Women’s football The challenges facing City in the Championship
IT went down to the last match and that would have been more than anyone expected at the turn of the year.
After languishing at the bottom of the table for most of the season, Bristol City Women will be in the FA Women’s Championship next season following their defeat at the hands of Brighton and Hove Albion, and Aston Villa’s point against third-place Arsenal which secured their safety.
They made a valiant effort, with four draws and two wins since the turn of the year, but it simply wasn’t enough.
Relegation from the FA Women’s Super League presents plenty of challenges for clubs. Here are some of the issues City will need to consider over the close-season before they begin their next campaign.
MANAGEMENT
TANYA Oxtoby is expected to return from her maternity leave in time for the next campaign. Now the mother of a baby boy, the Australian is much admired as a coach, particularly for her skill in developing young players - a valuable skill when working on a shoestring, and one that has been recognised internationally with roles in the Australia and England youth set-ups.
Her assistant Marco Chiavetta has departed the club already after a three-year tenure in the backroom team.
Matt Beard’s short-term interim contract is over, having been engaged only to cover the end of the season. After weeks of speculation the 43-year-old has returned to Liverpool, where he spent three years from 2012-2015 and who will be opponents of the Vixens next season in the Championship.
SQUAD
BEARD acknowledged he knew his
players were in the shop window towards the end of the season. With short contracts the norm in the women’s game, it’s likely there could be a lot of turnover this summer.
Ellen Jones has already confirmed her departure, as has goalkeeper Benedicte Haland, and the exits of Australia international Ella Mastrantonio, missing from the squad against Brighton, and midfielder Georgia Wilson have also been confirmed.
City are also likely to be without their loan players who helped them to make it to the last day of the season with a chance of escaping relegation - including Kiera Skeels, who scored the goal to take them to the Conti Cup final.
Perhaps more significantly, England striker, top scorer and star player Ebony Salmon, named on Monday by The Athletic as their young player of the year, left last week for Racing Louisville of the NWSL.
Retaining her along with fellow Lioness, goalkeeper Sophie Baggaley, would surely have been top of the priority list for next season. The fact players are moving out of the door very quickly must surely give fans some cause for concern.
It’s not yet clear yet what kind of budget City will have in the FA Women’s Championship, and that is going to be pivotal to whether or not they can keep much of the squad together.
With guarantees of funding and ambition, players may be willing to take a temporary drop to the second tier, as long as they remain fully professional. That was the case for Manchester United, promoted in 2019 with the likes of England internationals Siobhan Chamberlain and Alex Greenwood in their squad.
But it isn’t the case for most of
the Championship clubs, who are semi-professional. City know they should be playing Durham, Liverpool, Sheffield United, Lewes, London City Lionesses, Crystal Palace, Charlton Athletic, Blackburn Rovers, and Coventry United in the league next season, with the final spot (or possibly two) yet to be confirmed.
If a club secures promotion to the WSL, they have to be professional to meet the requirements of the necessary licence. Charlton have confirmed they are going fulltime under new coach Karen Hills in 2021-22, indicating their future intent. Any side wishing to play WSL football in the near future must do the same - and quickly.
REFLECTION
WITH the WSL and Championship still relatively young and so dependent on the requirement to fulfil off-pitch criteria, it’s tough to make a prediction as to how City will fare next season.
Last year, it was Liverpool who went down to the Championship, and they have come nowhere near promotion. Yeovil Town went down in 2018 following all kinds of off-pitch issues and arguments, and have since rebranded as Yeovil United.
The year before that saw league restructure and licence applications, with Sunderland dropping out of the top flight despite finishing in mid-table. Doncaster Belles might have secured promotion on the pitch, but they opted to move out of the elite game and drop down to the National League.
There is a team who left the top tier and managed to return, though - Bristol Academy, who were relegated from the eight-team WSL in 2015, and were promoted as Bristol City the following year.
So in the end, it’s all down to money. Bristol City’s relegation means that they will miss out on the bumper broadcast deal announced a few weeks ago courtesy of the BBC and Sky; the Championship clubs will receive only 25 per cent of the money coming in, with the top-tier teams getting the remaining 75 per cent.
Although they’ll pick up some prize money for 2020-21, being in the Championship means missing out on the pot of cash available to win in the WSL courtesy of Barclays’ title sponsorship.
Add to that the probable lower gate receipts - in pre-Covid times, an average Championship game would attract a couple of hundred fans rather than the couple of thousand in the WSL. The stadia in the Championship have decent capacities; Twerton Park, able to host 3,500 fans, would be firmly in the mid-range there. It’s a matter of attracting people through the turnstiles.
City were massively hit this season with illness and injuries depleting their squad; when players returned to action, results began to pick up.
Beard repeatedly said he felt Oxtoby had a tougher time than him, coping with multiple absences during the autumn, particularly in the midst of the pandemic.
Even on the final day of the season there was a bright spot to reassure City fans - Megan Wynne, who had missed the entire campaign with a knee ligament injury, was fit enough to be named on the bench.
City will also take heart knowing that next season they will be able to welcome back their loyal fans, who have hated not being able to lend their support to boost them away from the bottom of the table.
So City know what it takes to be promoted - they went up as runners-up in 2016. All they’ve got to do now is ... do it again.