Bunny Shaw is back and Chelsea stay perfect – Women’s Football Weekly podcast

18:39Sophie Downey:Just imagine being one of those young United fans one of the youngsters you've never seen your team play without May Letizia the concept of her not being there isn't in your wheelhouse of thinking it's amazing

18:51Sanny Rudravajhala:Wow, at 23 as well that is something we talked about Gareth Taylor not necessarily having incredible players at his disposal, which is what he had at Manchester City and what Andre Joglertz gets to work with now. And they look quite revitalised, actually. Kept up their winning run, an emphatic 4-1 win over London City Lionesses at the Joy Stadium. And dynamic and fluid attacks have kind of been the theme of the season so far, it feels, under their new manager. What did we learn from this performance, Tom?

19:28Faye Carruthers:Well, because they lost their first game of the season, very understandably, away to Chelsea, a difficult opening fixture for any new manager, they've kind of gone under the radar a little bit, haven't they? Because they didn't win that first game. But very quietly, they're going about their business rather well and getting better and starting to get a little bit more cohesion and clicking things together. They're not going to have the European football to juggle. And with the threats they've got going forward now, They're looking really dangerous. I thought that they are. What I think it stands out for me is how many chances they're creating.

20:03Faye Carruthers:Like they really are in attack looking very, very dangerous indeed. I'm still not completely sold on them defensively. And that might be fascinating to see if that's exposed against Arsenal this weekend and against the other sort of European hopefuls over the course of the season. But for the time being, I think there's a lot of reason to be positive for Man City fans. I think Grace Clinton has slipped into the side really neatly. It's great to see Burnley Shaw back on the score sheet as well. They've got Miedema looking sharp. So all those things are very positive. And Jäglertz, for somebody, although very experienced in women's football, he's new to this league.

20:44Faye Carruthers:And so far, I think he's kind of got... Yeah, what's the one I'm looking for? Like, credit in the bank now with the Man City fans, I would think. and it's a positive time for them. The big, big test now is on Saturday, isn't it? Because if it didn't go well against Arsenal, then you would suddenly be looking at them having, you know, potentially lost two of the games against their big rivals early on. But if they keep playing like that and get a good result, then they'll be feeling really positive about their start to the season, I think.

21:19Sanny Rudravajhala:Yeah, a solid start, I think it's fair to say. And actually, Bunny Shaw, Sunny, she hasn't quite looked herself this season, but she won and then converted both of the penalties for her side, which put the game out of reach for London City Lionesses. Maybe the confidence boost she needed.

21:37Sophie Downey:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And what's helped her out is everyone else kind of chipping in around her. I mean, she's still been linking up the play pretty well. I think, you know, it's easy to say, you know, her job's to score goals. so she hasn't been scoring them. And then, yeah, with the penalty miss against Spurs the week before, it kind of puts the pressure on. But she's still been making the chances. I mean, yeah, the penalty she won, again, she managed to get like a half yard in the box and had a shot and it hit an arm and then, you know, converted that time. So I think, you know, it's easy to say, oh, she's not been doing too well, you know, obviously not winning the goals.

22:09Sophie Downey:But actually, I think her link-up play has been there and we know what she can do, right? And I am looking forward to seeing her, well, Not so much her, but the rest of the team, I suppose, with a bit more freedom because, yeah, Gareth Taylor football can at times be... You can find yourself daydreaming, I noticed, last season. I'd be there at City and it'd be a slow passage of play and I'd just zone out for a minute and then come back in and then they'd finally get going again. And I think it does...

22:38Sanny Rudravajhala:Are you commentating at this point? I hope not.

22:41Sophie Downey:Well, thankfully, I'm usually the reporter, so I can have a moment. you know it's all you can eat pick and mix at Man City as well you've got to be careful when you go there really careful they look after you yeah before you know it you're just eating it chumming on a cereal bar and you haven't realised your second cereal bar you didn't need to do that but yeah actually I am looking forward to seeing them playing with a bit more freedom and I think we're seeing that at the moment I think you can see that in the fact that they've had those eight different scores I mentioned so yeah Bunny Shaw coming back into it and overall I think we're going to see an exciting team.

23:17Sophie Downey:And that boasts well. And yet the key, not having that Champions League, that's a big boost, a boost. I think we can, my hopes are on City to do well. Even though, you know, I've got no skin in the game here. Bury aren't in the Premier League, in the WSL or anywhere near this. So, you know, I'm completely neutral. This is quite good.

