In just 18 days, Scotland’s very first FIFA Women’s World Cup begins, as Shelley Kerr’s side take on England in Nice. Of the 23 players that went to Euro 2017, 17 have been named in their squad for France, including Birmingham City’s Chloë Arthur. Known as a midfielder at club level, the 24-year-old is cast in the role of full-back when international duty calls. Chloë featured in last month’s issue of She Kicks, sharing insight on her background, the challenge of switching between two positions, and plenty more, including how she and Scotland teammate Claire Emslie became ‘Soda and Lime’. Here is the extended version of that interview…
SK: When Marc Skinner signed you for Birmingham, he said you had the potential to be one of the best box-to-box midfielders in the country and one of the best players in the WSL. It’s obviously hard to say anything other than ‘I’ll play wherever as long as I’m playing,’ but do you see yourself as a midfielder or full-back?
CA: Well I know you say about playing where I’m put, but that literally is the case and it has been the case for years. It’s not just been over the last year that I’ve been put into full-back. I’ve played centre-mid from youth – even from the 17s, 19s and up to the first team – and a full-back with the national team. At club level, I do see myself as a centre-mid, and whenever I go away on international duty, I see myself as a full-back; it doesn’t really cross over. I’d love to say I’m exceptional at one position, and then just keep working on it, because it is hard. Sometimes I go into camp and it just demands that extra focus, but I’m used to it now. In training at club level, I try and make sure I’m thinking about full-back positional stuff as well, and every manager I have, I try and incorporate that. With the new manager now (Marta Tejedor), and with Marc (Skinner), I said I’m obviously a full-back with the national team so it’d be good to try and work on some things. I’ve never had a club say ‘we want to sign you as a full-back.’ I’ve just tried to balance it.
SK: What was Marc like to work with? Was he always instilling belief, could he be harsh when needed, was he very detailed?
CA: I think myself and everyone else who’s worked under Marc would say that the biggest thing is his passion for the game, and for getting the most development from every player. He’s very good with individuals, he’s very good technically, and he worked on specific details a lot and he was just a really nice person. He made time for everyone and he just genuinely wanted the best out of every single player and you could see that. Then he could also be very harsh so you knew you couldn’t mess around. We just worked very well as a team and we try and install that now. The things we’ve worked on in the last 18 months with Marc we try and incorporate into our play still, because ultimately that’s how we’ve become quite successful. I’ve not even been here a year, so I only worked with Marc a short while, but the first time that I met him I bought into what he said straight away and I really believed in his playing style. It’s just down to his passion for his team.
SK: How’s it been different since Marta (Tejedor) came in?
CA: I think there’s still similar things in that she wants us to play, but obviously with every manager there’s changes, and we’re just kind of in that transition phase. It’s obviously not ideal that it’s midway or almost at the end of the season, but that’s just football, that’s just the nature of the game, that managers come and go. She’s very attacking-minded. We’re still all getting to know her, and she’s still getting to know us, so it’s hard to say, but we’re with her every day and we’re trying to install what she wants. She’s a lovely person; obviously there’s a language barrier as well. She’s quite a direct person, so she’ll say it how it is.
SK: Back to Scotland, qualifying for the team’s first major tournament, with Euro 2017, you started the games with England and Spain. What were the emotions you remember from the tournament and those weeks in the Netherlands?
CA: It is just a mixed bag of emotions; football is ups and downs, and that’s what it was. For me, I wasn’t initially in the squad; I think they announced 22 and one extra player, and I happened to be the final player announced. So I wasn’t mentally as prepared, because I didn’t actually think I was going. It was kind of more excitement, and I was really fortunate to get to play the England and the Spain game. The England game was just…it wasn’t the best of performances and it was really demoralising getting beat 6-0, because we knew it was a big game, it had been built up. It’s almost like it took us a couple of games to get going. The Spain game, we played really well; we had to win 2-0 but we only won 1-0. Personally, that was one of my strongest games with the national team as a full-back, and I think that gave me a boost. ‘I can play at this level and I can play for the national team if I really work hard.’
I was kind of in and out of the squad at that time, just before the Euros, so I really wanted to make my mark in the team. I don’t know if I did, because we got a new manager (Shelley Kerr taking over from Anna Signeul). It was kind of hard to end the tournament on a high, because we didn’t win our first two games, but those are the things that you learn from and now we’re at another, even bigger major tournament. The excitement and the preparation is at a whole new level. After the Euros, we’ve kind of upped our game in every area.
