Victory over Manchester United saw the Blues lift a sixth-successive title on Wednesday, despite some believing this could be a transition year
When Amandine Miquel, the Leicester City boss, mingled with the English media for the first time last summer, she was quick to point out one of the positives of being in the Foxes’ job rather than the Chelsea one, which her friend and fellow Frenchwoman, Sonia Bompastor, had just secured. “[Last season’s] 10th position [finish] in the league was ideal, because you can mostly only go up. Not too much pressure! Compared to my friend from Chelsea,” she explained, tongue-in-cheek. “I called her and asked, ‘Are you sure you don’t want to switch?’ Because it’s way riskier.”
Miquel was only aiming a light-hearted joke at Bompastor, but the fact remained that there was a lot of pressure on the new Chelsea boss – and not just because the Blues were on a run of five successive Women’s Super League titles. By taking up the role, Bompastor was succeeding Emma Hayes, who became an icon of the club, and in the sport, during a 12-year stint that saw her transform Chelsea's women’s team into an absolute powerhouse. The way Bompastor has taken to the challenge, though, delivering another WSL title on Wednesday after picking up her first silverware in the League Cup final in March, is evidence of how well she thrives under this sort of pressure.
“I don’t really agree with Amandine and that’s okay, as it’s probably not the first time,” Bompastor said with a laugh back in the summer, having been informed of Miquel’s teasing. “There is always room to improve, so this is my mindset. When you are first in the league you can always improve on being first with most points, most goals, most clean sheets. There are always ways to improve.”
Indeed, Bompastor has already put her name into the WSL record books with this triumph as it is the earliest in the competition's history. With the record for the most points still within their reach, as well as a first-ever unbeaten season in the 22-game era, there could be more reasons for her and Chelsea's 2024-25 side to cement their place in history after lifting an incredible sixth-successive title. Just how has she done it?
Getty ImagesPerfect mentality
Perhaps one of the most important traits Chelsea had to find in Hayes’ successor was an ability to deal with being Hayes’ successor. Bompastor ticked that box emphatically.
“I don’t really think about it,” she said at the start of the season. “I know Emma. She was my assistant coach [at Washington Freedom] when I was a player. We had a really good relationship. She’s been supportive with me. I know she will stay a Chelsea fan forever. But it’s now my time and I am just thinking about the present and future, not about the past.”
It wasn’t a surprise that Bompastor had that attitude, though. After all, this is someone who has dealt with pressure moments as a player and a manager, winning the Champions League in both roles. Coming from Lyon, the dominant force in France, she was well-accustomed to the expectations that she’d also experience at Chelsea in terms of the demand of winning trophies.
“The ambitions are the same,” she said, asked about the two jobs. “I don’t like to compare but Chelsea is one of the most famous clubs in Europe, as Lyon was. There is a responsibility and pressure on the result, as it was from my last experience.”
AdvertisementGetty ImagesTitle-winning team
Responsibility and pressure are some of the cons of taking a job like that at Chelsea – but there are overwhelming pros, too. One of the most notable is that when Hayes left, she ensured that there was a fantastic foundation in place for her successor, and Bompastor has been able to reap the rewards of that.
In the words of Lucy Bronze, that relates to “the intensity of training” and “the winning mentality that Chelsea has”, which has not changed just because the manager has. It also relates to the world-class squad still in the building.
Many of the stand-out pieces from this title triumph are from the Hayes era. Millie Bright, Erin Cuthbert, Hannah Hampton and Lauren James are among those signed as rising young stars by Hayes and developed into seasoned match-winners, while the likes of Nathalie Bjorn and Mayra Ramirez are more recent additions who have sprinkled a little extra stardust on the squad. Then there are the extra pieces Bompastor has added already, like Bronze, whose consistency at right-back this season has been wonderfully admirable, and Sandy Baltimore, who has adapted to a new left-back role in outstanding fashion.
In the words of young forward Aggie Beever-Jones: “Emma's legacy she left behind was incredible and I think it almost made the switch to Sonia a little bit easier. We have such a great calibre of players and I think Sonia has added her own little bit of unique flair to the squad.”
Getty Images'Really important' depth
The depth all those players provide, too, is vital. “This league is really, really competitive and I think if you don’t have depth in your squad, it’s almost impossible to achieve your goals,” Bompastor said recently. “Because, as you can see, the players are playing a lot of games with the national team, with the club, and this level of intensity is really high. I think even when you have the opportunity to bring fresh legs into these big games, it can make a big impact. For me, it’s really important.”
Chelsea have not been without fitness issues this season. Sam Kerr, Mia Fishel, Sophie Ingle and Kadeisha Buchanan have all missed either the entire campaign or most of it due to ACL injuries, while Naomi Girma, Niamh Charles, Maelys Mpome, Guro Reiten, Cuthbert, James and Baltimore have all had significant periods on the sidelines.
But the club’s continued investment, through the Hayes era and into Bompastor’s tenure, means the team has been able to absorb the impact of these absentees well. That quality of squad-building should not be overlooked, and it is something the new manager is already starting to contribute to.
Getty ImagesContinued development
Perhaps one of Bompastor’s most underrated qualities during the campaign, though, has been her continuation of the development of young overseas players which became a real focus for Chelsea in the latter stages of Hayes’ tenure.
The club has long been good at identifying rising talents and helping them progress into world-beaters. Bright, signed from Doncaster Rovers Belles as a 21-year-old, is a great example, as is someone like Fran Kirby, who moved on to Brighton last summer but is one of Chelsea’s greatest-ever players. The Blues have had some success in doing this with foreign talents, too, with Ji So-yun case in point.
However, now the club is trying to get even further ahead of the game, securing the signatures of teenage prospects from overseas with the aim of developing them into bonafide first-team stars. Maika Hamano was the first big success story of this method. Signed from Cerezo Osaka Sakai during the 2023-24 season, she spent time on loan in Sweden before returning to make some big contributions to Hayes’ final WSL triumph.
Under Bompastor, that progress has continued, with the Japan international a regular starter this term. Wieke Kaptein, in her first season at Chelsea after spending time on loan with previous club Twente in the last campaign, is following that same path. These are young players that Bompastor has consistently trusted to deliver in big moments – and they have done exactly that.
Previously the academy manager at Lyon, it’s no surprise she fits in nicely with the club vision, with homegrown talent Beever-Jones full of praise for Bompastor’s contributions to her continued development, too. But that doesn’t mean it should be overlooked, as her faith in these talents has seen them contribute some top performances in the run to this title.