23:33Sanny Rudravajhala:London City are playing with that kind of freedom. They're pretty brave, aren't they? Soph, with the way they tried to possess the ball, take the game to City. But obviously that left them a bit too open at the other end.

23:46Tom Garry:Yeah, they played pretty well for the best part of, you know, until maybe halfway through the second half. And the first penalty for Bunyshaw came along and that just made the score more comfortable for City. But they're trying to play a bit more expansive. They were getting, you know, the front nine involved. Nikita Paris scored again. That will do her the world of good. Another goal against a former club, which, I mean... She loves that. That's not hard to do because she's pretty much played for everyone at this point in time. But yeah, no, and Izzy Goodwin just looks so full of confidence. You know, she took on an audacious shot from about 40 yards out.

24:21Tom Garry:So that just kind of shows that she's brimming with that kind of energy. And you can kind of see what Jocelyn's trying to do. He is trying to move the part so in real time. And that just takes a bit of time for him to get sorted. When I spoke to him after the game against Everton the week before, he was saying that, you know, he didn't get half his players in until the end of August. So he's not had a preseason with them. He's doing things in-game that he wouldn't be doing normally, but just because he's not had the time with them. So they are becoming more defensively cohesive as well, despite the scoreline, but they were just leaving themselves a bit too open to that kind of potent City attack.

24:59Tom Garry:But that will come with time. These games are for him to try things. They're probably not expecting to beat Manchester City at this point in time, given where they are on the journey. It will be the games against those below the top four that he'll be really looking at to try and get those points out of.

25:15Sanny Rudravajhala:Yeah. Right, that's it for part one. In part two, we'll continue to look back at the weekend's action.

25:30Sanny Rudravajhala:Welcome back to part two of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. So Chelsea continued to add to West Ham's early season woes, sweeping Rhianne Skinner's team away in Dagenham. Aggie Beaver-Jones, Ioana Rittin-Kanarid and Erin Cuthbert hitting three in quick succession before Ines Balumu saw a straight red card. Vika Kaptein added the fourth then for Chelsea. And actually, it was a reasonably bright start, I think, from the hosts. But Chelsea's three goals in seven minutes kind of very quickly popped that little bubble, Tom, didn't they? And I wonder whether Rhiann Skinner is going to be worried mainly with how much they wilted defensively in that first half.

26:14Faye Carruthers:Yes, I think particularly when you see the Aaron Cuffbrook goal and everybody in the West Ham shirt just backing off and almost looking a little bit afraid to kind of make a challenge or make a block. that's got to be a little bit worrying when you really need your players to be battling and kind of putting their bodies on the line when you're playing against a team like Chelsea. West Ham, they look bereft of confidence at the moment. They look disjointed at the back. But I think we do have to give more credit to Chelsea, actually. The quality they showed going forward is getting better and better each game through the season.

26:50Faye Carruthers:And we have to shout out Agui Biver-Jones. four starts, four goals. Really pleasing to see for her. She's got a great track record at the moment. And now scoring different kinds of goals. You know, this free kick showed perhaps the confidence that we're now seeing from her, you know, to have the audacity and the ambition to give that a go from that range. She's more than just your kind of in-the-box poacher striker. She's got a lot to her game. And yeah, with that free kick and the cup of gold, they scored a couple of really eye-catching strikes. and shout out to Captain as well, who generally was a real thorn in West Ham's side.

27:28Faye Carruthers:And can we also just sort of, I don't know what the right word is, but almost want to lead a campaign for an end to the hair tug. People need to stop doing this. A, it's like a really stupid way to get sent off. B, it feels like a really horrible thing to do. Why would you do that? If you wanted to cheat by grabbing someone, pull the shirt back. That's a significantly less painful way to try and hinder somebody in an unlawful way. It just needs to be stopped. I'm glad it was a red card because it was just a ridiculous thing to do.

28:08Sanny Rudravajhala:Do you know what it is? I just think it's too tempting. It's playground stuff though. Yeah, but we're not 11.

28:15Tom Garry:It's literally like you're at primary school again and that's what you did in the playground when you were getting cross with each other. I just don't get it.

