I loved Lasso, but I’m the real female football boss

A REAL-LIFE football boss in the mould of Rebeccawelton in hit TV comedy Ted Lasso has defied critics who originally dismissed her as a “blonde bimbo”.

As chief executive of Mansfield Town FC, Carolyn Radford is one of just two women in charge of clubs in England, along with Baroness Karren Brady at West Ham. Carolyn, 42, has not only turned around a £1million deficit at the Nottinghamshire club, owned by her insurance millionaire husband John, 58 – she has now taken it to its recent promotion to League One.

Yet she says she did not get a very warm welcome when she first took over the club.

“There were lots of off-hand comments,” she says. “The first teams are all men and there’s a lot of men controlling this world. It’s a masculine environment and that can get toxic. I think that’s why you need women in the mix – that’s why it works.”

The club, nicknamed The Stags, is managed by Nigel Clough, son of famed Nottingham Forest boss Brian. It was turned around on and off the pitch with “grit and determination”, says Carolyn.

She adds: “People are taking me a bit more seriously now. They can see the fruits of our labour, of what we’ve achieved – not just the promotions but the infrastructure around the place in Mansfield.

“We’ve got amazing, state-of-the-art training grounds and are building new stands. Our season tickets are at the highest they’ve ever been.

“We’re selling out, week in, week out. It’s that grit and determination, not giving up, which is not just vital in football, but in everything.”

The comparison with Ted Lasso’s no-nonsense boss, played by Hannah Waddingham, is not lost on her. “I’ve watched the first couple of episodes,” she says. “I think she’s brilliant.absolutely, I think she’s lovely.”

Like Welton, Carolyn won over her critics by being true to herself. “By being authentic – we’re all human aren’t we? And by not being too hard,” she says.

“You can show a softer side, which can often be quite compelling and help other people – and with a bit of humour mixed in as well.”

Carolyn extends an open invitation to Waddingham to visit The Stags next season, adding that she was impressed by how the actress faced down sexist photographers on the red carpet recently.

But she points out: “I’m lower league, really, compared with her.what I would say is that the snappers do tend to take the wrong angle.

“But no photographers camp outside for me, I’m afraid.” With rival club Wrexham, owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mcelhenney, also being promoted to League One next season, Mansfield could appear in the TV documentary Welcome to Wrexham, on Disney+.

Carolyn says: “We congratulated Ryan on the promotion. We also went to Wrexham and it hadn’t changed much since the last time, so it was a bit nostalgic.

“I’ve not met him yet, I’ve not come across him. I think he watches the games from America. I’ve not seen many episodes of that either.”

But she adds: “Their show has lifted the mood of the town. It’s been great for lower league football, which doesn’t get much broadcasting exposure.

“It shows the different clubs playing together and we’ve now got another season with them.” Many Wrexham fans did not agree with the Hollywood takeover of their club, mirroring the opposition Carolyn faced with her appointment as CEO, back in 2011, by thenboyfriend and club owner John Radford. And she concedes there are challenges to their working relationship.

She says: “It’s hard work. We’ve kind of worked it out now. I pick my battles, business-wise and family-wise, but we’re very supportive of each other.

“We have very different opinions on things, which is healthy, and I respect him massively. He’s a great mentor.

“You know, best friend and everything else, but it’s losing games – that’s the thing we tend to argue about, really.

“Not fights or anything like that, but when we lose, I think, ‘Well that’s it for the rest of the night, then’.”

Carolyn now wants to promote the role of women in football, saying: “It’s about making sure more women are coming through.we need to be more progressive and need to share our stories, and individual journeys, like the way Karren Brady has done. I haven’t spoken to her but it’s obvious she’s a champion of women in football.”

‘People take me more seriously now...they can see what we’ve achieved’ ‘That grit and determination, not giving up, is not just vital in football, but in everything’

She also fancies her owntv show in the style ofwrexham and is involved in talks with TV companies.

“We’re looking at a few different things,” she says. “It’s something that we would consider, definitely.

“It’d be interesting from a footballing side of things, you know, with Nigel and his legacy, and going forward.

“The Wrexham documentary is very different. I think I’d like to be able to show people what it’s like running a football club, doing it with your husband, having children, and managing other businesses.”

Meanwhile, if she could buy one player in the world, who would it be? “My kids would probably say [Kylian] Mbappe, but what about Ronaldo finishing off his career at Mansfield? We know Portugal well and there’s a lot of good players out there. But I’d want the right players that get on with Nigel, and would feel happy in Mansfield.

“I don’t know if he was a happy man in Manchester – in his last stint in this country – so, maybe not Ronaldo!”