Phil Neville has praised the solidarity that exists between women athletes after seeing his England squad watch the heroics of Dina Asher-Smith and Katarina Johnson-Thompson.
“What I find really inspiring is that Monday night was the Manchester United v Arsenal game for instance, that’s on in the background and we all have a laugh about it; Spurs v Bayern on Tuesday; the minute that a female athlete comes on, Dina Asher-Smith and Katarina Johnson-Thompson, they all get excited because that is their inspiration,” Neville said.
“They’re fighting together. That’s inspiring for them. The gold medal that KJT won – they have a different sensation.
“My sister [former England netball head coach Tracey Neville] came to camp on Tuesday – there is a connection between women in sport, a ‘we’ve broken down these barriers ourselves and we’re going to take on the world ourselves and when one of us wins we all win’.
“That is the connection I have found over the last 18 months. Chelsea can win the league title in the men’s game and the Chelsea girls are happy. But when England win at netball, they all celebrate together. It’s almost like a pack of wolves fighting together.”
England play Brazil on Saturday and the game will promote the Darby Rimmer MND foundation set up by the captain Steph Houghton’s husband, Stephen Darby, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in September 2018.
Neville confirmed that the returning midfielder Jordan Nobbs and her Arsenal teammate Leah Williamson would start at the sold-out Riverside – with injuries to Millie Bright, Abbie McManus, Fran Kirby and Demi Stokes clearing the way for some fringe and returning players.
The Arsenal duo are part of a pared-down squad to “intensify the competition” before Neville has to select 18 players to take to the Olympics. “Picking 25 created a little bit of comfort within the squad,” the manager said. “We had to be really ruthless because I wanted the competition and the players to feel the burn a little bit. That’s what I learned coming out of the last squad.
“I actually love working with 25 because you get to see them all together fighting for the same jersey. But when you have 20 in your squad – we have four training players as well – there is a more intense feeling … It’s that Man United feeling of ‘everyone outside these barriers are trying to do us’ type thing. There’s a real togetherness and I think the players have enjoyed that getting into this squad means [they] have to have played well at club level.”
One player who has been a focus of Neville’s attention is Arsenal’s Beth Mead, who he believes can be a world beater. “We were quite tough on her coming off the back of the World Cup and she’s answered everything we’ve asked of her. In terms of players that score goals and [make] assists, I don’t think there’s anyone like her in our team, she assists and scores in most games that she plays.
“Her delivery, think back to the World Cup, the cross in the semi-final for Ellen [White], she has an impact in every single game now – it’s just the consistency. We saw Megan Rapinoe win the big award the other week; on the big occasions she delivers.
“That’s the challenge we’ve set Beth. We’ve shown her the stats, the assists, the goals, we’ve said: ‘You can go left or right here. Do you want to do OK, which is what we’ve seen, or go to the next level?’”
The Brazil game will be followed by a friendly in Portugal on Tuesday and then, on 9 November, England will play Germany in front of more than 77,000 at Wembley. Neville said they were building towards regular games in Premier League-standard grounds.
“We need to keep producing great performances so that when we’re selecting stadiums for the next four, five friendlies, we’re looking at Wembley, Old Trafford, Anfield, all the biggest stadiums in the country; that’s where we want to get to. That’s the aim we set 18 months ago, two years ago: we want to fill Premier League stadiums. We’re now close to filling the national stadium.
“Everyone at the FA, everybody in women’s football, every player that’s out there, grassroots all the way up to the WSL, it is a massive motivation and vote of confidence that what they’re doing is right.”