As well as being one of the few qualified UEFA 'A' license female coaches in the women's game, Sue Lopez MBE also has a host of England caps and domestic honours. | "When the tackles are flying you've got to cope with it and even give a bit back - it's a tough league. " | |
Since her retirement from playing Sue has continued to support the womens game and now acts as Head of Woman's Football at the St. Mary's Stadium. FA statistics herald the growth of the women's game - a massive tenfold rise in the last 10 years - but at the top, the goal of professionalism remains some way ahead. Despite Fulham's brief experiment with professionalism between 2000 - 2003, most clubs rely on the enthusiasm and dedication of the players to get them through the season - and Southampton Saints are no different. Homegrown Talent
Despite the disappointment of last season's failure to reach the Premiership - Saints missed out on promotion by just 1 point - the development of young players remains consistently successful. The club's Centre of Excellence and the Academy - the educational element of the club - continues to produce players of international quality. "We must be up there along with Arsenal the club that has produced most youth internationals", said Sue.
"If we'd managed to keep all of our players we'd probably have a team of youth and senior internationals and we'd be up there with the Arsenals and the Charltons." With such a successful youth policy it would be reasonable to expect the Southampton Saints to be challenging at the top of Premier League table. Frustratingly for Sue though, it's not quite that straightforward: "The unfortunate thing is that because the senior team lost its premiership status, a lot of the girls that came through the centre went to bigger clubs." "But what we actually do at community level is a big positive for the club", added Sue. "Hopefully we do bring on youngsters that will go on to become coaches in the community and play for the senior team" You can't win anything with kids...
"The trouble is we've been playing sixteen year olds and they are playing against adults and it's hard at this level", continued Sue. 10 points if you can recognise the young fella (second right) with Sue.
"All the London clubs are very tough - mentally and physically - and when the tackles are flying you've got to cope with it and even give a bit back - it's a tough league. "And a lot of our players are nice pleasant girls - I don't want them to be bullies but they have to be tough", added Sue. It has been a disappointing start to the season and after four games Southampton Saints are propping up the table - but Sue remains realistic and optimistic. "If we can get our first choice team on the field then I think we'll be OK. It's basically all done on a shoestring - but that's fine - I just want to keep having the opportunity to do that." | 