28:22Sanny Rudravajhala:No, you're a professional footballer. On Aggie Beaver-Jones, by the way, Tom, you mentioned four in four, but she's actually the first Chelsea player to score in five consecutive league appearances since she did it herself back in November 2023 as well. So, I mean, she is some player for sure, maybe pushing herself forward for a starting position. for England going forward, if you're listening, Serena Vigman. Yeah, I mean, look, no doubt of the red card, without a doubt. But the tinkering of the team is what I'm interested in, Soph. You know, it's really interesting seeing what Sonia Bonpastor is doing with the team.

29:02Sanny Rudravajhala:And you had Alyssa Thompson and Riton Canarid playing at wing back. What do you make of the rotations? Or would you prefer that they found a little bit of stability?

29:13Tom Garry:see where do you stand with it I think she's feeling quite comfortable that she can win games and tinker and that's where she's at at the moment I think it might change it will change probably when they come up against your United's and your Arsenal's and that's going to be an interesting game on Friday they're playing United on Friday night so that's going to be an interesting one but I think she's just trying to like she's got so much style quality and so many players to fit into the puzzle and she's just trying to figure that out you're starting to see signs of it you like, Aaron Cuthbert is that permanent figure alongside Kira Walsh in the midfield.

29:48Tom Garry:So that's kind of the heartbeat of the team. Aggie Beaver-Jones is getting these starts up front. She's pretty much made herself undroppable, I think, at the moment, despite the fact that you've got Sam Kerr waiting in the wings. I know she's not quite fit yet, but she will be building that fitness every week that passes. So it won't be too long until she is. But, you know, you saw Alyssa Thompson and Johanna Retting-Kanered both playing wing back and they're both traditionally you know wide players maybe not so often seen in those defensive roles so she's just trying to figure things out trying to figure out what options she has and when the games get really heavy when European football starts next week she's going to need those those rotations and Tom mentioned about the kind of depth with problems with Manchester United you have completely opposite problem with Chelsea right they do not have to worry about their squad depth going into that European competition.

30:40Tom Garry:So it's going to be super interesting. But I think she's said it herself in post-match, you know, she is tinkering. That's why like maybe the performances haven't been all top notch at the moment, but she knows what she's doing and she's getting those wins and she's unbeaten, you know, in the league as Chelsea boss.

30:57Sanny Rudravajhala:Yeah, yeah, it's impressive to watch. That is for sure. I'm not sure if I'm fully on board with all these like big fixtures this early on in the season, by the way. everyone playing each other I don't know about that haven't made my mind up

31:10Faye Carruthers:I agree with that not so much that they're early in the season but they don't all need to happen on the same weekend this happens a lot in the WSL we have to have like a blockbuster weekend when they all play each other like spread them out spread the joy spread the love across the season and stagger these blockbuster head-to-head games when

31:27Sanny Rudravajhala:there's not enough teams to have a blockbuster weekend that like with no disrespect to the other teams in the league by the way But when we're talking blockbuster, we're talking, you know, former WSL winners, the big teams that are in the European competitions, etc. And so maybe they are trying to spread the love by having blockbuster weekends, including other teams, which I absolutely applaud and push forward.

31:54Sophie Downey:Just very quickly on West Ham. That's now two wins in the last 10 WSL games going back to last season. it's very worrying it's 13 goals conceded as well I mean I know they've had some difficult games but overall in fact their only win was against Crystal Palace of course relegated so I mean it's very worrying I'm not really sure what exactly why exactly it's going so badly but you know the 5-1 at home to Arsenal 4-1 upright and this against Chelsea where he was so kind of insipid and allowed Chelsea on so much yeah very worrying for Rianzkin and that only goal they've scored all season was an essay penalty their XG is 4 so they should have scored a few more.

32:32Sophie Downey:But yeah, pretty alarm bell times for West Ham. It's not working at all.

32:35Faye Carruthers:They were listening to our preview pod where I said Shakira Martinez could win the golden boot and they thought, you know what, we'll prove him wrong. We won't score any goals.

32:43Sanny Rudravajhala:The Guardian Women's Football Weekly predictions ruining life for everyone. Tottenham put last week's tricky defeat well and truly behind them. 2-1 victory away to Leicester. Katinka Tamberg and Olivia Holt giving them an early lead. Sam Tierney did pull one back for Leicester, but they couldn't salvage a point in the end. But it was so important for Martin Ho and his side to get back to winning ways. Against a team who we know can be tricky to break down, what was impressive for you about their performance?

