It was tough watching Manchester United’s players labour ineffectively against the hungry and aggressive press of London City Lionesses in the Women’s Super League’s opening match. Simi Awujo’s late consolation goal did little to ease the mounting concern for a side that have several teams nipping at their heels. Don’t panic; that has to be United’s message.
To an extent, it is very early to be writing the team’s obituary. The new head coach, Eva Olid, had only three weeks to try to implement her ideas about the way the team should play before that match in Bromley on Friday 4 September. That is not long enough for her to peel away Marc Skinner’s imprint on the team.
The forward Monica Jusu Bah did not arrive from the Swedish side Häcken until 28 August and Rebeca Bernal signed from Washington Spirit on 2 September. United’s late business, in regards to their managerial change and transfer activity, has put the team and coaching staff on the back foot, playing catch-up with clubs who got most of their business done early in the window, the better to capitalise on the opportunity for a full pre-season presented by the lack of a major international tournament. The problem is the spotlight is harsh on the red side of Manchester.
The minority owner Jim Ratcliffe’s dismissive comments relating to the women’s team and the lack of serious investment in the squad provide reasons to be somewhat forgiving of the head coach and her charges, their struggles an indictment of a club that seemingly do not fully care. The focus is said to be on a sustainable investment model recruitment-wise and on developing younger players. In isolation they are admirable goals, but in the context of investment gathering pace at other WSL teams and the relative pocket change required at a club of United’s stature to have a transformatory effect on the women’s side, these goals become shackles.
There is some irony in Olid leaving Hearts and coming to United. She arrived in Scotland to take charge of an amateur team that had avoided relegation only owing to the expansion of the top division and within five years had taken them to professionalism and a Scottish Women’s Premier League title. She felt the level of investment then needed to make Hearts competitive in Europe was lacking and it was announced that she would depart at the end of the season.
The WSL and its teams are miles ahead, developmentally, of the SWPL and its sides but Olid has landed at a club that have repeatedly failed to invest substantially enough to make them league or European title challengers. Olid told the Catalan newspaper Ara that she would have stayed at Hearts “if my project continued”. She said: “I wanted to coach in Europe, but it was a preliminary round and perhaps we would be there for a week and get eliminated.
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