Hammerings, history and hard times: the seven ages of Sarina Wiegman's England

The Guardian

11 hours ago

A barely remembered footnote in the history of England's women's team is the period after Sarina Wiegman's appointment as manager but before her arrival. Wiegman's appointment followed a tumultuous time, with the pandemic forcing a one-year delay to the 2020 Olympics and 2021 Euros. Phil Neville's contract ran until July 2021 and poor form led to the announcement, on 22 April 2020, that he would not stay longer. Four months later, the Football Association announced Wiegman would take over. However, with the Dutchwoman committed to taking the Netherlands, the European champions, to the Tokyo Olympics, England would have to wait. Questions about whether Neville would be handed a short-term deal to lead Team GB at the Olympics were unanswered. In January 2021, shortly before it is believed the FA was about to announce who would travel with Team GB, Neville departed for the Inter Miami head coach role.
The FA turned to the recently appointed assistant manager Hege Riise to fill the England role on an interim basis and later asked her to lead Team GB. After a limp end to Neville's tenure, with five defeats, three unconvincing wins and a draw, there was despondency and a sense that the small cracks evident in England's 2019 World Cup run had opened wide. The team were defensively fragile, creatively weak and overreliant on Ellen White's goals digging them out of holes. Riise got off to a good start with a 6-0 England win over Northern Ireland but defeats by France and Canada followed and Team GB crashed out in the Olympic quarter-finals with an agonising 4-3 extra-time defeat by Australia. Wiegman's job was big: to turn around a team that had lost their way, but she came in with solid credentials, having led the Netherlands to the European title in 2017 and a World Cup final in 2019. SW
The buildup to Wiegman's first match, a World Cup qualifier against North Macedonia in Southampton, was rocked by an ankle injury to Steph Houghton. Wiegman had named Houghton as the captain and it proved something of a sliding doors moment for the centre-back; one of England's best performers for the previous decade never wore the armband again. To say Wiegman's team made a strong start would be a major understatement. In her first six games England scored a remarkable 53 times without conceding and, in what felt like no time at all, the Lionesses had an air of invincibility. Yes, the standard of the opposition was flattering them, but this free-flowing, confident England suddenly looked incomparable with the side that had limped to defeats a few months previously. Her desire for perfection was evidenced on a torrential night in Riga. England had beaten Latvia 10-0 in some of the soggiest conditions you could imagine, in an eerily flat atmosphere with no fans permitted in the Daugava stadium because of a pandemic-related curfew, and yet Wiegman felt her players had been 'a little bit sloppy'. The Lionesses duly won the reverse fixture 20-0.
Draws with Canada and Spain in 2022's Arnold Clark Cup gave England the tougher tests they needed and they lifted that trophy thanks to a memorable win over Germany. The feelgood mood strengthened during their warm-up friendlies for that summer's Euros, as 3-0, 5-1 and 4-0 wins over Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland respectively gave the Lionesses a new aura going into a home tournament. TG
Wiegman became the first manager to deliver back-to-back European titles for different nations when England lifted the 2022 European Championship trophy. Everything came together at the right time and everyone – players, coaches, staff, media and fans – seemed to be singing from the same hymn sheet. The unbeaten run to the final helped and again created an air of invincibility, and the manager's blunt honesty on her expectations that endeared her to the players. 'Everybody knows where they stand so there's no guessing games behind closed doors and I think that does take the pressure off,' said Keira Walsh before the tournament. 'The mentality now is just all about doing the best for the team and the team winning, rather than individuals. I think you can see that in the way we play.' Critical to their success was also the building of a pressureless environment. 'I don't know how she does it, to be honest with you,' said Walsh. 'It's easy for me to sit here and say it feels less tense, because it just does.' During the tournament the manager was unshakeable. Sticking with the same starting XI throughout was a masterstroke, with Alessia Russo and Ella Toone providing impetus and an element of the unknown from the bench.
