The Blackburn talent factory
How humble beginnings at Rovers shaped Wiegman’s superstar trio
AWINDSWEPT field amid the rolling hills of east Lancashire is an improbable proving ground for the core of a title-challenging England team, though this is where three players integral to tomorrow night’s Euro semi-final were developed.
Georgia Stanway, Keira Walsh and Ella Toone all emerged at the remarkable Blackburn Rovers talent factory, whose spartan training environment at a remote spot called Blacksnape, 80ft above sea level, belied a vision for women’s football that vastly wealthier clubs like Manchester United and Liverpool lacked. The national team is the beneficiary, as the women’s game within these shores prepares for the biggest week it has known.
Toone, scorer in last week’s quarter-final win over Spain, arrived at Rovers because Manchester United, who signed her to their girls’ teams, refused to invest in a senior women’s team. Stanway and Walsh arrived because their families, who both took a proactive interest in their development, saw Rovers as the best place to be. Only Arsenal has developed more of the current England squad.
The roots of this extraordinary talent system lie in a confluence of like-minded coaches, committed to the future of women’s football, who worked together at Rovers in the last decade.
They include Gemma Donnelly, the long-standing manager who worked with Stanway, Walsh and Toone. Amanda Goodwin, now an FA regional talent coach, was also integral, along with Matt Johnson, now performance director at Manchester United’s talent centre for girls, and Jennie Swarbrick, who Liverpool have made their women’s Under 21s coach.
‘We were one of the 12 founding regional development centres and parents became aware of the approach we had,’ says Donnelly. ‘Families liked the culture they found. We wanted to make sure that players rolled their sleeves up and that there was always humility, even when some knew they were going places. It’s what our town has always been about.
‘Georgia would be out there putting nets up or getting the corner flags in. We didn’t have the most amazing resources. There’s never been a sense of entitlement.’
When players were lost to richer clubs, with City taking Stanway, Walsh and Toone, there were no FA rules in place, as there are with boys’ academies, entitling Rovers to compensation for those they had invested time and money in. There is an understandable view within the game that this needs to be addressed.
But the development system does see girls ‘dual- signed’ or loaned back to development clubs. Toone remained registered to Rovers when she was signed by City and at the age of 16 played a significant part in Blackburn winning the third tier. Local paper reports are littered with Toone’s feats from that time, including six goals as Rovers beat Rotherham United 19-0.
‘Opponents took nothing for granted when schoolgirls Toone or Stanway pitched up to play for Rovers on some windswept pitch,’ says Donnelly. ‘Word had got out about them being England youth internationals.
‘When other players might kick them, they generally could never get a reaction. Georgia perhaps a bit less so. She’s got a bite to her.’
In no small part, Stanway discovered Blackburn because of her father Paul, a
PE teacher. She would be granted permission to leave school early to make midweek journeys to Monday and Wednesday training, from the Cumbrian village of Dalton. It was a four-hour round trip.
The view from Blackburn is that victory tomorrow and progress to Sunday’s Wembley final would increase the chances of talented players not being missed. Some of this England squad, including Lucy Bronze and Nikita Parris, had to play against boys teams, so sparse was the provision.
‘Those girls watching this team now see this as something they, too, can achieve,’ says Donnelly. ‘I also think it is introducing thousands of people to a different environment from the men’s game. It’s not threatening. It’s a family environment. There’s the enjoyment of being there without the rolling and diving.’
Her own Rovers women’s team have ambitions, too and are holding their own in the second tier. In the season about to start, virtually all of their players will have professional contracts for the first time.
It means football can provide a living for those who came through Rovers’ ranks with England’s stars. Helen Seed and Millie Chandarana, who played alongside Walsh, are both still with the club. So is Natasha Fenton, one of Stanway’s Blackburn team-mates. Stanway was always destined for a world beyond Blacksnape, though. She’d just turned 16 when the Westmorland Gazette took notice and interviewed her.
‘I hope to play for the England first team,’ she told them. ‘ That’d be a dream
come true.’