Johnson: We're still a work in progress

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Read the full interview with our women's and girls' managing director.

Luke Nicoli

2023-10-17T06:00:00Z

Zoe Johnson, managing director of women's and girls' football, spoke to Albion fans about a wide range of topics.

Zoe Johnson, our women’s and girls’ managing director, talks us through the changes made, both on and off the pitch, this summer.

Zoe, after last season’s disappointing WSL showing, was there a reset this summer?

We knew from January onwards that the direction of travel was not what we wanted as a club, and we knew improvements needed to be made on and off the field. We needed to build a culture and improve our standards and professionalism to match the values of this football club, so there was a lot of work started long before our 11th-placed finish. Of course, our number one priority in the second half of last season was to ensure we stayed in the division; that was the remit for Melissa Phillips, for myself when I arrived in February, and the rest of the staff.

What has been happening off the pitch then?

We’ve been working on a host of ways to help our longer-term development: aligning ourselves with the Men’s First Team and replicating their blueprint; the recruitment strategy of players; investment in our home-grown players and improving the pathway to the first team; and how we can support Melissa with a high-performing staffing team around her. We’ve created a senior leadership team within the women’s and girls’ department as well, which was a really crucial part of our off-season planning, so there’s been a lot happening and it’s all still very much a work in progress. We do feel that things have already improved significantly, but we’ve got to keep building and evolving – this is not something that’s going to happen overnight.

There’s been a number of new arrivals this summer from all over the world too…

Pauline Bremer won the Champions League with Lyon in 2016 and 2017.

It was always recognised from a recruitment perspective that there would be changes in personnel and that process also began in January. We knew we had to improve in terms of the calibre of players; some had been here a long time, absolutely fantastic servants to the club, who had put us in such a good position in many ways, but it was inevitable that we needed to make some changes. With the growth of the game and how the league is improving, it was really important that we brought in some strong players, with experience on the international stage, experience of competing in the Champions League, the World Cup, the Euros, and other leagues across the world. It was also important we retained a core group of players from last season with WSL experience, so we’re really happy with the squad we’ve assembled. The board and chairman have been excellent in supporting our rebuild.

Given the multicultural feel to the squad, is that an indication of the strength of the league and also the pull of the club?

The WSL is the best women’s league in the world now and players want to come here from across the globe. As far as Brighton & Hove Albion being a pull, players see the club’s brand is growing, which is a result of the recent successes of the Men’s First Team, and as the brand grows, it helps us as a women’s team. There was a lot of work done by our new recruitment manager, Edward Gallagher, to show our vision and future plans. It was important we recruited the right people, as well as players, to match our values and ensure they bought into our plans and vision.

Was that not difficult when players saw us finishing 11th last season?

Naturally it was more difficult, but I also believe players know that we are a club that is run well from the top, with big ambitions and fantastic facilities. The players we recruited have all wanted to be a part of the journey and help us achieve our aims. Vicky Losada, for instance, played for Barcelona when they weren’t at the top and she helped them build to become one of Europe’s biggest clubs – and that’s the type of player we’ve wanted. We might have finished 11th last season but that’s not a reflection of where we are as a football club in terms of our brand, the facilities we have, our aspirations and our values. It wasn’t a hard sell because once the players we’ve signed met with us, they could see exactly what we’re trying to achieve.

Libby Bance, Chelsea Ferguson and Lulu Jarvis have gone out on loan, so where do we stand in terms of the club’s pathway to the first team?

Chelsea Ferguson is on a season-long loan with Blackburn Rovers.

It’s at the forefront of our minds and part of the recruitment strategy we created in the summer. Our long-term ambition is to ensure we have far more home-grown players in the squad, and to be able to do that we’ve got to get some of the current home-grown talent out on loan to gain experience, which is what happens on the men’s side. Libby has a fantastic opportunity to go and play for Rangers, while Lulu and Chelsea [Ferguson] will play regular first-team football in the Championship this season. We recognise we’ve not got a squad full of home-grown players but we will strive to improve the numbers over the next two or three years. We have a new academy manager, Jeremy Sauer, and part of his remit is to bring players through the pathway and really drive our academy forward. Jeremy is a proven player developer and has been a key appointment for us. He will help us shape the pathway further and build on the foundations that we already had. We aspire to be a leading girls academy in the country, alongside a top-four WSL club.

From the fans’ point of view, is there still a desire to bring the team back to the city permanently?

It’s something that’s discussed regularly, and both Tony Bloom and Paul Barber have made it publicly known that they want to have a women’s bespoke stadium in the city. That’s still the plan, but in the meantime we’re at Crawley. Broadfield Stadium has been a brilliant ground for us and will continue to be so. We broke our record attendance there last season, and I hope we manage to do the same this season.

So, finally, this season is a work in progress, right?

Zoe Johnson is women's and girls' managing director.

Absolutely. This season is about making sure we finish higher up the table than we did in 2022/23 and making sure we are competitive in all of our fixtures – not just against those sides who have been in and around us. We want to make sure that in each league game we play, it’s a competitive fixture, while our longer-term target remains to become an established top-four WSL club.