Birmingham City’s Women’s Technical Director, Hope Powell CBE says that the club have big ambitions for the future and that the long-term goals are very real.
The Blues were twice WSL runners-up a little over a decade ago but the club fell on hard times and are now in their second season in the Barclays Women’s Championship.
A return to brighter times seems to be on the horizon. Head coach Darren Carter is changing the perception of the team while Birmingham City Women now have the full support of the club’s owners.
The club recently appointed former England manager Powell as their Women’s Technical Director. She has been speaking to Birmingham City’s official media team about the future direction of the club and she says that the Blues have big ambitions.
“The [long-term] vision for the first team would be for the club to be back playing in the WSL,” Powell said. “Secondly, we want the club to stay in the WSL and be a permanent fixture and then thirdly, we want to win, play in the Champions League and the sky is the limit. We don’t want it to be a one-off, we want to do it continuously again and again.
“For the academy, having that conveyor belt of talent coming through to our first team, real home-grown talent [is an aim].
“We also want the supporters in to come and watch attractive, entertaining, winning football to a point where they are so excited that they just want to keep coming back again and again.
“The ambition is big and real and more importantly, we have the support of owners who want to see that ambition come to fruition.”
Things also look quite rosy for Birmingham City in the short-term. After a sticky start to the season, the club have now won six of their last seven matches in the Barclays Women’s Championship. It is that kind of form which saw the club almost take their promotion push to the final day last season.
Speaking about this season’s aims, Powell said that it is important to put down solid foundations both on and off the pitch so that Birmingham City can continue to grow year-on-year.
She said “We want to play exciting football on the pitch so that the fanbase grows and they want to come back. It is really important that we play good football, attractive football and we would like to win football matches.
“We want to lay strong foundations for the team to build on next season, the season after that and beyond. We have to make sure that we put the right people in place and fill some of the gaps that we’ve got in order to support the staff and showcase the players on the pitch.”
Birmingham City are in fifth place in the Barclays Women’s Championship table at the halfway point in the season. The Blues are just two points off the summit while they are top of the form table with five consecutive league wins.
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