Alyssa Thompson was the main focus for the start of the conference with questions around her potential signing. Sonia Bompastor said that shes focusing on her players. She also said “There’s always speculations around the transfer window but from the beginning of the week I’ve said I want to focus on the game tomorrow and I want to focus on my players because that’s the most important thing to do for me and the correct thing”
Sam Kerr is confirmed to be on the teamsheet for tommrows match. Sonia said “She’s in a good place, training well she’s physically in a good position. She’s also mentally in a good position,” she also mentioned that we would need to give her more time to be back to 100% saying “I think to be fair to her, she’s been away from the pitch for a long time, so I think we still need to be patient with her.”
The manager also spoke about some of the injuries going into the season. Firstly, commenting on the recent announcement of Mayra Ramierz being out with a hamstring injury until 2026, where she said, “She had successful surgery, which is something really positive, but then again it’s sad for Mayra and for us because she was an important player in the squad and in the team.”
She also mentioned Lucy Bronze saying its difficult to put a timeframe on her return “ she’s doing well she’s in a good place mentally and physically so hopefully she will come back soon I think she’s still some weeks away from her return on the pitch”
Finally It was Lauren James where she said it was also difficult to put a timeframe on it, additionally saying “Her rehab is going on the right direction. I’m not expecting to see her for the next few weeks because again she’s an important player and we need her on the pitch.”
Sonia also commented on tomorrow’s opponents, saying “They have a really good squad and really good players, and it’s never been an easy game to play against them. It’s always been difficult.”
She also noted a key difference from last season, highlighting the City’s players back from injury. “If you analyze them from last season, they had some big injuries in the squad, so they will be back to having almost a full squad. It will be different for sure.”
We asked Sonia: “We’re seeing more clubs invest heavily in their women’s teams. Does that make the WSL more unpredictable this season than ever before, and what do you think we’ll see?
She said “Yeah, for sure making a WSL more unpredictable the more clubs are investing making it more strong and more competitive. I think again this league is the most competitive league in the world from my vision. It’s not because last season we were able to achieve a treble and to win all the domestic trophies. It was difficult last season and it’ll be even more difficult this season we expect that so we just need to make sure we keep the right mentality and keep working hard and keep this winning mentality into this new season and we need to be confident from what we achieved in the past, but also making sure we don’t take that for granted because we know every team will be difficult to beat this season no one is going to give us the trophy.”
Finally, Vera Buurman is one of Chelsea’s possible debuts to be made tomorrow. Sonia said “She’s left footed and she has a really good left foot, she’s really comfortable on the ball and in position.”. She also spoke her game intelligence saying “She’s young and out of position she’s really smart and reads the game really well.”. Finally she added “She has the right mentality and she’s coming on in the right direction.”