Beginning any new job is daunting. Going right into a senior position maybe much more so. However taking on the mantle from a trophy-laden soccer supervisor, leaving after 12 wildly profitable years at one of many world’s most recognisable golf equipment, comes with a complete completely different strain.
None of this seems to section Chelsea Ladies supervisor Sonia Bompastor. Calm, open and keen to reply any query with a smile, the Frenchwoman has settled into life properly with the Blues.
“We felt really included since the beginning and I feel like I’m part of the Chelsea family,” she solely informed Sky Sports activities forward of the Blues’ WSL conflict with Crystal Palace.
“It’s good because that’s the best way for me to give everything and to be in a good position to perform. You never know until you join the club what is going to happen, but when I had my first conversations with Paul Green and other members of staff, I could feel this club was a special club with values and that was something important for me.
“I am in an excellent place, a spot the place I really feel folks have the identical imaginative and prescient, the identical ambitions and likewise the identical values so it is actually necessary as a result of that is one of the best factor so that you can give your finest.”
And for the foreseeable future, there can be pure comparisons to former supervisor Emma Hayes. The seven-time WSL title winner left Chelsea in the summertime for the USA, paving the best way for Bompastor’s arrival.
However the former midfielder arrives together with her personal spectacular CV as a participant and supervisor in France – together with the Champions League, which continues to elude Chelsea.
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“It’s normal for people to compare because she had such great success here,” Bompastor mentioned when requested how she felt in regards to the comparisons.
“I’m really thankful to Emma for the legacy she left me. She had an amazing period and she had great results and the transition takes some time.
“I am advantageous [with the comparisons] as a result of Emma is an individual and a coach who has loads of good qualities, so I do not really feel like persons are evaluating me to a nasty particular person.
Emma Hayes gained the WSL title together with her ultimate Chelsea recreation
“If I can have the same success as she had at Chelsea, I will be the first person to be happy about that, even if I’m someone different. I’m not Emma Hayes, I have my own personality, I’m trying to bring my own ideas. Yes, some things maybe will be the same and some of those will be different.
“I attempt to discover the nice stability between constructing from the legacy Emma left and likewise attempting to carry my very own philosophy, personal imaginative and prescient to the membership.”
‘We’re not the place we need to be but, however not far’
Bompastor likes possession-based soccer, controlling the midfield – maybe commonplace contemplating she performed there herself – and utilizing pass-and-move soccer to create possibilities and exploit the vast areas.
“I’m very happy with the way the players are adapting to all these new things,” she mentioned.
“It takes a lot of time, but when you are a coach at a high level, you don’t have time. It’s about getting the results since the beginning until the end.
“However the gamers are adjusting very effectively, they’re actually open-minded and completely satisfied to study. We’re nonetheless at first of the season and it is regular that we’re not fairly within the place we need to be but, however not far. We nonetheless have work to be performed.”
Sonia Bompastor is happy with how the Chelsea gamers are adapting to her model of play
And the way far-off have been Chelsea from Bompastor’s imaginative and prescient in a 1-0 win in opposition to Chelsea of their opening WSL recreation final week?
“It’s really difficult to be really exact, but I would say maybe on the defensive work, 70 per cent. On the offensive one, maybe 50 per cent – still room for improvement.
“The consequence was good, even when I needed possibly us to have the ability to rating extra targets. We had some good issues within the efficiency, we created so many alternatives, and when you find yourself not environment friendly, you simply give extra confidence to the opposition.
“Within the final minutes of the sport, they put us below strain as a result of they have been attempting to attain a aim and possibly we may have managed that in a greater method. However we’re nonetheless within the course of.
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Highlights of the Ladies’s Tremendous League match between Chelsea and Aston Villa
“I will take this as learning from that game to go into the next one.”
And that poses a model new problem for Chelsea within the WSL as they go to newly-promoted Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, stay on Sky Sports activities.
“We’re really excited to play a derby and to play away in a nice stadium,” Bompastor mentioned of the sport. “Crystal Palace had a great season last season with Laura [Kaminski], she’s doing a great job.
“For us, we additionally need to give attention to ourselves as a result of it is actually necessary from the final efficiency we had in opposition to Aston Villa to replicate, transfer ahead and eager to have an excellent efficiency once more in opposition to Palace.
“It won’t be easy because this league is so competitive and we should never take a game for granted. It will be a hard game, but we just want to focus on what we have to do on the pitch in terms of performance to make sure we get a good result.”
How ladies’s soccer is bettering in France
The WSL has grown exponentially over the previous few years, with reputation hovering after the Lionesses gained Euro 2022.
They reached the Ladies’s World Cup ultimate final summer season too, dropping to Spain. Nevertheless, some gamers from the victorious La Roja just lately commented that there has not been as massive of enhance in curiosity within the nation as they might have hoped.
France hosted the World Cup in 2019, and whereas Bompastor says the alternatives weren’t seized upon on the time, there are beginning to be constructive modifications in her residence nation.
Spain have been winners of the 2019 World Cup, however some gamers have mentioned there hasn’t been a lift in reputation for girls’s soccer at residence
“The French Federation realised and the clubs realised we need to work a lot more, making sure we have a league which is competitive,” she defined.
“They made some good decisions in the last months. Since this summer, the French league is a professional league, so they are trying to work on the environment, trying to bring some fans in the stadiums, I know it’s maybe the hardest challenge.
“They’re attempting to assist the golf equipment to verify each membership is skilled, so attempting to have one of the best infrastructures, give some good cash for the gamers to have good situations of coaching, the amenities, infrastructures. They’re attempting to get to folks to put money into ladies’s video games in France.
Bompastor’s former facet Lyon have a powerful historical past within the Champions League
“It’s never too late, even if at the moment, I think France is so far away from England and maybe from other leagues in the US and in Europe. So they are trying to catch up now and they are trying to make the good decision.
“It’ll take a while, however they’re attempting onerous. If it’s a must to evaluate in the meanwhile, the league in France will not be as aggressive because the league is right here in England, so it is one of many greatest problem for them.”
