Manchester United Women | The Pre Relaunch Thread

Web of Bissaka

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Lyon, Montpellier and Paris doing very well.
Linköping from Sweden also a top team in Europe.
Wolfsburg always a good side.
Barcelona also a top team.
Chelsea and City the best from England.
It's changing really as more leagues and teams go professional. Lyon went through a period of absolute dominance in France, pulling a lot of the best players towards the club. But PSG (with money!) and Montpelier (who seemed to lose players to Lyon) are challenging that now.

Spanish clubs usually have a club up there somewhere - Barcelona currently, it used to be Athletic. Germany as well, Wolfsburg, maybe Bayern. Sweden and Denmark have successful club sides as well.

The UEFA coefficients tell their own story though. https://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/competitions/Draws/02/47/78/71/2477871_DOWNLOAD.pdf
City and Chelsea are on the rise. City, in particular, came out of nowhere to become a big team and are serious contenders this year.

In honesty that's probably the shape of things to come. The shift from amateur to semi-pro to fulltime pro that's underway will create more good teams at the top, but squeeze out some smaller clubs.

For us, I like the principle expressed by Woodward in United's statement that we expect to base the team on our youth structure. I'm sure we will make detours from that, I wouldn't be surprised if our starting team next year includes some recruits who are WSL1 discards for example, players we take for experience and admittedly because we need the numbers.

At any rate I'm not expecting to see us buy half the England team and become contenders in Europe or England overnight. The club might only be saying those things to reduce expectations and keep the budget under control, but that's OK as well.
Good posts.

Interesting. If the United team are supported with good financial resources (which I believe it will), no reason we could not reach top team level. Not expecting us to splash the cash on many top players straightaway nor does suddenly become a top team straightaway like just after 2 seasons. But there should good progress and good work every seasons in both slowly integrating our young players into the squad and improving the team level every seasons. Okay, this is becoming more fun, no news yet on who the manager and coaches will be? :lol:
 

Denis79

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;) Don't know why I'm felling thrilled. Maybe because it's Manchester United. Should be fun following this new team.
Agree fully, really hope the club takes this seriously, I'm sure they will though. Great opportunity to strengthen our fanbase and build our brand aswell. I'm really looking forward to this.
 

Grande

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Agree fully, really hope the club takes this seriously, I'm sure they will though. Great opportunity to strengthen our fanbase and build our brand aswell. I'm really looking forward to this.
Another interesting historical parallell, is maybe when United men’s team got started after the WW2. It was sort of propelled into the top by post-war development. After a chaotic few years for the entire league, it was also a period of time where Matt Busby was allowed to build from youth, after having some seasoned players already, mind.

It’s a United sort of situation.
 

AltiUn

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What are the plans in terms of getting a squad together for next season? Will we be promoting most from our academy or are there plans to sign most of the starting 11?
 

Stretford kev

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Hi, I created a thread for this but thought you guys might be able to help:

I'm a journalist that writes about women's football and I'm writing a piece on Man United's old women's team. I want to chat to an ex player (pre-2005 when it ended) on what it was like for women to pull on the United shirt.
I'm struggling to find even a list of players. I was wondering if anyone on here knew anyone (don't have to be still playing) who was involved at that time.

Appreciate any help you can give,
Cheers
Suzanne
Many years ago when I was about 14/15 myself and a quite a few lads used to play football on a field close too Old Trafford known as top fields.
Some of you may know this park and field as it can be used as a short cut leading upto railway road towards the ground.

Anyway we had a girl who joined in who lived just behind the field.She was maybe two years older than us and played for Manchester United ladies team for a good few years.(I'm going back to the mid to late 80s here)

Now all of us played for local teams such as stretford Victoria and flixton boys and we were all reasonable players.
However at the time she was miles better than any of us,good first touch,either foot,good in the air and strong as an ox.Never one to shirk a tackle either.
Her name was Hazel Coates.If you google her on Facebook her pic will come up with a bit about herself.you may be able to request a friends request on Facebook Suzanne .A terrific player.
 
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Grande

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Many years ago when I was about 14/15 myself and a quite a few lads used to play football on a field close too Old Trafford known as top fields.
Some of you may know this park and field as it can be used as a short cut leading upto railway road towards the ground.

Anyway we had a girl who joined in who lived just behind the field.She was maybe two years older than us and played for Manchester United ladies team for a good few years.(I'm going back to the mid to late 80s here)

Now all of us played for local teams such as stretford Victoria and flixton boys and we were all reasonable players.
However at the time she was miles better than any of us,good first touch,either foot,good in the air and strong as an ox.Never one to shirk a tackle either.
Her name was Hazel Coates.If you google her on Facebook her pic will come up with a bit about herself.you may be able to request a friends request on Facebook Suzanne .A terrific player.
Did she play with Haley Bates?
 