SK: On that point, it feels from the outside like you’re going into this World Cup as a strong team, one that’s kept building and progressing. When you’re together with the team, in training for example, do you look around and think ‘look at the players we’ve got here, this feels really good’?
CA: Yeah, definitely, and I think that a lot of the time, Scotland as a nation can be regarded as the underdogs, but looking around at the team, we’ve got so many players playing full-time professionally in the English league, or abroad, and even some players based at home. We’ve got a real mix of players and we really believe that we can do some damage and prove to other nations and the world that we’re here to compete. We look at the games we’ve played in preparation; we played USA, Denmark, Iceland and got really good results. We beat Denmark and I can’t remember the last time we did that. It was difficult to get everything put into place but we’ve had that time to put it all together.
SK: Obviously making sure you’re selected, but have you stopped and thought about any of this summer and what it would be like to line up and hear the anthem, or even to score? Players can seemingly be encouraged now to be a bit robotic in what they say and not give too much away, but is that not what it’s about, enjoying the magic of it and getting carried away?
CA: Yeah, of course. I think everyone would dream of playing in a World Cup. Even as a kid, you’d be dreaming of playing full-time and playing in a World Cup, so when it’s actually a few months away and you’re potentially going, you can’t not think about it. At the same time, you have to keep yourself grounded and understand that you never know what’s going to happen. Playing for your country and singing the national anthem every time is an honour, so to do it at a World Cup would be unbelievable. I think every player would be dreaming of those moments. I’m just praying that I’ll be selected and hopefully I can prove myself at the next camp in Pinatar.
SK: Do you remember when you first saw women’s football in front of you – on TV, in person, or a female footballer you could identify with?
CA: To be honest, I think my mum watches more football than me, even to this day! She watches Match of the Day and all that and I’m like ‘I should be the one doing this!’ Growing up, it sounds bizarre, but I never really watched football that often; maybe if it was on and my brother and my dad were watching it, or my mum. I never really had that player, or women’s player, to look up to, just because I wasn’t aware as much. I loved the sport so I was always out playing with the boys, but I didn’t really think ‘oh I want to be like this player.’ I just wanted to grow up and kind of all I knew was football. I remember being in youth squads and you talk about the players in the first team, but I never actually thought that I would make it that far. Not that I didn’t think I was good enough, but it’s just something that you don’t really think would happen, so for me to be in this position, and younger kids to be looking at us, and we’re role models, it’s so surreal to think back.
SK: What’s Shelley (Kerr) been like to work with, is there anything different about the way she works?
CA: Shelley’s really passionate, and she’s played internationally, so she knows the ins and outs of it. She really wanted to change the way we were playing, because if you looked at our team, we had such a good team but we weren’t getting the results we wanted. Her and (assistant) Andy (Thomson) work really closely together and they’ve got the same ideas and are really open to new ideas and playing different players. The last game we played, she made ten changes, which creates a really good trust within the squad. I really like working under Shelley so I’m looking forward to the future.
SK: Do you get worked up before a game or just try and stay mellow? Will you replay things a lot after a game, in your head, or move on?
CA: I’m probably an over-thinker. I want to be better, so probably like a lot of players, I think about the negatives more than the positives, because I just want to be a perfectionist when I’m playing. I want to do everything right, which isn’t possible of course, so sometimes I’ll have to calm myself down and think about the positives. I actually sometimes write things down just to get things out of my head. Before a game, it’s always nerve-racking, but it’s adrenaline and you’re really excited, so I think nerves are a good thing. I just try and listen to music before a game and relax a bit.
SK: You came to England as you were turning 21, signing for Bristol City from Hibernian. What have these three years done for you, more as a person?
CA: When I lived in Bristol, I lived in a clubhouse, so it’s good that I wasn’t living on my own and I had the girls in the team there. Things like how to do your own washing, dishes, but I’d say I was quite good at that before. You become more independent and you just try to find things to fill your time, because when you train in the day you’ve got your evenings. You definitely grow up when you move away from home and it makes you miss things as well, like family and friends. Obviously, I can’t just walk home or drive home, it’s too far away, so I think I do miss home a lot as well, but I’ve loved every minute and full-time football was what I wanted to do. You kind of take the sacrifices to follow your dream of playing full-time.
SK: Either at Bristol City or now at Birmingham, have you lived with teammates? And has that helped?