33:16Tom Garry:I think they came out in the first half full of energy and got those first two goals quite early on. I think within 20 minutes they were kind of two goals up and that really, really helped them. Their press is really impressive. They're really energetic in terms of closing down the spaces. And in the form of Katinka Tamberg and Olivia Holt at the moment, who is also in really, really good form, they're finding ways to score different kinds of goals, but also stretch the lines of the opponents. And for Leicester, who are very compact, but there is space in behind if you do get there, that's what they were exploiting that first half.

33:50Tom Garry:I think it was so important for Martin Ho and kind of his journey as a Spurs manager to get back to winning ways. so quickly because, you know, they were defeated quite comprehensively by Manchester City last week. And that could have had a real, despite Manchester City being the favourites in that game, the way that they were beating it could have had quite a negative effect or maybe sat the confidence. But they bounce straight back. They have the energy. They look like he's such a tactically astute kind of manager. He knows exactly what he's doing. And yeah, it's very exciting to see this team to come together and kind of the way that they want to play football.

34:27Sanny Rudravajhala:Leicester are looking a little bit more comfortable. Sani as well, Rick Passmore will be proud of their second half performance, I'm sure.

34:34Sophie Downey:Yeah, he's still interim manager, isn't he? But he's really, like, tightened them up. I mean, you need to let the goalies having a good season, a good start so far as well. But yeah, I mean, solid and Sam Tierney as well was their one kind of shining light. So I've been quite impressed with them, at least a bit more solidity. I do wonder at some point, are they going to hire Passmore? Is he just going to keep being in-to-rim? Is he going to just carry on indefinitely? He seems to be working at the moment. But yeah, I mean, I think they can do okay. Impressed by Leicester so far, given that the resource and everything else is not quite there.

35:12Sophie Downey:And yeah, a good win against Liverpool before that, albeit I'm a bit worried about Liverpool as well. But yeah, give the job to Passmore. Or maybe not, maybe just keep him in-to-rim forever. I don't know, working okay?

35:22Sanny Rudravajhala:Yeah, he's a good manager. He used to be Rhianne Skinner's number two. He's been in the women's game for a very long time as well. Let's talk Brighton to round things off. Another bright start for them. Victory over Everton. Michelle Adjumang on the score sheet. Her goal, the decider in a tight encounter in Crawley. It finished 1-0. And actually, over the first three games, Tom, Michelle Agyemang has recorded one of the highest XGs in the league, but she's actually been frustrated in front of goal. Does that, bearing in mind her exploits in the summer, does this goal and her overall performance in this match kind of ease the pressure on her a little bit?

36:03Sanny Rudravajhala:Because I'm sure she will have felt quite a lot on her shoulders.

36:06Faye Carruthers:Yeah, I hope there's no pressure on her because you have to remember how young she is, right? And this was a proper striker's goal, wasn't it? Lovely bit of control and awkward body shape and managed to have the strength to get the finish in from close range. Not an easy finish, but she did really well in the Vox there. I hope there's some sensibleness. I hope there's some sensible...

36:26Sanny Rudravajhala:Sensibility.

36:27Faye Carruthers:Thank you. I hope there's some sensibility around what we expect from her this season. You know, so important in the Euros, but that came so early in her career. I don't think it was ever really the plan for her career trajectory. You know, until April, she wasn't involved in the England senior setup. It was only an injury to Alessia Russo that brought her into the squad as an injury cover for that trip to Belgium. Then she scored the wonder goal in Nervon and then kind of the rest was history with the Euros. But, you know, there is another universe where none of that happened because she wasn't involved in the senior setup.

37:00Faye Carruthers:and then what would our expectations be of a teenage Michelle Ajemang this season? It would be to keep improving, to maybe kind of improve on her goals tally from last season and get more match minutes under her belt and get that experience. And I think she looks stronger than last season, so there's one box being ticked already and she's just going to get better with more and more games. She's got a bit more responsibility this year in that Bryan team, but anybody who maybe was starting the season thinking, oh, Ajemang's amazing. You know, I hope she gets 20 plus goals. Come on, Michelle. Like that's probably a little bit unrealistic at the moment.

