Helen Bleazard: A whirlwind first season at AFC Bournemouth

The word Helen Bleazard uses most frequently to describe her first season as head coach at AFC Bournemouth is “whirlwind”.

 

Her team finished third in the FA Women’s National League Southern Premier, losing just four games, and ending 2025 unbeaten. They also reached the fourth round of the Women’s FA Cup, enjoying a visit from FA Women’s Super League leaders Manchester City that attracted thousands through the turnstiles.

 

But the results hide the drama at the start of Bleazard’s tenure. She was appointed as interim boss late in pre-season after the departure of the previous incumbent – a series of events that took her by surprise.

 

She had retired as a player a few months beforehand, and was concentrating on her coaching in the club’s boys’ academy and gaining her Advanced Youth Award qualification alongside her day job outside football.

 

Then she got a phone call from AFC Bournemouth’s operations director Chris Gerrish.

 

“He said, ‘I need to come and see you.’ So the first thing I thought was, ‘What have I done wrong?’” she laughs.

 

She was shocked to be offered the role, and had only an hour to make the decision and another hour to prepare a session to deliver to the squad later that day.

 

“I said I would do a week because I didn’t want to leave the girls in the lurch. I said, ‘No matter what, I’ll give you the week,’ and I really got into it. We had a game at the end of that week, in our last week of pre-season, so I just went into it with a mentality of ‘I’m just going to give the best week that I can.’

 

“I think I knew after day two I was not going anywhere, but it was just psychologically accepting my life and my season had drastically changed in terms of the hours and commitment I needed to give, and not only that, it affected my [boys’ academy] under 13s and how much I could commit to them, but still make sure I give everything with that.”

 

In her day job, she worked condensed hours, working four days a week with long hours, and having a day off during the week. This season, that was Tuesday, so she could coach her team in the afternoon as per the schedule. It meant with her academy commitments as well, she was working 80-hour weeks.

 

“I was having to make sure I was still fulfilling everything in my day job and I never wanted to underperform with that, but then also give everything I could to the women, so it was a real big issue to contend with,” she says.