by The position predicted by the Guardian authors: 1. (NB: This is not necessarily Suzanne Wrack’s prediction, but the average of our authors’ tips)
Placement last season: 1st place
The plan
A new manager, Sonia Bompastor, a largely new team and a fresh start. Keeping Chelsea at the top will be no easy task, but balancing the freshness that change brings with the consistency that general manager Paul Green provides could be a recipe for success. Looking at their preseason form, the signs are good. Defeats to Gotham FC and Arsenal on their US tour were followed by a stunning 9-0 defeat to Feyenoord. Following that win, Bompastor gave an insight into how she wants her team to play.
Related: Moving the goalposts | Alex Morgan leaves the sound of success behind and puts US women’s soccer in a better position
“I told the players something really important: we want to be a dominant team,” said the Frenchwoman. “We have a lot of ambition and when we don’t have the ball, I want all the players to make sure we win it back as quickly as possible. That goes for the defense and when we have the ball, we want to keep it to control the game.”
“I like my players to be able to scan and see if there is space or not, recognise that and if the opposition has space, we go ahead and score goals because that’s what the fans come to the stadium for. They want to see us score goals. I think in the last game they really enjoyed it and so did the players.”
It is evident how quickly the players have adapted to their new coach. Whether they can maintain this unity over the course of the season remains to be seen, but the quality of a talented squad will make this easier. Bompastor’s biggest challenge will be to achieve what Emma Hayes failed to do: European glory. The difference, Bompastor said, could be “the chemistry and power we have as a team.”
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The Manager
Bompastor will have to follow in the footsteps of Hayes, who spent 12 trophy-laden years at the club. Having won the Champions League as a player and a coach, Bompastor has an impressive pedigree. She was an instant hit in London, her dry wit and laid-back manner combined with a fierce competitive spirit won Chelsea fans over immediately. Is she, along with her assistant Camille Abily, the person who can take Chelsea to European success? New signing Lucy Bronze believes so. “Chelsea have that winning mentality, they have the experience of beating Barcelona and Lyon and being in a Champions League final,” said Bronze. “But sometimes you don’t just need talent. It’s those final things: the know-how to win the final, being ready and focused, going into that final with a clear head – Sonia, myself and Camille can bring that to Chelsea and get this team over the finish line because the talent is there.”
Picture off the pitch
Reports of a civil war between US private equity firm Clearlake Capital, which owns a majority stake in the club, and billionaire co-owner Todd Boehly do not paint a pretty picture of Chelsea off the pitch. So far, the impact on the women’s team appears to be minimal, with more games being played at Stamford Bridge, massive investment in the squad and the appointment of a top-notch coach. The spin-off of the women’s team from the men’s team into a separate holding company, BlueCo, with the same owners, could play a role in this. The better the women’s team performs, the more attractive it becomes to investors.
Rising star
If you ask Chelsea players who surprised and impressed them during pre-season, you’d be hard-pressed to find one who doesn’t mention 19-year-old Dutchwoman Wieke Kaptein. Will the midfielder play enough in such a strong squad? Bompastor certainly dangles that carrot in front of all the young players. “My vision is that I don’t care about age. It’s about performance and if a player at 17, 18 or 19 plays better than more experienced players, then she’s playing. It’s as simple as that,” she said. “At the moment she’s performing and she deserves to be in the starting line-up in this team. She’s clever. She runs a lot. She’s technically gifted. She sees the game and understands it.”
Celebrities
About 80% of the team could qualify for this category. Lauren James, Millie Bright, Mayra Ramírez, Guro Reiten, Erin Cuthbert, Sam Kerr, Catarina Macario, the list is endless. But we’d like to give a special mention to Bronze. She’s nearing the end of her career but shows little signs of wear and tear; her stunning performance for Barcelona in the Champions League final turned the year back and then some. Her European knowledge could make the difference for Chelsea this year, not least because of her five Champions League wins, but also because of her multilingualism. “In the game the other day, we had Sandy Baltimore and Mayra Ramírez at numbers 9 and 10 and neither of them speaks English, so I tried to shout in French and Spanish at the same time,” said Bronze, who also translates football terms into English for Bompastor.
This summer’s business
Even without new signings, Chelsea would still have the strongest squad in the league. The six new arrivals include Bronze and Sandy Baltimore from Paris Saint-Germain. There were also a few departures, including Fran Kirby, Maren Mjelde, Jess Carter and Melanie Leupolz. In addition, eight players were loaned out. Smart recruiting and knowing when to let players go has been a key feature of Hayes’ tenure.
Where do they play?
Chelsea have done a brilliant job of making Kingsmeadow a home for the women’s team. The branding and thought that has gone into the stadium has been impressive, but it has come just as the Blues have started to outgrow it. Parking is a nightmare, queues aren’t great, but that’s the price of success. Four of the team’s WSL games and all of their Champions League matches will be played at Stamford Bridge this season, so this move was long overdue. However, the club has struggled to get ticket pricing right. If you solve this problem and remain ambitious about increasing the number of games played at the main stadium, it won’t be long before this team is regularly selling out Stamford Bridge.