37:36Faye Carruthers:And so I'm really pleased for her to get onto the tally board, get herself a goal. And we know she's going to be a big, big, big, big striker in this league for a long, long time. But no pressure on her too early, I think is probably the best thing. And as for Brighton, I think that's their fourth win out of five meetings with Everton. got a bit of a, got Everton's number at the moment. And Everton, meanwhile, I mean, I just think they need to look at their away form. You know, aside from trips to Anfield, their away form over the last like sort of six months is pretty poor, really. So maybe when they need to, when they're leaving the Merseyside geographical region, they need to maybe have a look at what they're doing on their away days, because their away form generally is letting them down a little bit.

38:20Sanny Rudravajhala:Do you think there's almost like a security tag on them? They go outside and like an alarm goes off.

38:26Sophie Downey:Ink explodes

38:28Sanny Rudravajhala:Yeah exactly I mean it was a third straight defeat for them and maybe the pressure is on Brian Sorensen Sani he's not quite finding the cohesion in his team that we saw at times last season Marva close your ears Yeah

38:45Sophie Downey:unfortunate I think and as brilliant as it is that they're playing at Goodison that clearly is an extra element as far as at home. And yeah, they've lost four in a row in all competitions then since that incredible opening win against Liverpool. I mean, he's so experienced as well. He brings in a lot of, like, you know, compatriots from Denmark or a Scandinavian region as well. I think that has taken time to bed in in the past. But yeah, I mean, it does feel like there's not been a massive investment. And then you look at the other side, you look at Brighton, who like, you know, Rosa Carthage was just excellent.

39:25Sophie Downey:And I think just going back to Brighton for a moment, Carthage kind of, I remember her debut against West Ham like last season for Arsenal and she scored and she was great. And then after Eideville left, she was just frozen out and then she's had a foot injury and missed the Euros and all the rest of it. And like a scorpion kick assist for Adjamanque. So she's done really well. And Brighton have been able to bring in like some really good players. And Everton maybe contrasting not being able to do that. I mean, a lot made on Vignola and her Hatchicon debut. But yeah, it's not really coming together at all.

39:58Sophie Downey:That loss to the London City was very worrying as well. But yeah, I mean, pressure. But you've got time. You've got time. I think Everton are a pretty sensible football club, aren't they? But yeah, not great.

40:10Tom Garry:I think it's very clear with Brian Sorensen, he's just trying to figure out, as with so many of these teams at the moment, the moving parts of his side. He did actually invest quite a lot in the summer. He brought in, you know, there's players like Yuka Mamiki who's come in and is super technical. But he's just trying to pick out when to use them at the perfect time. And it's not quite working at the moment. They played very narrow in the first half against Brighton. And it just left Brighton so much space on the flanks and behind to exploit. So Brighton, we know, is such a good pressing team.

40:42Tom Garry:They picked them off and then they could hit the wide areas. And there'd be space for Kiko Seiki to run in or Rosa Kofagi to run into. and he changed that in the second half but it just didn't seem to quite flow together whereas like against London City the week before he played quite you know using the wings using Tony Payne's pace to beat the London City defence down the right hand side and the pace of Kelly Gargo as well so I think he is just trying to fit these pieces of a puzzle together and he's having to as with Jocelyn Pritchard having to do it in real time and it's just taking a bit a moment for him to figure out what to do and I think it's kind of before he had his back against the wall with injuries and stuff like that and the lack of investment.

41:22Tom Garry:Now he's got more investment and more players to play with and he's maybe not quite used to it quite yet.

41:31Sanny Rudravajhala:Yeah, and it has been a relentless start to the season, hasn't it? Right, that's all the game's gone through. I just wanted to highlight a couple of things that have been going on the past week or so because on Wednesday, Women in Football released the results of their annual survey, and it made for quite grim reading, to be honest, reporting that discrimination for women working in the game was persistent and widespread. The findings showed that 63.5 % of women working in football experienced sexist banter or jokes, while 56 % said no action was taken after reporting gender-based discrimination in the workplace.

42:09Sanny Rudravajhala:Chelsea boss Sonia Bonpastor was asked about it and said she wasn't surprised. she said we still have room for improvement in that area and I'm glad the people are honest and are brave enough to raise it she also revealed and this wasn't a surprise to me either that one of the first questions she often was asked in job interviews was whether or not she could lead a top club while also being a mother she's got four kids by the way I mean what an incredible woman doing what she's doing she said a man would never be asked that question absolutely agree with her she did make sure that we knew that Chelsea wasn't one of the clubs that asked her that by the way I don't think she'd have gone there if that had been the case but all it does is highlight Tom that there is still a very long way to go but we have to highlight it, it's key

42:57Faye Carruthers:Yeah I think for certainly all of the women that we're lucky to work with I don't think this was a surprise to any of them like these figures, that's the kind of depressing thing to hear is that women are not surprised by this data. And all of us working in the industry should be really, really, really sort of angry at those stats. And we have to do better. It's not good enough, but it's not just football, which is stress. If you change the word football in that data and translate it into the wider societal workplaces, I would imagine, depressingly, that it would be quite similar. But well done to women in football for continuing to highlight it.

