"One Team One Dream: This is Chelsea" Documentary Review
Wow, seems like I had a lot more to say on this than I thought
It’s a new year in the middle of the season and the transfer window is wide open. Writing new beginnings are always hard (reminding myself of this a lot at the minute) but we’ve already had some players who have made some really exciting moves! The one that everyone’s been talking about the most in the UK obviously being Beth England leaving Chelsea for Tottenham after seven years as a Blue, in a £250,000 deal which is the biggest one to date between two Women Super League clubs. Another massive move is Jordan Nobbs leaving Arsenal (and Leah Williamson with her “I don’t really remember Arsenal before you” ughh <3) for Aston Villa, who are racking up the signings and bolstering their squad nicely. A squad which, according to Alisha Lehmann, is close-knit and in a good place collectively, and it’ll be exciting to see what this group can produce.
Out in Europe, Amelie Vangsgaard (Damallsvenskan’s top goalscorer last season for Linköping FC) was confirmed for Paris Saint Germain today! The Dane will join fellow Scandi Amanda Ilestedt, Grace Geyoro, Lieke Martens, and Ramona Bachmann amongst others.
Talking about the likes of Beth and Ramona, they both feature quite a bit in this DAZN’s documentary that I’ve been binging., which mainly focuses on Chelsea’s 2019/2020 season (but also goes a bit beyond it.) The documentary is called “One Team One Dream: This is Chelsea” and can be found on DAZN’s Champion’s League Youtube channel, as well as on their website. I found the doc really easy to get into, and it also left me with a lot of thoughts. So I thought I would comb some of those out here, and if you watch it and want to discuss or you have a comment on something, please share in the comment section below, or email me at badfootballfan [@] gmail.com!!
Emma Hayes. I could just leave it at that because fuck the woman is amazing. Well, I have a lot of different feelings about her actually as will become evident, but mainly just DAMN, what a coach. Throughout the doc she’s also constantly caring for her son, who comes with to the training ground and to games. We never have to see a grumpy/resentful/busy partner (the internet tells me she has a husband) but rather it’s Emma in manager and/or mum mode, occasionally getting help from other family members who are all just sweet about it. There’s a bit at the end where *spoiler alert, they win something* and Emma says “I can do this. I can be a mum and a manager” and it makes me so happy and it makes me so sad, because of course women who choose to have children should be able to be something more, rather than immediately be reduced to the role of mother, but so many times society has told them no. Held them back, made it too difficult.
Emma herself seems a bit baffled by the achievement of juggling career and baby duties. This is the kind of leadership by example that is only really possible when female managers get to lead and something that gets transferred to the players as well, the contemporary example of Melanie Leupolz, who just signed a new contract with the Blues and is coming back into the team, three months after having her baby. However this is far from a given across the league (which we’ve already seen with the ACL question), and it has to be backed by the larger structures. Reading captain Emma Mukandi has opened up about how much she’s struggled since she became pregnant in 2021. The Scotland international says she hid the pregnancy at the start by faking an injury and has had to breast pump in a cupboard, pointing out it’s a different experience being at a rich club like Chelsea or Arsenal, and being further down in the league.In the first episode we’re introduced to Bethany England’s ovaries. Not her literal ones, but you get the point, they bring England into a room for a performance review and Emma starts drawing female reproductive organs on the whiteboard, what iconic behaviour is that. England suffers from endometriosis which is impacting her, and by extension her game at times (something Leah Williamson was also just talking about in the latest issue of Women’s Health). This also makes me think about the fact that Emma, just a few months ago, was out for several weeks after she got an emergency hysterectomy due to her own struggle with endometriosis.
Shy Sam Kerr!! As if I couldn’t possibly love her any more, seeing her in a situation where she was doing something incredibly vulnerable which is coming into a new team, a new social dynamic, and especially with all of that pressure on her (from the club, from the media, from the fans), was very endearing. It was also funny then seeing everyone being quite on the edge and just a bit standoffish in the beginning, because now she’s one of the main jokesters in the team. One thing she said stuck with me:
”In the men’s game you have to play well to belong. In the women’s game you have to belong to play well.”
I think that observation (albeit subjective based on the way she is and what she’s experienced) speaks to a lot of experiences in women’s sports, as well as society at large. It’s refreshing seeing a superstar not having a big ego, but rather coming across as very chill and funny. At the same time I love the egos, because not everyone needs to be soft spoken and sweet - women are allowed to take up space and loudly express their needs too.The draaaaama - which was a bit much at times, maybe playing at the expectancy that women (especially women in a group) are catty and all of that? At the same time, drama is literally all the producers want and we get it, makes for a more interesting story.
There’s a lot of editing out all of the cursing that Emma and her assistant coaches do: on the sidelines, in the dressing room, in the conference room, at the training ground … hilarious! I don’t think that I personally would be able to train and thrive under Emma’s way of coaching due to all the negative chat, but this is also probably why I’m not a professional footballer lol. She does very much say it as it as she sees it, which also applies to how much she cares for her players.
What was missing from the documentary: I would’ve loved more of an exploration of what it was like when Pernille Harder came into the team, as well as Lauren James later on (both of whom were more expensive transfers than Kerr.) It was fun to see Jamie Lee Napier (the 19-year-old who got signed from Hibernian) and her connecting with Erin Cuthbert 🏴 Maybe just a bit less fun when it felt like everyone were slagging off the Scottish league though haha, and it was a shame that they kind of just left her story without really following up on what she got up to (she eventually left the club and is now playing for London City Lionesses together with fellow Glaswegian Carly Girasoli, who I’ve actually played with once lol.)
All in all, a fun watching experience!