Sonia Bompastor has literally made the perfect start to life as Chelsea Women’s head coach, but on Saturday she and the Women’s Super League champions face their toughest test so far this season when Man City visit Stamford Bridge for what already looks like a title decider.
Bompastor replaced Emma Hayes in the Chelsea dugout last summer after she left to take charge of the United States national side having just guided the club to its sixth straight WSL crown, a task that would have put off many, but not for the 44-year-old Frenchwoman.
Bompastor, of course, knows all about silverware from her time in France, becoming the first woman to land the Champions League as a player and manager with Lyon, in total winning 11 major trophies during two spells at the club as a player, before claiming three straight league titles and the 2021-22 Champions League trophy as coach.
“I’m used to that (pressure) as a former player,” she told Sky Sports. “I’ve done that all my career as a player and also my whole life. I think that’s something that gives me the motivation, being under pressure.
“I really love that. That’s fine for me being in that environment. That’s what I like and that’s the job. When you have a job where you have a lot of responsibility, that’s part of it. You just need to handle that and embrace and go with it.”
And boy has Bompastor embraced the challenge of taking over from a seven-time WSL champion, with the new manager having won every single match she has taken charge of so far this season, including a first-ever win at the Emirates and the club’s first away win to Arsenal since 2020 – in fact, if Chelsea beat City, she will become the first coach in WSL history to win their first seven games.
So much so that like with Arne Slot at Liverpool, she is making the so-called impossible job of replacing an iconic manager look relatively straightforward so far, with Chelsea top of their Champions League group and trailing City by a point, but having played a game less than their rivals.
Not that the modest Bompastor sees it that way, preferring to praise Hayes for the state of the club she handed over.
“Emma just left the club in a great place, good legacy for me,” she said. “Also, I always give a lot of credit to my player because as a manager, you just need to make sure you bring the good ideas for the players.
“You just connect your game model to the squad you have and making sure you just work around that for them to feel comfortable to play the way I want them to play, to understand my vision and my game model.
“But also, I have a squad with a lot of quality, a lot of talent and I just need to give them a lot of credit for that, because they are the ones who are on pitch, they are the ones who are performing and getting the good results. So, yeah, that’s simple. Even if behind the scenes, of course, it’s tough and it’s a tough job because you never put your brain off.
“It’s 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So, it’s tough, but it’s my passion and I really enjoy being the Chelsea manager.”
Part of the reason for such a smooth transition, apart from Bompastor taking over a club in rude health, is that Chelsea’s players having been willing to take on board new ideas, while the new manager herself has also wisely opted for small, subtle, tweaks to what was already a well-oiled machine, rather than a complete overhaul.
“The main thing is for me to try to find a good balance between making changes and respect the environment the players were working on,” said Bompastor. “I think as humans, the changes can be a bit of a challenge. And I know that because I’m a human as well. So finding the good balance is probably the right thing to do.
“But also, I cannot be someone else. I have to be myself with my ideas, my values, my vision. So maybe the main thing is, try to change some small things, but trying to be smooth and trying to make my players involved in the changes and trying to explain to them why. I think it’s part of the success in the process.
“So I tried to explain why I wanted maybe to change. I explained to them my game model, why I wanted to play that way. And I always try to make them involved in my reflections. I think it’s something that helps the players to understand. And I think as women, they like to be part of the process.”
That process is smoother when you have the body of work behind you that Bompastor arrived in west London with, including over 150 international caps for France.
“They like to understand why we make some changes,” she said. “And of course, the fact I was a player and I had success in my career as a player and as a coach probably helped me a lot having the credibility in the beginning.”
Although, that will only get you so far and ultimately, you need wins to show you know what you are talking about and she has those in spades.
“But after, in the longer term, even if you have your credibility in the beginning, you just have to show your competencies,” she said. “So I’m trying to do that. And winning is something helpful.”
It is also vital that you have stability off the pitch, too, and with four young children, Bompastor is glad she and her family have made such a quick adaptation to life in London.
“I settled in really well,” she said. “I felt a warm welcome in the club. The club supported me the right way. So, I think I felt the support and the right support for me to settle really quickly and in a nice way.
“As a family, we settled in well. Again, with the support of the club. I think it’s a challenge for the family, for me individually, but also for the kids.
“They still are thinking about their friends over there, the school. Some different way to live as well, because we were living more in the side country in France. We live more in central London here.
“I just feel lucky to have the chance to be the Chelsea manager and also to give the opportunity to my family and to my kids to live this challenge and live this opportunity. So that’s all positive. And I’m someone who also takes things in a positive way.”
On the field, however, Bompastor’s side have a great chance to lay down a marker in the title race when they take on leaders Man City in front of an expected 20,000 crowd at Stamford Bridge on Saturday night in a game some are already calling a title decider.
These two sides competed all the way down to the final game of last season, with Chelsea eventually being crowned champions only on goal difference from Man City.
But despite the duo having already opened up a sizeable gap on their rivals, Bompastor does not see the fight for this season’s title as being just a two-horse race.
“It looks that way in terms of results and if you look at the table for sure,” she said. “In terms of results maybe City and us are the teams who showed the best results, but I still think there are many, many games to be played.
“And this league is so competitive, especially because Man City, Arsenal and us are going to play Champions League again until end of December. So, it will be a challenge for us being able to play these Champions League games and the league games and every team can drop some points in that aspect, so it’s too soon to say something about the title.”
If Chelsea are to emerge victorious at the Bridge, however, they will need to keep Man City forward Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw, the WSL top scorer with seven goals to her name already this season, in check, which is easier said than done.
The Jamaica international has been in unstoppable form in front of goal for Gareth Taylor’s team again so far this campaign and another in the capital this weekend will see her move level with Chelsea’s Sam Kerr on 57 career WSL goals.
So how do you go about stopping the irrepressible Shaw?
“We know even if sometimes she’s quiet a little bit, she can just have one action and score,” said Bompastor, referring to Shaw’s recent double – including a stunning stoppage-time winner – that turned the game on its head at Anfield as the visitors secured a vital 2-1 win.
“She’s efficient, she’s really strong. This is when you play the best teams, you expect that, to have that type of player who are able in one action to make the difference, make a big impact.
“So, we are ready for that and we know we will have to do a really good game if we want to win.”
Either way, we are in store for a mouthwatering, top-of-the-table clash in front of a packed house and the Sky Sports TV cameras in the capital on Saturday Night Football.