43:42And I just, yeah, you know,

43:45Faye Carruthers:if you're reading the report, you can feel quite disheartened, to put it mildly, probably stronger words we should use there. But I would like to see more, I suppose what slightly disappointed me was the reaction to the report. I would like to see more clubs and more of the kind of footballing bodies like reacting to that with dismay and kind of engaging with that data a little bit and trying to always like going on campaigns to try and address it. Like it's almost as though too many are happy to accept that status quo. So we know this situation that all these women are reporting discrimination.

44:20Faye Carruthers:Well, what are we going to do about it? And we often see clubs embark on great admirable campaigns to so many other issues in the world. I would love to see more of them get on board with trying to address this particular problem because too many of our colleagues find that this is all too commonplace. And it came in quite a depressing week from a discrimination point of view, if you think about the racial abuse that Jessica Nass received after their League Cup fixture last week, which is another dreadful thing to see. Just across the course of those few days, I think with that data as well, it was a really bad week for the sport.

44:59Sanny Rudravajhala:Yeah, I agree with you. And I do think that sometimes, and exactly the same in terms of racist incidents on the pitch, the more they happen, people almost say, oh, well, it's not, you know, it's prevalent. So it becomes part of the discourse and isn't as shocking because we're still talking about it all the time. And that's part of the problem. So there needs to be more action taken. But when you see that the action doesn't always work, I think people then just go, oh, we've got other stuff going on.

45:28Tom Garry:I think it's much wider than we think it's not just about you know employees and women you know clubs employing women and and women working in the game it comes from the stands it comes it sort of infiltrates from everywhere within football and there is a massive problem football has a massive problem with women unfortunately across the board and no one wants to stand up and say yes there's a real real problem here it's not just you know in the workplace it's the fact that you don't feel safe necessarily at men's games anymore or maybe you never did I think there is a massive massive problem and it's it's wider in society as well as as Tom said you know it seems to be a much more common theme that sort of permeates through everything in terms of the way that you people talk about women the way people treat women and the kind of willful kind of avoidance of dealing with the problems from the more extreme issues to the bits in the workplace, which are extreme in themselves, but on the radar, there's a whole kind of mixture of things happening in the game that football is just not standing up to deal with.

46:38Sophie Downey:Women's football in particular, I find, can be, even as an ethnic minority male, let's say, just going to games, it can be like a hurdle through a series of microaggressions depending on which club you're going to. And I think WSL and women's football in particular are quite easily used by vehicles, like brands and all the rest of it, because it's all shiny and stuff, to make broad statements. You can go out and you can say no to racism, say no to sexism, and you can make it look very polished. But the reality is there are some clubs we know that aren't as invested in the women's game. and it becomes a cultural thing and it permeates across the entire match experience.

47:21Sophie Downey:And you go to other grounds and you go to other clubs where the women's team is really valued and I think that makes a huge difference. There are people who work in women's football at matches who don't care about women's football whatsoever, don't even understand that there even should be a match there. I'll try not to name names, but if you went through my internet commentator database log of where I've been at games, you can figure it out pretty quickly. But there are some grounds and some clubs that really understand what women's football is and others that don't. And that comes across even in my interactions and I'm not a woman anyway.

47:54Sophie Downey:So I hate to imagine what it's like when you go to one of those grounds where the staff are just, you know, it's not their own ground. It's not their own club. And they're just kind of there and all those little tiny little things. And it's a huge frustration because it's really easy to have a culture at a football club that's like positive. And, you know, it's just football, right? Why can't we just like enjoy it and build a club around that? And some clubs do that really well and some are just abysmal and really frustrate me.

