‘Feeling loved': how Wiegman turned Lionesses from also-rans to winners

The Guardian

5 days ago

'Who has got the ability to take us right to the top of Everest? That's my job, to find that person for the players, they deserve the best.' Those were the words of Sue Campbell, the Football Association's former head of women's football, in the summer of 2020 as – alongside the chief executive, Mark Bullingham, and technical director, Kay Cossington – she sought to find a new England head coach to replace Phil Neville, who was to leave his role the following year.
The Lionesses had reached three consecutive major tournament semi-finals, but kept enduring heartbreak and missing out on an elusive final. The FA's mission was simple: find someone with the knowhow to take the team to the next level. A total of 142 applied for the role, Baroness Campbell said at the time and it was Cossington who first suggested: 'There's this brilliant woman called Sarina Wiegman ... '
The less said about some of the decision-making from people in power in this country in that bleak summer of 2020, the better, but when it comes to that particular appointment, it is now abundantly clear that Campbell, Bullingham and Cossington made the correct choice. Just three tournaments, three finals and two titles later, Wiegman has overseen the transformation of the women's national team's identity into winners, a team oozing belief, with a never-say-die attitude and an unrelenting focus on success.
The first thing Wiegman commanded on day one in the job was respect. The England players knew that Wiegman had done something they had not yet done – she had won a major international trophy, with the Netherlands in 2017 – and that made them eager to listen to her every word. Not only a former player at the highest level, she is also a former PE teacher and, as one source close to a squad member told the Guardian on Monday, Wiegman's man-management skills have made her like 'that favourite teacher you had at school' because she has found a balance of being firm but fair, simultaneously being an instructor and a friend.
Her motherly side has clearly made new additions to the squad feel at ease. This summer she encouraged them all to open up to each other, to be 'vulnerable' around each other, to grow closer bonds. The 19-year-old Michelle Agyemang said during the Euros: 'I think most people will say, when they work with Sarina, she's like a mum to us, almost. She cares about our wellbeing [and] she's ready to step in and tell us: 'That's not good enough, let's be better.' So I think she has that fine balance and she's put a lot of trust in me, which I'm really grateful for.
'She shows the same type of care to me, who's the youngest, to the oldest, showing the same sort of care to each and every one of us, no matter what our role is, even if we don't play, she's still willing to go and shake your hand and say 'well done', even if we didn't touch the pitch, and that shows we're valued in the squad.'
Wiegman's tenure has been defined by the fact that, at every step of the journey, with every decision she has made, however large or small, she has only had one priority: on-pitch performances. With every plan that she and her staff make, from the scheduled time of a training session, to the location of a hotel, to food, rehydration and recovery, right through to the way she can often seem reluctant to give away inside information during press conferences, it all boils down to one thing: what will help the team the most?
For a reporter, that performance-first approach might sometimes mean a media session is rearranged at relatively short notice to help the team's training schedule, and so be it, because everything else is secondary. For a player, it means there is very little room for sentimentality. Just ask Steph Houghton, whose exemplary service to the game was not enough for her to be picked by Wiegman if she felt others were in better form.
Another crucial aspect has been attention to detail and Wiegman would be the first to say that it is a team effort with her staff. England's analysts have gone into forensic detail on all of their opponents and the benefits have been abundantly clear, whether it be in the homework done to aid Hannah Hampton's preparation to save penalties, or in the notes prepared on how frequently an opponent might cut inside, or in the way players' output in training is monitored to check how well they are performing physically. Every detail counts.
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Then there are Wiegman's personality, body language and level-headed reactions. There is a composure to her mannerisms – even when her team are 2-0 down with 12 minutes to go in a Euros quarter-final against Sweden – that would make a player retain their belief even in the middle of a hurricane. That was touched on by the midfielder Keira Walsh this month when she said: 'She's probably one of the best managers I've played for in terms of trying to make everyone feel loved. She really, really cares about the human side. Another thing that you notice when you play for her is how calm she is. It makes a massive difference in the 95th minute when you're losing 1-0, and you look to the side and she's very calm. That speaks volumes of her as a manager.'
That calmness has also shone through in the vast majority of Wiegman's press conferences over the past few years, with the 55-year-old never seeming overly pleased when her team were winning games in the run-up to tournaments and, equally, never overreacting when they underperformed or lost. A lot of coaches preach the cliche of never getting too high with the highs nor too low with the lows, but Wiegman embodies that approach naturally.
That said, even she allowed herself wry smiles, excitement and jokes of 'having a heart attack' amid the last-gasp drama her team put the nation through this summer. She also made a point of thanking the travelling media, all of her staff, Uefa and the people of Switzerland in a classy speech in Basel, offering a little glimpse into her character. She has two more years left on her contract, for now at least. The journey is not over but she has reached that Everest summit twice already. The view from the top looks good.