Just five years after being reformed, Manchester United stand on the brink of a first major final. They are making up for lost time.
While Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea were present in the inaugural Women’s Super League (WSL) season in 2010, with Manchester City and Tottenham following soon after, a women’s team from the other member of the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’ was conspicuous by its absence.
United had previously run a women’s team, however it disbanded in 2005, when it was described as not being part of the club’s “core business”. The club’s academy continued through the United Foundation, producing players such as Izzy Christiansen and Katie Zelem, but there was no senior pathway for the girls.
Eventually, following much speculation and criticism, United ended a 13-year absence from senior women’s football and re-entered a team into the second-tier Championship for the 2018-19 season, which they finished as champions.
Goalkeeper Siobhan Chamberlain was one of the 21 players United signed for that debut season. Despite being a 50-cap England international with years of WSL experience, she remembers the early days as a unique and surreal experience.
“I turned up on the first day with Amy Turner and Martha Harris who I had been with at Liverpool, and we had no idea who else would be in the team,” she tells BBC Sport. “That never happens in football, starting from fresh like that. Everyone was the new kid at school all at once.
“It was nice – there was no original hierarchy, but a big onus on building the team, which Casey [Stoney, the manager] did brilliantly.
“We were given a tour of Old Trafford, the museum – I’ve never felt so ingratiated in the history of a club after joining. We were given a feeling of how big United is as a club. You never truly get that feeling until you are in it.”
The club has gone from strength to strength on the pitch since, and is now in contention for a domestic double.
On Saturday they host Brighton in the Women’s FA Cup semi-final. Victory would seal a place at Wembley Stadium on 14 May, and a first final since their formation.
It is a sharp contrast to when midfielder Christiansen was starting her footballing journey at United. She told BBC Sport that the club’s lack of a senior team back then left a “gaping hole” in English women’s football.
With no senior path available at United, Christiansen was forced to move to Everton as a youth player to pursue her ambitions, on her way to becoming a WSL and FA Cup champion with Manchester City, a Champions League winner with Lyon and earning 31 caps for England.
Now back with Everton, she says of her time at United: “It took a very long time to re-establish a women’s team, and there were a lot of questions asked when the WSL was formed, for the first four or five years. Where is Manchester United Women, why is it not here?
“Eventually they formed a team, and a very good one. They worked upwards from the Championship and I think that start gave them a chance to grow. There may still be space to grow too, in terms of levelling up resources.”
While Christiansen left to further her career, fellow academy alumnus Zelem returned to the club in 2018 following United’s Championship entry and has remained there since, becoming captain in 2019.
Zelem, Ella Toone and Leah Galton were all part of the original squad along with Chamberlain, and remain key players under current manager Marc Skinner.
“There were questions asked why United didn’t have a women’s team, and then, when they did [form one], ‘why now?’ It’s hard to win in that situation,” Chamberlain said.
“But they did it the right way, building a squad to compete from the Championship, not going in at the top level, trying to spend millions of pounds.
“Look at the men’s team, the record of how many players have come through the academy. United women wanted to replicate that, to show the importance of home grown players from the set up.
“You know now if you come to Man Utd at eight years old, you know there is a chance to become a star player.”
Christiansen, who played with Toone at City, says the connection with the original United side is key to the team’s identity, and a source of their potential success this season.
“I’ve known Ella Toone a long time, she always had talent but needed the right environment,” she said. “She found that at Man United.
“They are hard to beat but have class as well, it’s what the best United men’s teams had. Look at [Ona] Batlle, Galton, [Maya] Le Tissier, Toone – these are players who are winners, strong and determined.”
United have never reached an FA Cup semi-final but they have made it to the last four of the League Cup on three occasions, losing to Chelsea, twice, and Arsenal.
They will be firm favourites on Saturday against the WSL’s bottom side Brighton, who have just appointed a new manager in Melissa Phillips.
Skinner, speaking in his pre-match news conference, said: “We are not at the final and cannot think of anything but a very difficult game against a new manager. The mentality from my players has to be to hunt any team that stands in the way of our success from now until the end of the season.
“We’ve learned from last season, where we hit stumbling blocks but did not have the mental resolve to overcome them, or even the ability to change the game like we can this year, where we can inject some width, pace and trickery.”
Even as United continue to make strides on the field, off it there remains some uncertainty with a takeover looming in the future, bringing questions as to how much support the women’s team will get from whichever bidding party triumphs.
For now, they sit a point clear at the top of the WSL and 90 minutes from Wembley.
“The philosophy must be to get even better at what they already do well – they have built a winning mentality,” says Christiansen. “They’ve had the resilience to keep fighting and break into the top four.
“I’m sure the manager and players haven’t achieved what they want to yet which undoubtedly would be silverware, but a first final will be massive.”
Source – BBC Sport
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