Chelsea manager Emma Hayes says that midfielder Drew Spence has improved despite enduring a frustrating season.
The 28-year-old Londoner started just two games in the Barclays FA Women’s Supper League for The Blues in 2020/2021, her lowest appearance tally since the competition began in 2011.
Spence scored the third goal for Chelsea as they defeated Everton 3-0 in the Vitality Women’s FA Cup at Kingsmeadow on Thursday evening. When speaking to FAWSL Full-Time after the match, manager Hayes said that while it had been a difficult season for Spence, she feels that she is showing some real signs of improvement.
“I love Drew, she is Chelsea,” Hayes said. “She will knock at my door every week and ask why she is not in my team, she is not a player who just settles for being part of the furniture.
“I think she has got better and I told her that yesterday, I said that I think that her performances in the second half of the season are the best that I have seen from her. She is the fittest that I have ever seen her and I still think that there is another place for her to go.
“If she stays in that right space, stays fit over the summer months, I think she could contribute even further next season. She knows that I’ll bring players in, she knows that the challenge will get harder but she is probably the one that I challenge the most to keep raising her own bar.
“What an incredible achievement being a player at a club for more than 10 years having won what she has, cope with all of those players coming through the door and she still produces, amazing.”
Spence joined Chelsea from neighbours Fulham in 2008 and she has been involved in all of the club’s success over the past decade. The midfielder has five league titles, two Women’s FA Cups, two FA Women’s Continental League Cups and the FA Women’s Community Shield under her belt. The player has also received a first call-up to the Jamaican squad for next month’s internationals against the United States and Portugal.
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