How to create successful pathways for female players in England

Let’s start with a question - what is a player pathway to you?

I’m probably not the only one to consider it a journey. A road towards a certain destination.

At my club, West Bromwich Albion Women, we are responsible for creating a fun, safe and educational road of development, with the player - and their parents, of course - having a large share of ownership of how they travel along it.

They will certainly experience bumps and challenges en route. When they encounter them, we help the players to reflect and learn from it and support them on to the next part of the journey.

Initially, we converse around what the destination may look like, and eventually we work together to achieve that destination or discuss an alternative one.

In my experience, some pathways are better than others. The best ones always consider the ‘why?’ - why are we creating an effective female pathway?

The answer is simple. All female players deserve the opportunity to play, at every level. In England, that’s recreationally, at grassroots, at the professional academies known as Regional Talent Centres (RTCs), the senior game, FA Women’s Super League (WSL) and England Lionesses national team.

"We are responsible for creating a fun, safe and educational road of development..."

At West Bromwich Albion, the key is to consolidate our pathway in terms of how we can support Player A to make the first team - who currently play in the third tier of women’s soccer in England.

Of course, not everyone makes it. Some drop out and play their senior football at a lower level, while some go past the level of our first team and play in the WSL or the second-tier FA Women’s Championship.

Some players of course are lured by the resources and finances that we cannot compete with in tier three. We can’t control that - we can only try to influence player decisions with our words and actions.

Our focus is on our player-centred approach, helping them improve for as long as they pull on the blue and white stripes, and by creating an environment too good for them to leave.

We have six players from our RTC regularly starting in our first team. Two of these are part of our Sandwell College education programme. We have already highlighted players in the younger age groups that we feel will play for our first team, unless they get signed by other higher-level clubs.