CA: There’s a clubhouse at Birmingham but there’s also my flatmate, Marisa (Ewers), she had a spare room because one of the players before I’d come had just left. It worked out perfectly because it’s a two-bedroom flat that we rent in Solihull, which is a perfect location for training. I’m glad I’ve moved in because I think the whole clubhouse thing, I’ve already done that, and I wanted to be in more of a quiet environment. I don’t think I could go back to living in a clubhouse again; it’s manic!
SK: Tell me about these ‘Soda’ and ‘Lime’ nicknames with Claire Emslie! Were you working in a bar together when you were at Bristol?
CA: So Claire worked there initially, and me and Claire were like the best of friends, and I ended up working there a couple of nights a week. One of the funniest times of my life was working with her. The soda and lime came about…I’m trying to think. Someone asked for a soda water, and you know, it’s carbonated water, and there’s a button for carbonated water, and one of us didn’t know what it was. It was just like an ongoing joke that snowballed and we became Soda and Lime. I’m actually Soda and she’s Lime, so we said that if we qualify for the World Cup we’ll get it on our boots. Claire’s actually saved as Lime in my phone. The story doesn’t sound funny but at the time it was hilarious! The things that happened there wouldn’t have been funny if it was with anyone else. Me and Claire talk about it, like how we qualified for a World Cup and a year before at Bristol we were working in like a 5-a-side place, a function room, where they’ve got a bar. We were working in a bar together and to then qualify for a World Cup, it’s just surreal how things change in a year.
SK: Will you actually get it on your boots?
CA: Yeah we still talk about it now! ‘Oh we’re definitely getting that on our boots.’ You’ll see if it actually happens, but I’m sure we will.
SK: Are there any setbacks or disappointments you’ve had in football that stayed with you, or changed the way you thought or felt?
CA: When I was a kid, I was definitely a late developer and I didn’t stand out at all, even at Under-15s. So I think Under-15s was that first age group I had trials for at Celtic, and I must have been on trial for about three months. At the time, because I was young, I just thought I was going to training and going along with it, I didn’t know I was on trial, but it’s still a running joke with my managers to this day. The coaches were Paul Brownlie and Tina Ferguson, and they really believed in me and took me on at Celtic; I don’t know what they saw. Paul got an Under-15s national coach along to one of our games, and I ended up playing well, and I think if it wasn’t down to him doing that then I wouldn’t have been involved in the national setup. Yeah, when I was younger I was never a standout and I didn’t feel that great of a player, and it wasn’t until Under-19s that I started to play more.
Players like Caroline Weir, Fiona Brown got moved up earlier, and I just wasn’t one of those standout players. Growing up, I didn’t really feel that confident, and then I’d say in the Under-19s, I started to play better, and then when I got brought up to the Celtic first team and I started to play more, I just kind of blossomed. It took a long time and a lot of graft. There were times when I remember saying to my mum, ‘I don’t want to play full-time, I don’t want to do that as a job.’ When I think about it now, it’s just crazy that I actually thought about that, not wanting to play football for a living. If I didn’t have that passion – I used to play football every single night, I’d always have a ball in my hand – and if it wasn’t for the belief of coaches, then I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today.
SK: So was that loss of enjoyment down to not feeling like you were good enough at the time?
CA: Obviously when you’re younger, you just love it and you play it regardless, but when it would come to clubs and selection, I wasn’t really standing out or playing, so it’s kind of like that love for it gets taken away a bit. ‘Oh I’m not actually that good.’ Maybe as well the age I was, being a teenager and the pressures of having to get a job, go to university and all that. It was probably just down to a mix of things.
SK: Lastly, with the demands of playing at this kind of level, what else do you enjoy doing to give you that break from football?
CA: I really like to go to gigs. I quite like to book them; not necessarily big gigs that are lots of money, just like little gigs. I went to see Picture This last night, Dermot Kennedy; just all different people I like to go and see. Just going for coffees as well and relaxing, because you have to stop thinking about football at times; when the day’s done, the day’s done, type thing. If you think about it 24/7 you’ll turn into a football, so it’s just about doing different things and spending time with the people who mean the most to you. I just try and chill out. I’m quite a laid-back person anyway so I don’t have to be doing things 24/7. Watching Netflix, reading my book, coffees, but I’d definitely say I love going to gigs and just being with people that mean the most.
Interview by @chris_brookes
