Sarina Wiegman has said she ‘makes decisions to win’ following the public fallout with former goalkeeper Mary Earps, with the England boss admitting that she would handle the situation the same way if faced with it again.
Former England goalkeeper Earps detailed the breakdown of her relationship with the head coach in her autobiography All In: Football, Life and Learning to be Unapologetically Me, released earlier this month.
In the book, she criticised Wiegman for ‘rewarding bad behaviour’ by recalling the previously dropped Hannah Hampton to the squad, after the younger goalkeeper usurped her in Wiegman’s starting XI ahead of the summer’s Euros.
Hampton went on to shine for the Lionesses at the tournament in Switzerland, including saving two penalties in the final as England retained their trophy against world champions Spain.
Wiegman said: ‘We have conversations with different players all the time. What my reality is and what someone else’s reality is can be different because how you experience things is very individual. I just know what I want to do is create an environment where we speak up and have clarity.
‘I make decisions to win. And what I’ve said all the time is that we have two incredible goalkeepers and at the end I made that decision to the one I came to and that’s what it is for me.’
Mary Earps’ bombshell claims that Sarina Wiegman was ‘rewarding bad behaviour’ by selecting Hannah Hampton rocked women’s football earlier this month
Wiegman has dismissed those claims, saying she selects a squad to win silverware – as her Lionesses went onto achieve in the summer
Hampton was one of the stars of England’s successful Euros campaign
Wiegman, who confirmed that she hadn’t spoken to Earps since the release of the book, said that she ‘couldn’t control’ the behaviours of other people, only her own, and that she ‘would have done the same thing’ again if put in the same situation.
‘The competition has been really hard. We had a very good goalkeeping unit and the two goalkeepers were competing for the number one spot. I would have done the same thing (again). In the bigger picture I don’t think I would have done things differently,’ she said.
‘As I always say, I always keep conversations private. When I have individual conversations, I keep that private because I think that builds trust.
‘When I do that I think players will come to me and have conversations with me. We create an environment where we want people to be themselves and everyone’s different. I think that helps on and off the pitch to connect people.’
The three-time Euros winning manager said that she was not concerned by potential divisions within the squad caused by the book.
‘When there are teams there are always dynamics going on,’ she said. ‘We’re working with people and everyone is different. No matter what the topic is there are always conversations going on.
‘I want my door to be open at all times to have conversations when needed or if someone needs support and the other way round if I need to challenge a player for whatever reason.’
She did add that she had ‘enjoyed working’ with Earps, and that the two shared ‘incredible’ times together.