48:26Sanny Rudravajhala:Yeah. And unfortunately, it's why women in football exist. And as they always say, you know, I'm a member of women in football. I think the work that they do is absolutely wonderful but they don't want to exist they don't want to unfortunately they have to anyway let's end on a lighter note shall we because the reason we're up early recording this morning is because many of us are heading off to the launch of the UEFA Women's Champions League which is going to be broadcast on Disney Plus for the first time as part of a five year deal the competition kicks off next week Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United in it from a WSL perspective But Lyon, Barcelona, Wolfsburg, among the 18 teams that are in this new league phase, which I'm quite excited about because I think it worked very well in the men's game.

49:13Sanny Rudravajhala:I've been reading all the details. They're giving it some proper treatment as well. All 75 matches live on Disney +, which is double what the competition had broadcast last season. ESPN are producing it and they're giving it a six camera set up for games. Pitchside presenters and analysts at every match as well. And I wonder, Soph, whether Arsenal winning it last year is probably going to mean more eyes on it than ever in the UK.

49:37Tom Garry:I would imagine so, I think. That always happens naturally. When an English team wins a competition, it gets people talking about it. There's so many narratives about this tournament as well. The fact that it's the first time the league phase is happening. Obviously, it's been in the men's game a couple of seasons. So it's a totally new way of doing things in the women's game. There's some really, really tasty fixtures. you know, Chelsea-Barcelona is one that's going to catch everyone's eyes just because of their history. So I think, yeah, it's going to be, there'll be more eyes on it than ever before.

50:10Tom Garry:Hopefully it's more accessible than ever before. I mean, I've seen that Arsenal are playing some, if not all of their games at Meadow Park, which for me is a bit of a disappointment. And I don't want to get on Arsenal's back because they've done so much, you know, in terms of putting games on big grounds and the Emirates and what they've done there. But when you're looking across the board, I think Juventus are now playing all of their games in Inter and Bayern Munich are putting the Arsenal game on at the Alling at St. Munich. So Chelsea play all of their games at Stamford Bridge, mainly because I think Kings Meadow doesn't pass the test for Champions League.

50:43Tom Garry:But I am a bit disappointed in that fact because you're the Champions League winners. You should be playing at the Emirates where it's your home. And Meadow Park, quite frankly, isn't suitable in my book.

50:56Sanny Rudravajhala:Yeah, I agree with that. I tell you what is really exciting when you talk about accessibility commentary is going to be in multiple languages so it's going to go across Europe so the two teams that are playing so every match is going to be in English but the two teams that are playing there's going to be commentary on whichever language that those two teams are from which is fantastic and it feels like they're giving it well no they are giving it the proper treatment Tom which is what the competition deserves

51:26Faye Carruthers:Yeah, it's a huge deal for the competition. Big, fascinating moment with a sort of streaming platform getting on board with the women's game. Kind of the first time really that we've seen a deal of this kind. I know also that Netflix have got on board with sort of US rights for Women's World Cup sort of coverage and it's heading in that direction, isn't it? But this is going to be a fascinating moment over the course of this this this deal to see whether there is the commercial success that disney and espn are hoping for and that uefa are hoping for whether whether that kind of going down that route of the streaming platform is proves to be the way to go because i think there'll be loads of other competitions around the world and the wounds game kind of watching that and keeping an eye on it and just seeing how that goes because including the WSL I'm sure you know for the future let's just think how kind of seesaw a moment it could be whether that proves to be the blueprint for the future for attracting new audiences or whether everyone goes down a more traditional route I think it's a really intriguing moment for the coverage and curious to see how it goes yeah really curious to see what it looks like now that it's got a new home

52:41Sanny Rudravajhala:yeah without a doubt right we have cracked through quite a lot there it's been lovely to see you all sanny hopefully see you soon yeah hopefully so pleasure tom take care um early mornings they're going to be starting for you again very soon not long mate not long thanks for the pre-season training so you didn't tell anyone that you were at lady gaga just about two and a half hours ago

53:05Tom Garry:before we started recording yeah i was farting the night away at the o2 in london um so yeah not much sleep and i'm going to see you in about an hour and a half i think i look forward to it

53:16Sanny Rudravajhala:Very much. Keep having your say. Send in your questions via X or email us at womensfootballweekly at theguardian.com. And as ever, a reminder to sign up for our bi-weekly women's football newsletter. All you need to do is search Moving the Goalposts. Sign up. The Guardian Women's Football Weekly is produced by Sophie Downey and Silas Gray. Music composition was by Laura Iredell. Our executive producer is Joel Grove.

53:42Sanny Rudravajhala:This is The Guardian. you