's produced
04:09 one of the finest teams we've ever seen, and they're winning all these awards, and they've
04:14 got some of the best players in the world, not just because of what she's done, but arguably
04:20 because of how she's worked it. How are Chelsea going to be when she goes? Obviously, we saw
04:26 a couple of weeks ago, Sam Kerr, the two of them were in a press conference together,
04:31 Sam Kerr making jokes that she's not allowed to speak to Emma Hayes after she leaves, but
04:37 it's going to be a huge loss for the club, and to see how far they've come, it's very
04:44 interesting to see what happens after.
04:46 - Yeah, it's like, I just can't imagine it, personally. I mean, I know it is the way football
04:54 is. You can't have the same players forever. You can't have the same manager forever, but
04:59 it's still just so strange. I feel like you can't imagine Chelsea without imagining Emma
05:03 Hayes, and it's got to be somebody of a similar calibre, I think. I've had these discussions
05:11 of who's going to step in, and I can't form an opinion, because I just can't imagine it,
05:17 just as much as I can't imagine her coaching anybody else. I can't imagine Chelsea having
05:21 anybody else. It's just so strange for me, but it's going to be an exciting one to watch,
05:25 for sure.
05:26 - Yeah, definitely, it'll be exciting. And I wonder, some of the other teams might look
05:31 at it and think that Emma Hayes is the reason for Chelsea's success, and hope that this
05:38 could be the way in to make the SSL slightly more, not more competitive, but Chelsea have
05:45 dominated it for such a long time. But on that note, obviously we should mention, talking
05:51 about Chelsea dominating, how they have come off the back of a win over Manchester United,
06:00 and last week on the show, Graham and I were talking about how massive this could be, not
06:07 just for Chelsea winning the league, but actually Manchester United's season in general. Lauren
06:13 James just went and got a hat trick, just because she can.
06:16 - Just casually.
06:17 - Yeah, just casually. But you watch her play, and she does all these amazing things, and
06:22 she's just so chill about it. I just don't get it. But yeah, so what does that mean for...
06:29 We also saw the sort of Mark Skinner out batter. So that result for Manchester United, what
06:35 is going to happen there?
06:37 - It's hard, isn't it? Because I think United fans have been unhappy for a while. I think
06:44 that the main thing for them was the fact that they let Rousseau and Batye leave. Yeah,
06:50 two big players who have come in and arguably not been replaced. And then there's been talk
06:56 of Ella Toon perhaps not being herself. She's shown flashes of the brilliance that we know,
07:01 but I know a lot of people have kind of been saying she's dipped in form a little. But
07:06 Mark Skinner's come under a lot of pressure. Do I think he's the right manager for Manchester
07:13 United? I'm going to say no. I just think it does... As I just said, you can't have
07:18 the manager all the time, and sometimes it is trying and seeing who fits the bill. And
07:23 I think maybe now... And we forget that United are still so young, and it is okay to still
07:29 be in kind of the trial and error period. They've come on leaps and bounds and people
07:34 forget that they are still only a few years old, really. But it is okay to say, "Thanks,
07:42 but this isn't working anymore, and it's time to bring in someone new and see what they
07:46 can do." But I think the whole Mark Skinner out banner, that's not... You see that in
07:57 men's football all the time. People are always...
07:59 Yeah. And I was going to say, actually, there does seem to be a much deeper unhappiness
08:04 at Manchester United, just in general. It's not just the women's game that we're seeing
08:07 it. We're seeing not so much ten hug out banners, but we do see sort of owners, like the Glazers
08:15 have come under so much fire, not in the past year, but pretty much ever since they've owned
08:21 it. And it doesn't seem that Jim Ratcliffe's input so far has made a sort of huge amount
08:29 of difference. I mean, I know it's only very new, but it hasn't made a huge amount of difference
08:33 in the sort of upset within the side. So I wonder whether that's a sort of a deeper issue
08:39 within the club that's like on both sides of the game, rather than it just being a sort
08:45 of Mark Skinner issue. I'm not sure.
08:48 It's a tough time to be a United fan, I think, for sure. Things don't seem to be going great
08:51 with either the men's or the women's side. I think my personal stance is because I know
08:58 there's been a lot of talk about Gareth Taylor as well at Manchester City, which is what
09:03 I wanted to get onto because he's come under a lot of scrutiny a lot longer than Skinner.
09:07 And correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen any like Taylor out banners or anything.
09:13 So the fact that it's now got to the point where this is being brought into the ground
09:16 and the fans are so unhappy that they are making a statement saying, we don't want you
09:20 at our club anymore. That just shows how deeply unhappy they are with whatever's going on.
09:25 I think maybe they'll take it to the end of the season, see where they're at. I mean,
09:32 United are still in, I'm just looking at the table now, United are still in a decent position.
09:37 You know, it's not over till it's over. They could still close that gap, get Champions
09:40 League. I know there's a bit of a difference between them and Arsenal and City at the moment,
09:45 but they're level on points with Liverpool, which is something I bet a lot of people wouldn't
09:49 have predicted at the start of the season. So I can appreciate the frustrations and maybe
09:54 this is more of a conversation for the summer to say, this hasn't worked. It's time to think
09:59 about something new.
10:00 A hundred percent. And obviously sort of have to answer the question as well, who potentially
10:07 might come in if there are those replacements, who could we potentially see replacing him?
10:14 I don't know. I hate these questions because like, just, I don't know, like, this is why
10:20 I always say I'm so glad it's not my job because I would just find it so difficult. There's
10:25 so much pressure. And on that note, I do feel we have to go to a break so we could pick
10:31 up after and I get, I get off.
10:33 Absolutely saved by the bell. But when we come back from the break, we will touch on
10:38 Man City's results as well as some of the other news, including Arsenal versus Leicester
10:44 in April.
10:45 [WHISTLE]
10:46 (upbeat music)