It appears like we've seen more of Steph Houghton since her retirement. Not in a literal sense — although her burgeoning media profession may make her more visible to competitive fans who would only see her twice a season — but in a deeper, more human sense.
Houghton's interactions with the media were all the time warm and insightful, but there was a way that there was more beneath the surface.
In recent months, Houghton has emerged from her shell and develop into a more open, direct voice. As a result, it's easier to try the leader who not only represented Manchester City and England with flying colours, but in addition transformed the ladies's game along the way in which.
Even more in her memoirs: Leading from Behind: My Path to the Top of Women's Footballappears this week. In it, Houghton reveals her role as a frontrunner off the sphere, particularly in her negotiations with the Football Association over contracts and bonuses.
Houghton's England teams had it higher than their predecessors but didn’t, for instance, have the posh of a direct or business class flight home from the 2015 World Cup in Canada, where they won bronze. Four days later they played within the Women's Super League (WSL). The most moving chapters take care of Houghton's husband, former footballer Stephen Darby, and his diagnosis of motor neurone disease in 2018, failed plans and a player forced to make a choice from family and football.
There is undoubtedly a vulnerability and discomfort in pulling back the curtain, although it is usually a catharsis. When Houghton laid it out to Ian Wright on Crossways, their collaborative podcast, she wanted the book to be raw and real. “Sometimes people just see us as footballers, but there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes,” she said.
That brings us to this Houghton's interview with the Guardian concerning the end of her profession in England – and beyond that, concerning the backlash. Those who felt that Houghton had spoken out of line and got here across as entitled or bitter were quick to let her know. (I’m wondering what number of are latest fans of the ladies's game and, being unfamiliar together with her profession, have only ever seen Houghton in that light.)
Houghton received the same response to a Daily Mail interview before the 2023 World Cup. She described the pressure she had placed on herself and the way difficult it was for her to justify that commitment when Darby fell at home and was taken to hospital while sitting on the bench at an Aston Villa game.
Houghton's response to the podcast on Friday was the hope that folks would read her feelings of their full context, in her book. Only then will they really understand their side of the story.
I've read it. I don't think she seemed entitled or bitter. When Houghton talked concerning the failure of her England profession, all that was felt was sadness. Houghton played her final game for England against the Republic of Ireland in a behind-closed-doors game at St George's Park. Compare that to Jill Scott and Ellen White's final bow for England: winning the European Championship against Germany at Wembley.
Houghton was blissful for her, but couldn't help wishing she were amongst them. At least she was sent off at Wembley last month, leading the team one last time against Germany, in what would have felt like a carbon copy of the European Championship final – the alternate universe where Houghton has one last run of sell-out games.
Steph Houghton with the England team before their game against Germany at Wembley Stadium last month (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Houghton details the rehab program for a ruptured Achilles tendon that she undertook with England's blessing – she recorded 10-hour days visiting a physiotherapist in Crewe – and says all parties understood from the beginning that she wouldn’t play for her club before the 2022 European Championship. England got here over every six weeks. She made the preliminary 30-man squad for the tournament. Ultimately, coach Sarina Wiegman felt that Houghton had not played enough games; The player was of the opinion that he knew this may be the case.
Houghton remembers her tears as she took the decision from Wiegman to learn she would not be England captain. “I was upset that I found out over the phone,” she writes. “For me, this is a personal conversation.”
I don't disagree. Houghton never had anything against her successor, Leah Williamson, but was heartbroken that “the best thing (she) could ever do” ended after eight years.
The rejection of the World Cup hits them less hard, but remains to be painful. She felt she had done every thing Wiegman asked: playing frequently for her club and winning against Chelsea and Arsenal. Wiegman gives a tactical assessment, adding that she doesn't feel like she will be able to leave anyone out of the squad for Houghton. Houghton feels Wiegman has moved the goalposts. Wiegman delivers this news at St. George's Park, where Houghton had been working with Nike, allegedly without Wiegman's knowledge. There, Houghton is told that she’s going to probably never play for England so long as Wiegman is in charge.
“I also wondered whether this would have been a face-to-face conversation if I hadn’t already been to St. George’s,” Houghton concludes. “The problem was more that I thought she had intended to have this conversation over the phone and she knew that she would tell me that I wasn't in her plans at all. I thought that given my career path, a face-to-face interview would be necessary.”
Suffice it to say that, as Houghton promised, it's a bit more complex than some answers suggest.
This column shouldn’t be about whether you took Houghton to one in all those tournaments or about Wiegman's alleged handling of the entire thing. It's concerning the response to Houghton's pain and the expectation now we have of female footballers to disclose all their vulnerabilities when the audience shouldn’t be prepared to treat them with empathy.
Why is it so difficult for everybody to acknowledge that Houghton was in pain – and understandably so? Her last notable performance for England at a serious tournament was missing a penalty against the USA within the semi-finals of the 2019 World Cup. All of this – from injury to missing out on the Lionesses' first major trophy – is useful for a player whose 121 caps are available in one At such a critical time for girls's football, complex emotions have been triggered. That's before you explore how Houghton's personal circumstances make the stakes on this area of her life that much higher.
Lately, women's football appears to be convinced that hearing concerning the players' pain will help the game move forward. No varnish, no euphemisms: tell us all of the horrors of your rehabilitation after your anterior cruciate ligament tear so we are able to understand and alter. Tell us about your mental health struggles and your relationships – which your fans spend money on – to encourage viewers. Tell us, Houghton, what really happened to England, because in any case this time we wish to know.
Many players, from WSL record scorer Vivianne Miedema to two-time FIFA goalkeeper Mary Earps, were met with sympathy for expressing their vulnerability. Why not Houghton here?
Is it personal? There all the time appears to be a special kind of fireside behind the criticism of Houghton – is it because her successor was the hugely popular Williamson, so with a more moderen, younger, more chronic online fanbase, casting Houghton as a villain is convenient? In some ways, will we still expect female athletes to be forgiving, grateful and magnanimous in the case of team selection and tactics? Or simply that when those feelings develop into complex or uncomfortable — an excessive amount of light and shadow to suit right into a tweet — people stop wanting to listen to them? That you possibly can't separate a divisive issue like team selection from the people at the middle?
EPISODE 7 💃 @crosswayspod
My husband helps with some context @IanWright0 ❤️ https://t.co/ttcIxyiIKU
— Steph Houghton MBE (@stephhoughton2) November 8, 2024
I don't know, but many ladies's football fans greeted Houghton's comments – and the top of her England profession – with a scarcity of respect and understanding. Athletes specifically have spent their lives pushing themselves beyond limits that almost all of us would moderately not do, but most of us would definitely have felt the identical in Houghton's position. Add to that the extraordinary decisions she needed to make, and I'm undecided how lots of us would have dared to maintain chasing big tournaments.
We should at the least allow Houghton to specific her experiences without being so quick to guage, dismiss, or condemn.
Sport is a fundamentally human thing. You don't need to agree with Houghton, but she's allowed to say all that: she's allowed to say that it hurt, and he or she's allowed to say that she wishes every thing might have been different. At least let her talk. Given the ending and the magnitude of her contribution, she deserves it.
image credit : www.nytimes.com