Rehanne Skinner looks relaxed as she leans back in her chair preparing to take questions from the media ahead of her side’s Subway Women’s League Cup semi final against Chelsea. Skinner’s Hammers will travel to Kingsmeadow as the top scorers in the competition, having scored more than any West Ham side ever has in the tournament.
As far as team news is concerned Skinner confirmed her side have a no new injuries. The Halfway Line got the opportunity to hear from the West Ham head coach as her side prepare to lock horns with their local rivals once again.
League Cup format ‘needs to be reviewed’ observes Skinner
West Ham are currently the only team left in the competition that have played more than one game to get to the semi final due to the byes received by clubs participating in the UEFA Women’s Champions League to the quarter final. The Halfway Line put this to Skinner and asked if she finds it frustrating, we also looked for her assessment of the format and the way the competition’s working at the moment, Skinner replied:
“I think it’s a challenge to not go through the same phases and then come straight into knockout stages for all of the clubs that have gone through all of that, I appreciate the Champions League position and the games that are involved in that. I think it needs to be reviewed, though, if I’m honest about what the League Cup looks like moving forward, to make it more of a fairer, even competition, where everybody feels like the way that they’ve progressed has been fair throughout the course of it. So I think that needs to be reviewed.”
‘It’s a cup game and anything can happen’ suggests Skinner
West Ham are one win away from making their first ever League Cup final having twice lost at the semi final stage. Most recently their defeat came in 2023 when Chelsea once again stood in their way, the Hammers were humiliatingly beaten 7-0.
In the two years since that match both sides have changed managers and for both there is renewed optimism towards this competition. Skinner was asked about the historic opportunity in front of her side, she replied:
“I think we’re in a situation where obviously there’s an opportunity to get to a final, so it’s like further down that, you know, the knockout stages, which is obviously a massive incentive and a motivation for the players. It’s not something that, you know that the club’s done very often. You know, we’ve not made it to a final in this situation before. So that’s obviously a big thing that we want to try and strive towards. I think, other than that, the preparation that we go through for what the game looks like and how we try and set about our game plan, and all of that, all that process, is the same, but I think ultimately it’s 11 v 11, it’s a cup game and anything can happen.”
West Ham have ‘a point to prove’ against Chelsea affirms Irons head coach
As of their opponents, well, West Ham have never beaten Chelsea, and Chelsea are yet to lose a football match this season. So the size of their challenge is enormous but how does Skinner see that challenge? She notes:
“Yeah, it’s a big ask. We’ve spoken about before, the quality and depth in their side is obviously significant and that makes it a challenge. But ultimately, every player, every club, every team, sets out to win games, and that’ll be what we’re trying to do, and we want to make that as difficult for them as possible.”
Skinner continued, “We’ve got a point to prove, actually, because we didn’t play to our best in the last game that we played them in. And so we came away from that disappointed, because we felt we were a bit too passive, just across the game in general, we’ve had games since then and so whilst there’s been a high game volume, we still are in a better position in the context of the way that we’re trying to play and people being ready and I don’t think we were in the best position for that game. But as I say, no excuses with that. We were too passive. We gave them too much time and space and that’s not the way that we’re trying to play. So we want to rectify that this time around.”
Chelsea are ‘setting the benchmark’ claims Skinner
This month Chelsea signed both Naomi Girma from San Diego Wave for £890,000 while Kiera Walsh arrived for a fee of £440,000, ambitious signings from the Blues. The question was put to Skinner about whether the gap between Chelsea and West Ham is growing especially after this most recent transfer window. Skinner noted in response:
“I think it’s been there for years. Like to be honest the difference in time spent in the WSL, it creates those opportunities to evolve your squad, opportunities for investment. You know, they’ve been in the since the very beginning. You know, it takes time to build that. So clearly, those clubs like Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City, you know, they’ve got a bit of an advantage on that front. But also, you know, the investment significantly different.”
Skinner continued, “The two transfer fees combined are more than most the bottom half of the tables budget, pretty much in total. So when you actually put that into context, where everybody’s pitching out, we’ve all got different projects that we’re working on. We’ve all got different aspirations, we’ve all got different stages of development. Of course, they’re setting the benchmark for what that looks like this year, and they’ve played incredibly well. So credit to them. You know, Sonia has done a fantastic job. But for us as a club, we’ve got keep, keep working in our own lane, so to speak, to keep progressing. And ultimately, that’s that’s all we can do, and we’re going to keep working hard to win football matches and do as many of them as we can.”
Skinner’s Hammers ‘look forward’ to the challenge of Sonia Bompastor’s Blues
Sonia Bompastor is one of football’s most successful players and managers, her stint at Lyon was remarkable as a head coach and her stay as Chelsea boss could hardly have been more impressive so far. The Halfway Line asked Skinner what it’s like to face her and whether she would prepare differently last year to facing a Chelsea side coached by Emma Hayes:
“I mean, I think ultimately, you know, the players that are at Chelsea are a big challenge, like I’ve said, the quality, the depth in the squad, whether it was Emma before or Sonia now, you know, the squad is built for Champions League, essentially. So that then creates a lot of challenges within itself. I think, you know, ultimately, the way that they move, the fluidity that they have, the technicians that they have in the team, those are the bits that we have to try and solve basically.
She continued: “That takes a significant amount of concentration and the work rate and the intensity to be able to compete with that on a week to week basis and across the board, you know, in the league, for everybody, really. But look, I mean, we look forward to the challenge that’s the most important thing. And as I said, we want to make sure that we do a better account of ourselves than we did last time. And so, you know, whoever it is, we have to keep focusing on ourselves and make sure that we do what we were trying to do within games, and to keep moving forward as a club and a team.”
