Women’s and girls’ managing director Zoe Johnson reflects on her opening months with the club and looks forward with plenty of optimism.
You’ve been with the club since February, so how would you assess your time here so far?
It’s been an enjoyable yet challenging first few months in the role. The club itself is a fantastic organisation to work for, with some good people here, and it’s been great to get to know them, to get to know how the club operates, and to assess what needs to be done from my perspective moving forward. I have had time to assess what has been working well within the department, what needs improving and to future plan what is going to be needed to start to build towards the club’s vision of top four. I have set some short-, medium- and long-term plans within my first few months to help drive us forward. It is exciting to be a part of helping to shape the future of the women’s and girls’ football at this football club.
Having worked as RTC technical director at Liverpool and then head of women’s football at Sheffield United, was this move the next logical step for you?
I’ve always aspired to be the best I can be in my role, and to work at the top end of the game. When this role came about, it was the club, the infrastructure and how it is run that attracted me to the role. It was always going to have to be the right fit as an organisation for me to leave Sheffield United. I felt this was a club I really wanted to be a part of; their values aligned with mine and it was a project that excited me. To see how invested the club is in the women’s game was an absolute breath of fresh air for me and I knew it was the place for me to be. The commitment and level of investment that Tony Bloom puts into this football club is testament to him and it was an opportunity I really couldn’t turn down.
As MD of women’s and girls’ football, what does your role entail?
Good question! My primary objective is to lead the women’s and girls’ department as a whole, from the girls’ academy through to the Women’s First Team; to lead the strategic planning, to ensure all departments within the women’s and girls’ remit work together to create a high-performance environment. I work closely with key stakeholders within the club to lead and drive the strategy, like the club’s technical director David Weir and [assistant] Mike Cave on the football side and with the recruitment of players; and I also have a close working relationship with the marketing and commercial teams, to ensure we keep driving forward with our ticket-sales revenue. One of the biggest parts of the role is having strong relationships with our heads of departments, which enables me to drive forward our vision of becoming a top-four WSL side
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Would you say there’s a lot of joined-up thinking when it comes to both the men’s and women’s sides of the club?
There’s a lot of collaborative working throughout the club which is fantastic to see. All of our thinking is aligned, and we have regular meetings, involving those heads of departments, where ideas and thoughts are shared. Our teams are treated the same as the men’s team and there is a really strong culture embedded through the club of us being one club. David leads both technical/performance departments, to make sure the technical strategy that’s on the men’s side is being implemented on the women’s side as well, and it’s the same with the boys’ and girls’ age groups. I am enjoying working under Paul [Barber], and his guidance for how he wants me to shape the department. I feel we are on a similar journey to what the men’s team has previously been on, therefore there is a lot of learning we can share.
Talking of the younger age groups, do they follow the same playing philosophy as our WSL side?
Absolutely. We’ve got a clear strategy and vision that’s implemented throughout the pathway, from the Women’s First Team, through the girls’ academy, to the ETC. It hasn’t been easy with the changes in first-team management this season, but we’ve got some key basics that we always adhere to as a club, and the staff have done a great job in maintaining those despite the changes in head coach that we’ve had. Now we’ve got Melissa [Phillips] in place, which has been a great appointment, we have more clarity in terms of our philosophy long term.
What was it that attracted the club to appointing Melissa then?
It was important that we brought in someone whose values and thinking aligned with ours, and that became abundantly clear during the interview process. She’s really impressed us with the high standards that she drives, both on and off the pitch, and the players have really bought into that. She is very open with the players, very approachable, and is very much person-first and has shown that in her actions. The players know they can speak to her about anything, and she’ll support their development and their journey. We have an exciting season ahead of us in 2023/24.
It couldn’t have been easy for the players with four coaches to work under this season…
They have shown resilience, adaptability, and they’ve stuck together at really difficult times in the season when it looked like the results were just not going to happen for us. They’ve been on this journey together and have managed to keep their standards to a high level so that, at the business end of the season, they’ve been able to pull the performances through. They have adapted to Melissa’s style of management quickly, like they did when Amy [Merricks] took over – who also did a brilliant job – so I can’t speak highly enough of the way they’ve all adapted to the changes. They’ve also done it in the right manner, by being professional at all times, so full credit to them – and also to the support staff who have also needed to show their adaptability. Collectively it’s been a big effort and the reward has been maintaining our place in the WSL. The aim was to retain our WSL status, consolidate and then start to rebuild in the summer.
With Mel and you now settled in, is this summer an important time for you both?
Melissa’s appointment came at a real critical time for us, and she has made an impressive start to her time here. It has been good for her to get an understanding of the staff, the players, and of where we want to be in terms of the club’s vision and the changes that need to be made as we move forward. This summer is classed as our next building block in terms of what we’re trying to do, and we’ll both sit down together, alongside other key members of staff, to look at our planning and preparation for next season. As a club, we’re under no illusion of what’s ahead of us; we know we’re not going to make the top four overnight, but we need to keep pushing forward and keep making progress on that road to where we want to be.
We’ve got a multinational squad, but would you like to see more players coming through the pathway?
There’s going to be a big focus on that because we know it’s an area that needs improving as the market becomes more competitive. Our philosophy is to develop and nurture our own talent. Our player pathway has been relatively successful with players coming through, but it’s an area where we want to grow. Where all our focus has been on staying in the WSL this season, we can now look at the rest of the department, and the departments within that, and the academy is one of them. We have just been awarded a Category 1 status as an academy, which is a great achievement, so we’re now able to do some restructuring. We’re able to professionalise the U21 set-up more and get them closer aligned to the first team. We’re looking at our recruitment strategy as a whole, not just for the senior team, but for the academy too. A real positive for us is the fact that the foundations are very much in place: the staff we have at the academy are brilliant, and the facilities, as we know, are world class. We are currently recruiting for an academy manager to help drive us forward even more, so we’re confident that our pathway will help produce more players over the coming years.
Finally, have you been pleased with the crowds we have been getting at Crawley this season – and is the plan to bring the team back to Brighton and Hove?
We’ve seen our own attendance record broken at Crawley this season and have seen a significant increase in our ticket sales and season tickets sold – so thank you to our fans for the tremendous support you have shown us. If that continues at the pace that it’s going at, I can certainly see us, in the future, playing in our own stadium with large crowds every week. The club’s ambition is to have that stadium in Brighton and Hove – that’s still the vision and is something that is being regularly discussed. Obviously, the Broadfield Stadium is a good standard for where we currently are in the game, and I can only say positive things about the facilities and the atmosphere we’ve generated at games, but we all recognise that it’s not in the heart of our city and it’s the board’s vision to bring the team back home at some point in the future. It’s not imminent, but at some point in the longer term we have the plan and the vision to do that.