Ahead of Sunday’s Barclays Women’s Super League match with Manchester City, West Ham United Women manager Paul Konchesky caught up with former teammate James Collins.
The two former defenders both played for the Irons in the mid-2000s and, reconnecting at Chadwell Heath, Konchesky gave Collins insight into the life of a WSL manager, the development of the team at West Ham, and his hopes for the season to come…
James Collins: Konch, we’re at Chadwell Heath, where we both signed for West Ham United in 2005. The whole building has changed since then…
Paul Konchesky: Going through it then with you, it’s amazing isn’t it? The new building is good, though, and we have the Academy and Women’s team here. The facilities are incredible and we have the Mark Noble Arena outside too, which is amazing. There is nowhere better we could be right now.
JC: I’ve watched a bit of training and the girls are looking sharp.
PK: That’s after two days off as well! You know as well as I do how training after a day off can be, but credit to them, they were good and they said that it felt good to get back out there. They had some time off over Christmas but they’ve looked great in the last couple of weeks.
JC: You’ve got our former teammate Jimmy Walker in as your assistant. How has he been?
PK: He’s been really good. Initially, he just came in to work with the goalkeepers, but my assistant moved on and Jimmy was a natural fit for the No2 role. Jimmy took to our players straight away, and they took to him, so it was a no-brainer to bring him in and have him here.
JC: Did you always think you’d be a coach?
PK: Not really. I left it until I finished playing and I never really thought I’d go into coaching. But when I finished playing, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. The then-Academy manager Terry Westley asked me to mentor some young players and maybe give back a little bit.
Along that journey, I did my Level 2 and my UEFA ‘B’ badge. With doing that, I stuck with it and got that hunger to stay on the grass. I ended up finishing up my ‘A’ licence this past summer. I never thought I’d go along that route.
JC: You took over here in May 2022. How has it been?
PK: Last year I was assistant to Olli Harder. With the Women’s first team, we had three points to play for every week. I was thriving off that pressure, and winning games.
I think I learned my way into the Women’s game through being assistant manager and I feel very lucky and fortunate for that. That year was a lot of learning and then the opportunity came up in the summer. It was something I was keen to do.
JC: Have you seen progression in the game?
PK: I think, with the England Lionesses winning Euro 2022, that has helped the attention on the Women’s game massively. At this Club, we’ve got a good Women’s team here which has been in the WSL for a while. They support the side and we’re aiming to get better and climb up the table.
JC: What’s your day-to-day, week-to-week like?
PK: We work our week backwards. The games are most often on a Sunday, so matchday minus one would be Saturday. We’d be training on the Friday, off on the Thursday, Wednesday is the hard day on the pitch and Tuesday is the ‘recover from the weekend’s game’ day.
It’s a good system and I’ve tried to bring some of things I enjoyed as a player into training for our team. I loved the tempo and I hope I can feed that into what we’re doing here.
JC: Tell me a bit about some of the players in your team.
PK: Our captain Dagný [Brynjarsdóttir] started unbelievably this year. She’s scored a few goals already and she’s a big influence in the team. She’s great in both boxes and she’s a proper leader, a leader by example. If embodies what West Ham is about. She’s a good player.
Viviane Asseyi has been huge for us as well. She joined us from Bayern Munich in the summer and has been a massive influence on the team. As has our goalkeeper, Mackenzie Arnold, who I believe is one of the best in the Barclays Women’s Super League.
Kate Longhurst has been fantastic with me too. She’s been here since day one and she is a proper West Ham United fan too. When she goes, she just goes as a fan. She honestly hates missing any games, but she has been so good for me. Like Dagný, she’s a diehard Hammer, and it’s great to have her here.
I’ve got a good team – a good blend of youth and experience. But, most important, we have people who want to be at this football club and achieve success with West Ham United.
JC: What’s the aim this season?
PK: We have our goals, which we set internally. We had our best-ever points tally in the WSL last season, and we’d love to beat that this campaign. We’d also like to have a good cup run – either in the Continental League Cup or FA Cup – and I think that would be a good campaign for us.
We’ve been in every game this season and competed against the top teams. Hopefully we can keep doing that.
JC: And how much are you enjoying your role here?
PK: I’m really enjoying my work here. This is my first job as the manager here, so I want to make sure I keep enjoying it and take my time with it. I’m lucky enough to be at the Club I grew up supporting.
[Manchester] City is a big opportunity for us. We’re at home against a fantastic football club and we want to take points off these bigger teams. We took points off them last year and we want to do the same again this season.
