Time is the enemy of every football manager – a constant race against the clock to make improvements yesterday. But in the last 18 months, Rehanne Skinner went against that grain, slowly but surely brought about a revolution in West Ham women.
“When I came in, I knew that everyone was very aware of where the team was, where the structure was, and essentially that it was a journey and a project,” said the Hammers.
“We had to rebuild, restructure and add quality to it and those three things cannot be achieved at night. Collective we have succeeded in chipping all those foundations and to build on them every time we had the chance.”
Although Skinner will say it started months earlier, the building blocks were there in January 2024. Players such as Katrina Gorry, Kristie Mewis and Shelina Zadorsky came to the club and helped to send West Ham to WSL safety.
“It is a result -based company, but last year we knew that we would be under the pump throughout the season based on where we were and what we had,” Skinner added. “We broke down in the January transfer window, which was really positive for us, and further evolved in the summer window. We have added much better quality, and that can be seen.”
And Skinner is right – the signs are for everyone to see. On the way to the weekend, West Ham is eighth in the WSL – only four points of Brighton in the fifth with five games to play – and has already scored more competition goals than the last campaign, with great improvements in defensive statistics.
They also reached the semi -final of the League Cup – eliminated by the opponents of Sunday Chelsea, which they visit live on Sky Sports – and this season only lost at home in the WSL twice.
It is a drastic difference with the team that Skinner took over in 2023, and she went a way to explain how West Ham did it.
“It came by building relationships and really clear where we started, what the expectations were, how long and what it would take to get there,” she said.
“As a team, our identity is evolving. We have reduced the number of goals that we have admitted, which was a big thing from last year. We wanted to look at the areas with which we struggled and put some important measures that would help us to reduce those challenges.
“That is with the recruitment of players, with some of the areas we have focused on in the training, and our attacking game now with the team adds we started to look good.
“We had the experience in the back line this season and how we were structured, but we were not so effective in the first half of the season in the future. Now you see the team coming together more and we are going in the right direction.
“If you look at all aspects of the team and the club itself, it has taken a huge step forward in the last 18 months. That is an honor to all the people behind the scenes who are also on board with what it will take.
“We have clearly developed the club and it can continue for a long time. We are now certainly on the right process. We want to keep looking at how we bridge the holes and it is an endless project, but we are in a much more competitive space. That is where we wanted to go and we did it in the right way.”
The foundations are there, but with a fluctuating form from season to season a regular event in the WSL, how is Skinner going to maintain West Ham's improvements?
“We want to make progress every year and we have to be consistent with it,” she said. “We still want to keep pushing to end as high as possible this season and we want to compete with 'the best of the rest'. We want to be better than them. That is the first step.
“Next year we want the team to grow again and ensure that we retain the opportunity to be competitive in the competition.
“We have to improve. That is what it will take to go to the next level in this competition, so that will be really important to us for the rest of the season and for next year.”
'Ueki one of the most underrated players in the WSL'
One of the most important contributors to the improved attacking game of West Ham is Japan International Riko Ueki. She is at the top of her teammates in front of shots and shots on goal, and second for goals, assists and opportunities created.
“I think Riko is one of the most underrated players in the competition,” she said Skinner of her.
“Her working speed for the team, her positional consciousness, her tactical acuity is simply at a different level. With that she brings a lot of calmness technically. She helps us to promote the ball with any real quality. She is fantastic and that is an instrumental for the team.
“At the start of the season we played in a rear five and it was not the intention. We were not actually done with the players we had arrived to migrate to our preference.
“But when we have Riko in the position we wanted to get her in, it is completely transformed the way we can continue the attacks. Now we also have the people around her who can benefit from her smart movements.
“There is still work to be done for us because her movement is so smart, I don't think we always identify that, if I'm honest. We are still trying to develop that part of our game.”
Ueki is only defeated by Viviane Asseyi for goals and helps this season for West Ham in the WSL and scores her sixth goal with an excellent direct free kick against Spurs on Sunday. But it is her leadership that helped her the most this season.
“Vivi has always scored goals in this competition, but she is now also one of our leaders in our team. She has more responsibility, and that is exactly what she needed,” said Skinner.
“The relationship with her and the other players has evolved with the forward line and that comes to the fore with the responsibility she wants. It really lets her bring the team even more forward, so she went to that challenge enormously.
“She can score something and unlock something in games that many people can't. Many players would like her in their team – that is shown with the quality of her conversion. But in one of our most recent competitions she also made a recovery of 30 meters and blocked a cross.
“All players are on board with what it will take to win and they show that because of their actions, and have been consistent with them, which is difficult to do.”
How League Cup -Defeating West Ham helped
The progress of West Ham will be brought to the test again when they are confronted with Chelsea, live on Sky Sports.
Although they lost this season with a total score of 7-0 against the blues in the League Cup and WSL, Skinner points to the semi-final at the beginning of February as a turning point, not only for Hammers' season, but also their general project.
Since then they have been pulled against Manchester City and they were barely hit 4-3 by Arsenal, and they claimed victories against Brighton and Spurs.
“The players really have a high belief and it started when we played so well in the second half of the League Cup semi -final against Chelsea,” she said.
“That was a bit of a turning point for us in the style that we tried to play and the way we actually performed it. Since then we have had a really strong form of shape against everyone.
“Getting ourselves in a leading position against Arsenal was really important. I thought we should probably have been against Man City before the break.
“We showed a great character and strength in both games at different times. That is something we know we can trust, so we will give everything we can. Hopefully that can give us the outcome we want.
“You play against the best, so it's a good opportunity for us to really test ourselves again, to see how much we have learned so far and see if we can convert some opportunities.”
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