Sonia Bompastor has said that Chelsea are a ‘special club’ with the quality in their ranks to ‘achieve a lot’ this season.
The Blues overcame Manchester United on Sunday thanks to goals from Lauren James and Aggie Beever-Jones. That helped Chelsea to make it four wins from four since back to back defeats against Arsenal and Manchester City threatened to derail their season.
Bompastor spoke to the media after her side’s 2-0 victory over Manchester United in the final of the Subway Women’s League Cup.
Players need to understand ‘Chelsea is a special club’ Sonia Bompastor says
After the match Marc Skinner, Bompastor’s opposite number on Sunday bemoaned his side’s ‘missing piece’, which he felt was finishing chances against Chelsea in a major final. Bompastor has a storied history of success in getting over the line in major finals, The Halfway Line asked the Chelsea head coach what she puts that down to,
“I think it comes from the players first because I think if [they] themselves don’t have that mentality, it’s really difficult for the coach to manage these things.
“But also it’s about the environment and the mentality we create every day in training session, the competition you bring into every training session.
“I think it’s finding the balance because sometimes depending on where the team is, you don’t want to be too difficult or you don’t want to be too demanding on them because if they are playing without having confidence, it doesn’t help.
“But at the same time, they need to understand, Chelsea is a special club, and when they are in a training session, they just not are coming on the pitch just to have a training session.
“They are coming to improve every day, to be the best version of themselves. When they are in front of the goal, they are not just here to shoot, they need to shoot and to score.”
“That’s a job we are doing with the staff to make sure we have this conversation with them, we put the context and the scenarios in training session for them to be trained. It helps.
“It doesn’t do everything, but it helps for sure. But yeah, it’s working in that mentality and that confidence around the players.”
Bompastor says ‘Chelsea spoke about starting strong’
After back to back Barclays WSL defeats, Chelsea faced their toughest moment under Bompastor. Paul Green departed and some questioned Chelsea, while this trophy does not banish lingering concerns, it does serve as a reminder that Bompastor has won every domestic competition available to her since arriving in West London.
Bompastor spoke about the importance of a good start to this block of fixtures,
“We knew starting this block it will be a really important part of the season being the business end of the season,” Bompastor said. “Seven games, we really know what we need to do, the mentality we need to put in this block.
“Starting the block with this trophy is the best way to start. We spoke about us being able to start strong, to lift the confidence up. We also want to have the mentality to compete in every competition.
“We know we still have six games left but it was the perfect way to start, and I’m hoping, with the confidence being high now, we can achieve a lot. We have a lot of quality and talent in the squad.
“So yeah, I’m confident we’ll give our all in every game. We’ll focus game by game and see what we can achieve.”
Nathalie Björn injury ‘doesn’t look good’ laments Sonia Bompastor
In the second half, Nathalie Björn made her long awaited return from injury having not featured for the Blues since November 2025. Sadly, only five minutes later the Swede had to be withdrawn with a calf injury,
“Yeah, really sad, really sad for her,” Sonia Bompastor admitted. “It doesn’t look good, but we need to assess her. We were all buzzing around the fact Kadeisha [Buchanan] could start the game, she [Buchanan] had a great game.
“Part of the plan was for [Björn] to come in and to also get the first minutes going into this important block. I was really pleased to have Nat back as well. So yeah, we’ll assess her. But it’s really sad that it doesn’t look good. So yeah, hopefully it’s not too bad.”
Bompastor also provided injury updates on two other centre backs,
“Naomi [Girma] picked up a small injury in her calf,” explained Bompastor. ‘Hopefully it’s not too bad and she can be available for the next game.
“I don’t have a timeframe for Millie [Bright] but I would like her to be available as soon as possible, hopefully for the weekend.”
Academy to first team quality gap is ‘huge’ in England says Bompastor
Chelsea’s bench on Sunday was sparse, with so many injuries Bompastor was asked why more under 20s players were not asked to join the match day squad,
“I think we wanted to come into this game with having 20 players in the bench,” Bompastor said. “We couldn’t, for many reasons, I think also something England needs to reflect on it’s like about the young players coming from the academy.
“When I was in Lyon before I could really have four or five players coming from the academy, and they were able to perform at a really good level for the first team. Where here I think our academies, they are playing like at a level where the gap is big, huge.
“I think they are not ready to be playing for the first team. So today we had Chloe Sarwie, who signed her first professional contract. I think she could come in. But right now, in our academy in Chelsea, top club in England and in Europe, I think she’s probably the only one who can be training with us and playing for the first team.
“So I think it’s not enough, we should have more. And I think the FA should reflect with the clubs, the top clubs, about the structure of the competitions in order for the young players to be able to bridge the gap with the first team.
When asked if she hoped to be part of that discussion she responded with a glint in her eye,
“I would love to,” Sonia Bompastor smiled. “I did that when I was in Lyon for eight years. I was the head of the academy.”
With a tone of mischief Bompastor continued, “During my eight years in the academy in Lyon, nothing happened. Since I left, it was the first year where the French Federation introduced the official academies for the clubs, and they structured the different competitions for the young players differently.
“So I worked for eight years really hard on that, and they had the result after,” Bompastor laughed. “I will always be open to share my ideas with the FA and making sure the young English football also progress in the right direction.”
When asked to explain what Bompastor felt a better structure could entail she responded,
“So I think if you look in Germany, I think that’s probably the case in Spain and in France, the reserve team plays in the second division,” Bompastor explained. “So the young players play with the adults, and we have some rules. Let’s say, when I was in Lyon, the reserve team, they were playing the second division, but we couldn’t have players older than 23 years old.
“So like this, you had to play your young kids in that team because the biggest fear for the French Federation was for a club like Lyon to go and take the best players in all the other clubs around Lyon.
“So I think if you make the right rules around that, I think, yeah, our objective was really much to play the young kids in that division because playing against senior players will make them progress a lot.
“Most of the time, the kids in Lyon were playing every game, winning every season the trophy, winning the games by seven, eight goals, and it was no interesting for them anymore.
“So I think you need to find a good balance for them to have a really good competition, in order for them to develop individually and also to progress in the right direction, to bridge the gap.”
Bompastor delights in ‘big boost’ of ‘confidence’ for Aggie Beever-Jones
Aggie Beever-Jones grabbed headlines earlier this season by scoring four in her first four WSL matches of the season. However she has not scored in the league since, Beever-Jones has suffered from injuries as well as a loss of form. The Halfway Line asked Sonia Bompastor how important that second goal in the final was for Beever-Jones,
“Yeah, really important,” Bompastor said. “I think for every player, it’s crucial when the player is playing with trust, belief and confidence, that’s where they can express themselves at the best level.
“I think Aggie, as you just mentioned, picked up some injuries, and it played a little bit in her confidence. I think she’s now back to a really good level she was already like doing well before the International break.”
“I had a really good conversation with Sarina [Wiegman] and Aggie after the international break, and I think she did well, even if she didn’t get lot of minutes and this week in training session, she was doing well, so she was not far from starting the game.
“Probably in terms of physicality, fitness, she was not ready, but she’s not far from that. Being able to score today will be a big boost in terms of confidence for her individually.”