The team also had luck on their side, in that they sustained no significant injuries and that when Wiegman and the back-up keeper Hannah Hampton contracted Covid-19, it was around the time of the final group game with England already through. An injury to Germany's Alexandra Popp in the warm-up before the final was a huge literal and psychological boost. SW
Wiegman's European champions took on the then world champions, the United States, at Wembley in October 2022 and recorded a memorable victory, and the manager's unbeaten streak would continue to April 2023, taking in two further trophies: a safely retained Arnold Clark Cup and a new piece of silverware, the Finalissima, secured via a penalty shootout against Brazil, the champions of South America. England winning on penalties? This was a team breaking history in so many ways.
The honeymoon had to end eventually, though, and Wiegman's first defeat arrived at Brentford against Australia. Worse was to come that month, when Leah Williamson sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury, joining Beth Mead on the knee injury absentee list for the World Cup. Then Millie Bright was a doubt for the tournament and Wiegman's first streak of misfortune had arrived. The players, meanwhile, were embroiled in a row with the FA over bonuses and commercial deals, which spilled into the public domain on the eve of the World Cup. Bright was passed fit just in time to fly to Australia but England were seemingly stumbling, for the first time under Wiegman. Or were they? TG
Wiegman produced her first tactical surprise and it worked to good effect, a 3-5-2 formation, utilising Lauren Hemp as a more central forward, helping England progress from what had been an uninspiring pair of opening 1-0 victories over Haiti and Denmark to putting six goals past China. The Lionesses had to show their dogged defensive side in this campaign but displayed their nous in big games to find a way to Wiegman's fourth consecutive major tournament final. There were rumours of rivals trying to poach her but before the final in Sydney but Mark Bullingham said the FA would '100% reject' any approaches. 'We think Sarina is doing a great job and hope she continues doing it for a long time,' the FA's chief executive said. 'Sarina could do anything she wants in football.'
The Lionesses left Australia immensely disappointed, after losing 1-0 to Spain, an agonising second World Cup final defeat in a row for Wiegman, but months later Wiegman extended her contract until after the 2027 World Cup to have another crack with England at that ultimate prize. TG
England have played 24 games since the World Cup, winning 14, drawing four and losing six. Placed alongside the unbeaten run before the 2022 Euros, this doesn't look great but the introduction of the Nations League has significantly increased the calibre of teams England face on a regular basis. 'The levels of the game are improving so much,' Wiegman said in February. 'You can't just take for granted that you'll win … Before the Nations League we would play different countries from different levels – we're never going to win 20-0 again. I don't think that's competitive anyway.' England have twice failed to qualify for the Nations League finals, which included missing out on Olympic qualification for Team GB.
It hasn't been smooth sailing. The Lionesses have looked unconvincing at times, particularly defensively, and a little too predictable. But nothing can progress upwards all the time and injuries have also had an impact, with Williamson taking time to return to her best, Hemp, Alex Greenwood and Georgia Stanway also sustaining knee injuries and Lauren James among others unavailable at various points. SW
The May-June 2025 international camp was the most turbulent of Wiegman's tenure, by far, amid three high-profile withdrawals, for three different reasons. Mary Earps retired from England duty, and the sadness of Wiegman's face was unmistakable as she discussed the matter, in possibly the most cagey of her press conferences to date, the head coach saying: 'I don't give any information about these private conversations.' Soon after, Fran Kirby also ended her England career, after Wiegman – typically direct and honest – had explained she would not pick her for the Euros. When Bright withdrew from Euros selection the next day to look after her mental health and an exhausted knee, suddenly there were suggestions of a crisis, but Wiegman produced a defiant performance at her squad-announcement press conference and switched the mood.
'I don't go around the bush,' she said, of the way she handles conversations with players. Behind the scenes, as England arrived at St George's Park for their Euros training camp, the mood began to lift. Hemp, Stanway and crucially James were fit-again, and a morale-boosting 7-0 victory over Jamaica meant England flew to Switzerland full of confidence. TG