England No.1 Karen Bardsley reflects on a momentous season for double winners Manchester City & looks ahead to the next challenge – a Champions League quarter final…
WSL1 champions, unbeaten in the league, FA WSL Cup winners – how do you view your double-winning year?
It’s been a great season. We achieved the goal we set three years ago of bringing some silverware to the club, playing beautiful football and growing the game a little bit. But it has also been a bit tumultuous because there have been ups and downs – most of them have been very emotional away from the pitch.
Chief of which must have been the tragic loss of your former City teammate Zoe Tynan, who took her own life aged just 18. How did that affect the squad?
That was really hard for us to handle. It was a big shock. Everyone took it in their own way and the stages of mourning hit everyone differently, but it wasn’t until we had a fixture against Arsenal that it really sent the message home. We walked into the training room. Her kit was folded up on her seat. We had t-shirts made and black armbands – it still brings up a lot of difficult memories, but good ones of what kind of a girl she was, how happy she was around us and how much she meant to us.
There were a number of tributes to her in the football community…
It spurred us on and we had quite a few opportunities to honour Zoe. We wanted Zoe and her family to know they were an integral part of what we achieved this season and we really cared for her.
On the pitch you beat everyone, except Liverpool who you drew with twice…
That was a weird one. It was towards the end of the first half of the season and for whatever reason we couldn’t break them down. Whether it was the way the league was structured that crammed in a lot of games over a short span of time, I’m not really sure. It was frustrating because I remember it was before the break and
we weren’t firing on all cylinders.
Chelsea went into the season as champions, were you gunning for them?
We both have a healthy respect for each other. I have a complete respect for how hard they work, the quality of their players, their mentality. It’s interesting to see what they’ll do next and what we will do to counteract that. It’s exciting. They’re helping us lead the way in the women’s game so they’re constantly pushing us to keep raising the bar and it’s only going to be football that benefits from that. Having said that, I don’t think they were ever in our sights in terms of having to beat them to win the league. It wasn’t really a season built around them – it was more focused on what we needed to do.
Over the season you had a few one-nils. Does that mean standards are rising?
The standard is improving. It can still get better, there’s still a massive discrepancy with a few teams in the league who seem unwilling to invest more in the women’s programmes. I don’t see how you can possibly compete if you’re not willing to invest in allowing your players to become full time. I’m very fortunate because I know what I have here and I’ve been at places where I didn’t have these opportunities. Just feeling like you’re making progress, that you’re training every day and seeing little improvements in your teammates and yourself – that’s encouraging. The standard has definitely improved for the likes of ourselves, Chelsea, Arsenal and Reading – you can see just in their first season in WSL1 that Reading have a philosophy and an identify. They need to get in there full time and get more players on the ball so they can continue to develop. I think they’ll be ones to watch next season.
You’re through to the Champions League quarter-final in March. Can you win it?
Yeah. It’s going to be tough but if you’re going to win anything you need to beat the best teams. We know Wolfsburg or Lyon are waiting for us if we get through. They will have an incredible amount of respect, talent and experience. It’s just making sure our technical and tactical aspects are nine out of 10, if not better – because that’s what it’s going to have to be to win this.
The England squad is dominated by Manchester City players. Is that helpful or should more talent be pushing through from other clubs?
Our working together here makes it easier when we go to England. It helps us knowing how we play together, who we are as people and how we get on. But at the same time you have to embrace the differences that other clubs offer and we’ve got fantastic players in the WSL.
Has the bronze medal success for England in the 2015 World Cup become a fading memory now?
It’s important to remember your successes – you have to celebrate them and know when to stop because you don’t want to live in the past. And as great as it felt to win a bronze medal, ultimately we could have had more or less. We could have been in a final and come out with a gold or a silver, which I fully believe we were capable of achieving. It’s nice to have the World Cup experience as an opportunity to look back and say ‘how could we have done better there?’.
The Euros draw is quite favourable, except you kick off against Scotland!
Now the draw has happened it has made it real. It’s almost palpable. We’ve played Scotland loads in the past and the games have always been very physical and emotional – but the thing is how can you rein in the emotion and be logical in that situation? I’m really looking forward to testing that theory out.
Looking ahead, you did a lot of coaching at university, is that something you want to explore further?
I had been aiming to get started on my Level 2 coaching for a while and I finally completed that recently. So that was a big tick box for me in terms of trying to figure out what direction I want to head in.
You’ve also started a Masters degree in Sports Directorship, so is it governance or coaching for you when you retire?
I’m not sure to be honest. I do like the idea of coaching but I also like the idea of being able to affect change on a bigger scale. As a coach you can work with younger kids and help share your experience, but how much can you really shape? You can hopefully guide them to make the right decisions but I find myself wanting to promote women’s football and change perceptions.
Are you hoping to help correct the under-representation of women in boardrooms and bootrooms?
I’ve just started my journey and these are conversations I am going to have that will probably lead me towards the career I eventually choose. I see there’s a niche in women’s football – how do we close the gap between the men and the women’s game? I’m not sure that’s ever going to be viable for clubs but I just want to be in a place where I can be most effective and I can really enjoy what I’m doing. If you’re not passionate about it then what’s the point?
WHAT WERE THE PIVOTAL POINTS IN MAN CITY’S MEMORABLE SEASON…
Man City 1 – 0 Notts County
“A few seasons ago we would have ended up drawing that game with a scrappy goal. We gave away a penalty but fortunately they missed it. Those kind of results that we managed to grind out
just shows me the shift in our mentality.”
Chelsea 2 – 1 Man City (AET)
City’s only loss in 2016 was a cup semi-final against Chelsea. “We were disappointed. But at the same time that was kind of a pivotal moment when we really managed to turn the season around and we didn’t look back.”
Man City 1 – 0 Arsenal
Days after the death of their former teammate Zoe Tynan, City faced Arsenal at home. “That was a big turning point for us to come together and add another human level to why we are doing what we do.”
HOW DID KAREN COME TO PLAY FOR ENGLAND?
Karen was born and raised in the States by English parents (and fans of her club’s city rivals Man Utd). But there was never any doubt about her choice to represent England in international football…
“My decision was to connect with my roots, my parents and grandparents. I always considered myself to be closer to my English heritage than my American citizenship,” Karen explains.
“I thought ‘what a great opportunity it would be to be part of something like that. And what an opportunity to have a major impact, to become a driver in a country where women’s football isn’t where it should be’.
It sounds a lot to think about as a 15 or 16 year old, but that was certainly rolling around in my brain at the time.
“I wrote to the FA loads, sent them VHS tapes and letters – saying ‘let me help you’. It took them ages to respond. And it wasn’t until I was called up by the US Under 21s that they were interested. “I went on a brief trial when I was 18 with the England seniors when they flew to America to play the US. I was there two or three days. They got smashed by the States – I think it was 6-0. Then they got smashed by Canada. I got a couple of emails a little bit later saying ‘we’d like you to join us for an Under 19 European Championship’. That’s how it started.”
Karen was talking to Lee Hart for the PFA’s 4 The Player Magazine which is available online this week at www.thepfa.com
