Blackburn Rovers manager Gemma Donnelly says that the club are aiming to be knocking on the door of the Barclays FA Women’s Super League within the next five years.
Rovers face former top flight opposition on Women’s Football Weekend as Liverpool provide the opposition at The Sir Tom Finney Stadium and while The Reds will be hoping to secure an immediate return to the Barclays FA Women’s Super League this season, Donnelly’s side have plans of their own when it comes to joining the elite.
More and more FA Women’s Championship clubs are investing heavy sums of money to chase the top flight dream but for Rovers and Donnelly, it is about nurturing and developing young talent and creating a legacy in a journey which will hopefully end with the club operating as a sustainable model in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League.
“We are not a club who can compare ourselves against Manchester United or City in financial terms” said Donnelly when speaking to FA Women’s Super League Full-Time. “More to the point, I want it to be sustainable, I don’t want it to be where the club offer a large sum of money to buy players and then the next year, the budget dries up and we don’t have a legacy in place.
“It is important for me and as a club that we nurture our youth, we have done it so well in the past with players who are playing with us such as Tash Fenton and Ali Johnson and also with girls who have been playing at these bigger clubs as well.
“We will continue to do that, it is important and will take us some time because it’s small steps and it’s only our second season in the Championship.
“By my reckoning, if our targets go to plan, we should be knocking on the WSL door probably in five years’ time but with a secure and sustainable legacy to feed us into the Super League.”
After six games of the new FA Women’s Championship season played, Rovers have accumulated just one point less than they managed in their 12-game debut campaign as a second tier club last season. Donnelly believes that a squad made up of a mix of hungry young players and more experienced heads is proving to be a great asset this season.
The Rovers boss added “I think that it is really important to combine the playing squad with a mix of experience and youth.
“What I have noticed with the youth that we have brought in over the summer is that they are so eager to please in terms of cementing their place in the starting XI and they bring exciting tempo and aspirations to the squad whereas the more experienced players are able to settle everything down, calm the situation.
“It is really exciting to see the combination of both, more so this season than we have ever had.”
Sunday’s game against Liverpool will see Rovers test themselves against one of the pre-season promotion favourites and Donnelly believes that Vicky Jepson’s side will be one of three teams competing for the title come the business end of the season.
When discussing the title race, Donnelly said “I think it’ll be a close call between Liverpool, Leicester and Sheffield United and potentially Durham.
“When teams are training full-time and they have the investment from the club to be able to do that, I think that it is difficult not to consider them as options for promotion.
“Liverpool are well-equipped to jump straight back into the Super League but that being said, we’ve played Leicester and I think they will be a force this season.
“I am going for those clubs in the top three plus Sheffield, I think it’s going to be really close between Liverpool and Leicester.”
Blackburn Rovers’ FA Women’s Championship fixture against Liverpool on Sunday will again be played behind-closed-doors, however, fans can stream the game live on the FA Player.
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