TrebleFan99

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Brilliant news this. And about time.

That said I think there are several other threads on the topic
 

DOTA

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What are the plans in terms of getting a squad together for next season? Will we be promoting most from our academy or are there plans to sign most of the starting 11?
We'll have to sign most, I imagine. Our oldest girls' team is presently the under 16's, I believe, so doubt too many of them will be ready to start. Though they are pretty good, from the looks of it, so we have every reason to believe we can produce plenty of our own talent going forward. Apparently got to the final of the FA Youth Cup for the first time in 2016. This season we beat Liverpool in the quarter final but then lost the semi-final to Reading.

As jojojo suggested, one inexpensive route could be those who are let go from WSL1 sides.
 
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Halftrack

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Just wanted to add a somewhat late "fecking finally". I'm really happy about this.
 

Grande

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We'll have to sign most, I imagine. Our oldest girls' team is presently the under 16's, I believe, so doubt too many of them will be ready to start. Though they are pretty good, from the looks of it, so we have every reason to believe we can produce plenty of our own talent going forward. Apparently got to the final of the FA Youth Cup for the first time in 2016. This season we beat Liverpool in the quarter final but then lost the semi-final to Reading.

As jojojo suggested, one inexpensive route could be those who are let go from WSL1 sides.
It would be something if one or some of the earlier graduates from the Centre og Excellence came back to play for us, though I can easily understand if that’s not the most obvious thing after you’ve been forced out of the club to play football.

It seems though, as the people running the Foundation has done a lot for the girls who has been there these last years to have a really good sense of community and belonging from what I’ve seen so far.
 

Grande

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Fantastic! Eleven months after the start of this thread, it is already finally clear: Man United will be able to field eleven women in official league games in England!

This thread is for discussing or sharing things to do with ladies and girls football connected to MUFC. History, games, news, results, players, activities, whatever.

I am aware that there is a thread of fairly similar name, but that is merely a discussion about why Uniteds adult ladies team was closed, so I think a separate thread is warranted. For discussions about this, there are several threads started to that end:


https://www.redcafe.net/threads/manchester-united-ladies-football-club.403768/page-5

https://www.redcafe.net/threads/a-manchester-united-womens-team.357383/

https://www.redcafe.net/threads/a-manchester-united-womens-team.357383/

https://www.redcafe.net/threads/why-do-we-not-have-a-womens-team.430007/

As a starter, I'll put up this MU Foundation vid featuring Katie Zelem back in 2012, putting into words the dream of playing for Man Utd that so many boys and girls have:

As they say, thank you to all you who made this possible:

http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-F...plication-to-join-fa-womens-championship.aspx
 

Grande

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Though I do resent the fact it was closed down and took so long to get up again, I do love the facts that:

- We applied to get into the second level, not the first, like Man City
- We seem intent on the focus of the first team being a road for youth and academy
- United again have a team where the players will mainly be driven not by money and fame, but the yearning to play football, and even to play football for Man Utd:

https://www.united.no/nyhetsarkiv/vraket-liverpool-drommer-om-united/

Norwegian NT cap Emilie Haavi on how she turned down Liverpool because she since a little bonnie lass had a dream of playing for Manchester United, even though she knew it could never happen.
 

The_Order

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Though I do resent the fact it was closed down and took so long to get up again, I do love the facts that:

- We applied to get into the second level, not the first, like Man City
- We seem intent on the focus of the first team being a road for youth and academy
- United again have a team where the players will mainly be driven not by money and fame, but the yearning to play football, and even to play football for Man Utd:

https://www.united.no/nyhetsarkiv/vraket-liverpool-drommer-om-united/

Norwegian NT cap Emilie Haavi on how she turned down Liverpool because she since a little bonnie lass had a dream of playing for Manchester United, even though she knew it could never happen.
Awesome stuff, can't wait to see em.
 

manuchamp88

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Now that could be a very good team. Particularly for a second division side.
Haha cheers. The hardest one would be Morgan, I reckon Jesse could persuade George fairly easily to join and the rest would be hit or miss whether we pull them off apart from the unattached.
 

manuchamp88

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No Christen Press?

What blasphemy is this?
Good shout (now included). I tried to avoid transfers from the big teams/rivals. I guess Press is possible. I don't know many female footballers to be honest, so still learning.
 
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Grande

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Good shout (now included). I tried to avoid transfers from the big teams/rivals. I guess Press is possible. I don't know many female footballers to be honest, so still learning.
If we could lure home Katie Zelem or Izzy Christensen, it would be nice obviously. And Norwegian NT left midfielder Emilie Haavi always dreamed of playing for United.

But generally I hope we’ll see a fair few unknown names coming from the Academy to form something like ‘Class of Casey’.
 

manuchamp88

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If we could lure home Katie Zelem or Izzy Christensen, it would be nice obviously. And Norwegian NT left midfielder Emilie Haavi always dreamed of playing for United.

