Does anyone remember those old ‘Good News Bad News’ jokes?
West Ham United Ladies General Manager Karen Ray (as she likes to be referred to): Ladies… I’ve got some good news…. and I’ve got some bad news. What do you want first?
West Ham United Ladies: (in unison) WHAT’S THE BAD NEWS?
West Ham United Ladies General Manager Karen Ray: We don’t have a clue about tactics or formations and we haven’t got a Scooby about what our best team is. The likelihood is that we will finish second bottom of the league by the grace of Swindon who are so (hang on the O to emphasise) so (and again) bad.
West Ham United Ladies: (in unison) OH! SO WHAT’S THE GOOD NEWS THEN?
West Ham United Ladies General Manager Karen Ray: We’re going to be playing in the WSL1 next season.
Bizarrely, that is a genuine possibility and not a joke. The news this week coming from the FA is there is going to be a restructure of the Women’s League designed to create a top tier Super League comprising of the fourteen teams with the most moolah and the ability to comply implicitly with the FA’s rules, regulations and stipulations. Apparently in November the teams already in WSL1 and 2 can apply for a ‘licence’ to play in the Creme deal Creme league, and if there are any spaces left other clubs from the soon to be ‘cardigans for goalposts’ leagues they can apply March 2018, leaving just the close season to go from Am to Pro.
West Ham Ladies have announced their intentions to go for one of those vacant slots, and if successful, they will kick off next season in WSL1. A scary but exciting prospect for the club, manager/s and players alike…. or maybe just for the club.
West Ham United Ladies General Manager Karen Ray’s much vaunted ‘Five year rags to riches vision’ to ascend to the dizzy heights of the WSL1 looks like having four years knocked off it in one fell swoop.
The formation of the new WSL1 league requires teams to commit to having full-time professional playing staff delivering a minimum of 16 hours of daytime contact per week, as well as an elite performance environment including strength and conditioning, performance preparation, medical and player welfare.
The new proposals throw up more questions than answers.
16 hours doesn’t seem very much for a full-time occupation. Do the 16hours include match days?
If you have an away fixture at say Manchester City ( hells bells) the 16 hours would almost all be consumed in one day. Some of our Ladies have good careers….. is there a way that they could do both?
Allegedly there have been some enquiries from some WSL players already with a view to signing for West Ham. Where does that leave the players that have ‘bought into’ the five year plan?
And what happens if West Ham are not granted a licence or there are no spaces to be had? With the reshuffle of the leagues…. instead of going up two divisions, they could find themselves in the division below.
So where does that leave the coaches and playing staff?
No matter how much the club spin and sugar coat the facts, the fact is it has taken West Ham United (proper) a year in charge to win one solitary single league match, and as a West Ham Ladies fan, that has been pretty hard to endure.
Whoever is in charge of team selection (it’s either team manager Greg de Carnys or West Ham United Ladies General Manager Karen Ray or both) doesn’t seem to know their best team. The line up is shuffled more times than a deck in Vegas, and players disappear unannounced more times than Debbie Mcgee during a matinee seaside spectacular, and others are signed in a kind of Supermarket Sweep panic buy kind of fashion.
Their latest arrival though was like a breath of fresh air. She’d been out of football for two years and on Thursday she attended her first training session. Shirvae Edwards. When her name was mentioned it was music to my ears (Burn/Deep Purple). I was ecstatic with the news. I had often encouraged her on social media to get her footy boots back on, now finally she had and I couldn’t wait to see her silky skills back on a pitch.
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| Shirvae Edwards |
Surprisingly I didn’t have to wait long. Just three days later Shirvae was in the starting line up. Understandably she wasn’t match fit and lasted the pre planned 30 minutes before making way for promising young talent Kelly Wealthall. In those 30 minutes though we saw glimpses of Shirvae’s natural ability with her deft touches and intelligent flicks, but she had no support. She had been given solitary confinement in the Lewes half of the pitch whilst her team mates were busy parking the bus up the other end. Maybe … just maybe .. it would've been a more astute decision to give her the final 30 minutes enabling her to shine against a tiring defence on a wet heavy pitch.
But what do I know….
The game was lost by giving the ball away too often and not learning from last season’s fixture where Lewes goals came mainly from dead ball situations. West Ham Ladies are capable of playing attractive football, but they need to be imposing it on opponents further up the pitch.
And so to this Sunday’s home fixture against Swindon Ladies. Swindon ladies have been poor this season, they have zero points and are shipping goals like nobody’s business. I expect West Ham Ladies’ strikers to shine, throw caution to the wind and to win well. If they don’t…. I expect to hear more Kiplingesque (Rudyard not the cake bloke) motivational battlecries or ‘we woz robbed’ excuses churned out by the media propaganda machine.
COYLI
Post Script: I was surprised that the players had to make their own travel arrangements to Lewes and that they didn't have a club photographer in tow........ just an observation.
Disclaimer: These views are my own and not of the club. (No shit! I hear you cry)
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