‘Caring Sarina convinced us she could be a winner’

SARINA WIEGMAN is succeeding with England – because she cares.

As the Dutch coach stands on the threshold of history today, the woman who recruited her to the post says the handling of her staff and squad marked her down as a winner.

Wiegman was appointed to take over from Phil Neville 12 months ago and Kay Cossington, head of women’s technical at the FA, was among those who took the decision to back the 52-year-old.

She said: “What did we see when we approached Sarina? Obviously, it was an open process, but, in short, it was her character overall and her ability to win tournaments. When we met her, she said, ‘This is my vision, this is how I think we should approach it and this is what I’d do’.

“It was really clear and concise, it was all about consistency.

“But the other side of it is that she’s a people person.

“When you are driving a highperformance culture, it’s sometimes easy to forget the person at the heart of it.

“But Sarina really does care. It’s not necessarily what you say to footballers, it’s how you deliver it. I think she lives and breathes that element of management in everything she does.

“How we work with each other, how we treat each other. I think she sees that as being crucial to success.

“She’s brought together the staff and got the team working behind her vision.

The group functions as a complete team.”

Part of the FA’S due diligence in plumping for the former Dutch midfielder was her approach to the game. Neville had taken the Lionesses to the semi-final of the World Cup three years ago. The squad did not need an overhaul, but more fine-tuning, while maintaining good results.

Cossington added: “When we did our background checks, we looked at how she managed squads and the growth of them.

“How she managed to blend the young and older elements, that natural blend.

“Asking any manager or head coach to do that while still winning matches is tricky. That was one thing we picked up on – Sarina manages that really well.

“Obviously, we looked at how she wanted to play the game. You can manage the process, control our environment, culture and how we want to play the game.

“And Sarina ticked all of those boxes.”