But generally I hope we’ll see a fair few unknown names coming from the Academy to form something like ‘Class of Casey’.
That's always a good sort of player to have. But we can all agree on getting Gabby George and Alex Morgan, right? :D
 

SwedishFish

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Personally, I resent the idea of going out and spending big money on big-name players for the Women's team for starters.

I think the terrific United academy graduates should constitute the main bulk of the squad to keep up with tradition and to gradually build the team.

I know a lot of people in the women's game have been optimistic about United trying to compete with Man City/PSG etc for the biggest transfers but I just think the team needs to establish itself with their own identity before any big moves should be made. Maybe bring in some ex-United players that are doing well in UK/Europe if they fancy rejoining the club.
 

Snow

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People need to remember we are in the second division.
Doesn't matter if there's money. The squad would be way cheaper (both transfers and wages) than the men's coaching staff (not counting Mourinho). Won't take much to outbid other English teams.

Would be easy enough to sign good players. Iceland has a few NT members that have returned home because their clubs in Italy and Sweden couldn't pay.
 

Grande

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Personally, I resent the idea of going out and spending big money on big-name players for the Women's team for starters.

I think the terrific United academy graduates should constitute the main bulk of the squad to keep up with tradition and to gradually build the team.

I know a lot of people in the women's game have been optimistic about United trying to compete with Man City/PSG etc for the biggest transfers but I just think the team needs to establish itself with their own identity before any big moves should be made. Maybe bring in some ex-United players that are doing well in UK/Europe if they fancy rejoining the club.
This.
 

atticus finch

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I mentioned on another thread that my daughter, Rachel, 11, is going to have her United trial at The Cliff in July.

She played for Salford United girls before we moved down south. Now playing for Widbrook Ladies, whose first team play in Division 1 of the Hampshire County Women’s League. Will be rejoining Salford next month.

She is a left footed DF, just like Matic! She is taller than most of her age and is pretty good. She tackles hard and she intercepts often, moving the ball forward very quickly. She is loud. Keeps shouting: "Move it forward. Quick, quick, quick". A really good, no nonsense, team player in my wholly unbiased opinion.

Her party trick is penalties. She takes them for both teams she played for. Not missed one of more than a dozen taken. She loves to bend the ball with her left foot into the roof of the left side of the net as she faces it. Just under the junction of the crossbar and post. She puts them to the left most times but always gets the side of the net when she goes hard to the right as well. She has scored some headed goals from corners too.

She is so excited about going to The Cliff, it is a dream come true for her. Will probably get nagged into buying another kit from the Megastore before the trial...Ugh!
 

Grande

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I mentioned on another thread that my daughter, Rachel, 11, is going to have her United trial at The Cliff in July.

She played for Salford United girls before we moved down south. Now playing for Widbrook Ladies, whose first team play in Division 1 of the Hampshire County Women’s League. Will be rejoining Salford next month.

She is a left footed DF, just like Matic! She is taller than most of her age and is pretty good. She tackles hard and she intercepts often, moving the ball forward very quickly. She is loud. Keeps shouting: "Move it forward. Quick, quick, quick". A really good, no nonsense, team player in my wholly unbiased opinion.

Her party trick is penalties. She takes them for both teams she played for. Not missed one of more than a dozen taken. She loves to bend the ball with her left foot into the roof of the left side of the net as she faces it. Just under the junction of the crossbar and post. She puts them to the left most times but always gets the side of the net when she goes hard to the right as well. She has scored some headed goals from corners too.

She is so excited about going to The Cliff, it is a dream come true for her. Will probably get nagged into buying another kit from the Megastore before the trial...Ugh!
Way cool to put an ad in for her on redcafe to increase her chances. I’ll do the same for myself with regards for the men’s (old boys) team ...
 

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I never realised women's football was so popular. Or perhaps it's growing in popularity. I know nothing about women's football, but I wish the team all the success.
 

Web of Bissaka

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Would be good I feel to merge this with the other one, since it's too similar.

Also, a section of its own like the reserves/youth section, I'm sure the team will grow even bigger in the future, "Manchester United" strong brand.

That name may even boost the publicity and eventually raise the level of women's football at England. :devil:
 

The Mitcher

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Personally, I resent the idea of going out and spending big money on big-name players for the Women's team for starters.

I think the terrific United academy graduates should constitute the main bulk of the squad to keep up with tradition and to gradually build the team.

I know a lot of people in the women's game have been optimistic about United trying to compete with Man City/PSG etc for the biggest transfers but I just think the team needs to establish itself with their own identity before any big moves should be made. Maybe bring in some ex-United players that are doing well in UK/Europe if they fancy rejoining the club.
We don't have any from the academy over 18, suicidal to rely mostly on under 16s.