For a self-confessed control freak like Manchester United manager Casey Stoney the thought of having to relinquish control of her team under lockdown is something the former England defender did not think she could cope well with. But a month into working from home and Stoney has learnt she can adapt in a way she never believed possible.
A silver lining of this unprecedented situation is that it has enabled her to spend more time with her family, something she hasn’t been able to do since her three children were born. Stoney is juggling managing her team remotely, working on recruitment and home-schooling her five-year-old twins Teddy and Tilly, alongside her partner Megan, while also looking after two-year-old Willow. She’s got her hands full.
“I need to realise not to give myself a hard time,” Stoney told Goal about the first few weeks of working from home in lockdown due to Covid-19. “I’m trying to parent, home-school and work at the same time. It’s pretty impossible so, I’m trying to do what I can and make sure the kids have a positive experience and come out of it knowing they had a good time at home with mum.”
A typical day in Stoney’s household starts at 6am with a session on a Watt bike in the kitchen before work tasks. These vary from tactical planning, opposition analysis, player analysis and recruitment. With the current lockdown situation all conversations are held online via video calls or WhatsApp groups and packs are being put together and emailed over to transfer targets ahead of strengthening in the summer window.
The football season may have ground to a halt, but Stoney’s work rate and commitment hasn’t faltered.
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“My day starts around 6am before the kids get up and then I’ll carry on with work after they’ve gone to bed at 8pm. I’m a control freak at work and I can’t be at the moment, so I’ve had to learn to delegate to my staff and they’ve been incredible. It’s taught me how adaptable I am as well and that’s pleasing,” Stoney said.
In terms of programmes and work for the players, Stoney and her staff have filmed themselves doing drills in the garden and circulated that around the team. There are twice-weekly meetings which involve the whole squad and staff.
Jackie Groenen, Lotta Okvist and Aurora Mikalsen, are back in the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway respectively while a couple of players are having to make do with social distancing in public spaces to get their training completed, as they don’t have the luxury of a back garden.
Stoney has been impressed with her team as she keeps a close eye on their logged daily results. And there has been as much of a focus on mental wellbeing and togetherness as there has on physical performance.
Weekly cooking tasks, which Juan Mata judged last week, wellbeing tasks and competitions on a Sunday help to keep everyone sane and on task. The team are trying to use this time to get to know each other better before the action returns.
“It’s not a quiet time,” Stoney explained. “We are doing really well to try and get to know each other on a deeper level so that when we come back, we can be more connected.”
Stoney also praised the board at Manchester United for the way they have dealt with the crisis. The club confirmed it had no plans to furlough any of its staff and executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has been in regular touch with the women’s team manager over the situation.
As it stands the commitment and desire is there to finish the Women’s Super League and that’s what Stoney, her staff and her players are working towards. Eight league games remain and the teams in the league are in regular contact with the Football Association (FA) over different scenarios as to how the rest of the campaign could play out.
“Mentally it’s tough because it’s the uncertainty of not knowing when we will come back. But, what we’ve tried to do is be as transparent as possible. It’s important. They’re training and putting the hard work in so it’s important they have all the information that’s available to them. The biggest thing is self-discipline and motivation and I’m proud of how they’ve adapted and stuck to the programme,” Stoney said.
With so many games to squeeze in during what could be a relatively short timeframe there is an increased risk of injury once play does resume. In the Premier League it has already been suggested teams would need a mini pre-season to ensure that doesn’t happen.
“I don’t think we will have the luxury of a mini pre-season,” Stoney said. “What we have asked for is for a 14-day build-up period on grass to build back up, because we want to minimise soft tissue injury coming back. We’re going to have to play three games a week and what we have also asked is that in that first week we don’t play three, so we can get the players used to playing again.”
Stoney is hoping to have injured duo Lauren James and Hayley Ladd back when the action resumes as both have been working on rehabilitation programmes during the lockdown period.
“I think we have a strong enough squad to deal with the programme when it hopefully returns, we will just have to keep a very close eye on it in terms of their loading and where we’re at,” Stoney said. “If we get those injured players back it’s less load to the squad.”
While best efforts are being made to complete the season, and there’s a commitment to get it finished, there is still a possibility that it won’t happen. So if things were to end as they are now, with United in fourth, would Stoney be happy?
“I think we would have to be happy. If someone said you finish fourth in your first season in WSL you would have taken it,” she said. “We set our standards very high so we’re still disappointed with some performances this year, but we’re also pleased with some performances. It’s our first year, I need to be patient more than anything and realise we are still growing, but, finishing fourth in year one would be a good achievement."