O Neill

It's a story that appears up here every six months or so. The reality is starting to become more apparent in Scotland that those running the game have made a mess of it. They failed to capitalise on the boom period around the time of the Euros in England, and simply didn't capture new interest. Since then, they've tried to force the idea of a fully professional league, with clubs being asked to spend excessive amounts of money to play in front of average crowds of less than 200 spectators each week. The model is unsustainable, and plenty of clubs do not want to follow the Old Firm into investing £1M-£1.5M per season into a product that returns nothing. It's little surprise that the OF want to get involved in the WSL. They will see it as the easiest route to making their women's teams pay for themselves. The TV deals and prize money involved in the WSL blows away the laughable sums offered up here. (The winner of this season's league cup will get a whole £12k). The problem that the OF face is that despite their belief that they carry big brand names, they still can't draw a crowd. Last season's Scottish Cup semi-final between the pair drew less than 3,000 at Hampden (less than half that for their league meetings), and if history is anything to go by, then more than 50% of that will have been complimentary tickets. I think the OF will find it difficult to persuade the WSL, that they are worth taking a gamble on. Their best bet for inclusion is probably if the WSL decides to move to a 'shut-out' model, with no relegation.

Personally, I felt that the summer recruitment was rather surprising. It feels like they have gone for bigger name statement signings, that may be shorter term, than trying to build the foundations of a competitive squad for seasons to come. As mentioned above, the strategy may have been to try to win the Championship, then bring in an entirely new team again. I think that would be a rather short-sighted approach, and hopefully the realisation hits home by the end of the season. I was shocked that Newcastle did not look to take advantage of the Scottish SWPL. Not just being geographically well-placed to attract players from here, but also having the financial power to just take the best of the current crop, along with picking up a few younger prospects. There are some great players up here that need to be playing at a higher level and would thrive in the Championship.

It's not a Newcastle specific problem, to be honest. It is happening across the board. My rather unpopular opinion is that women's football has peaked in terms of interest and is moving into a period where there is going to be some decline. As you say, there are multiple factors involved, but for me, the primary problem is the target audience is difficult to capture on a regular basis. Those who sit outside that target audience have come to have a look, and they will always come for 'special events', but they won't turn out regularly. From my experience over the last 15 years, the men's stadium match quickly sees a decline in attendance unless there is an additional attraction via the opposition, a cup final or league decider. I've seen it multiple places up here over the last few seasons, including some that have dropped from 5-6k to around 500. A 10k plus number is still an excellent crowd for women's football, and one that many people would love to draw. I think Newcastle should be delighted with what they draw on a regular basis at KP, as that is a better indicator of the appetite for the game in the North East. There are 'big clubs' up here who draw less than 200 people per week.

Cracking t-shirt @OpenC. Any idea who is doing the photos now? I couldn't tell from the highlights, but it looked like it might have been the young lass that the club hired to help Serena? Or have they gone and hired someone new to cover the women? Up here Rangers have actually got someone who primarily covers the women and youth fixtures, but goes along to the men's games when needed as well.

They will be. In the last few seasons, they have generally tried to schedule big women's matches on international breaks, so that clubs have more chance of access to the men's stadiums, with the higher potential for drawing bigger crowds due to the lack of competition. Can see they've also got Southampton vs Portsmouth on the same dates, for the same reasons. It does work very well in terms of generating interest from my experience. When they run Hibs vs Hearts up here, they'll get 7,000 unopposed and 700 if it's on the same weekend as men's matches. I'm expecting it will do a full house for both the Newcastle vs Sunderland fixtures next season. Edit: The only real downside I've seen, is that the special events rarely seem to grow the average crowds. A lot of people will come out for the one-off fixture, but they won't transition over to coming for a look the next week when the match is back at the regular home ground. It's great exposure, but for some reason it doesn't seem to stick.

Devastated to hear of this news. Colin had a lot of time, and advice, to share with me at a time when I was a much less experienced photographer. Have shared the pitchside with him several times over the years. Someone who has given more back to the game, than he took. Will be sadly missed by all.

This is still a big problem from women's football across the UK I think. Seen plenty of that up here, where girls who can't make it at tier 1 or tier 2 level, then suddenly find that their next option locally is tier 5. You'll get some who are willing to travel an hour plus in each direction several times a week for training, but many will eventually become lost to the game. The problem is becoming amplified by more and more players coming through youth academy systems at clubs where only a handful make it. I've seen plenty at my side, which is a lower end tier 1 team. Often solid looking footballers, who just can't break into the first team squad, but would be decent tier 2 or good tier 3 players, but just stop playing because of a lack of options nearby. In fact, off the top of my head, from the last three seasons, I can think of 14 girls who were on the fringes of the first team, only to not make it. Of those 14, I'm only aware of 2 who are still playing in tiers 2 or 3.

From what I know of the average player contracts, somewhere around £1M is about right. It's certainly reduced from the £1.5M that Rangers were throwing at it a few years ago. It's quite clear that the lack of fan interest, up here, has the Old Firm thinking twice about putting unrecoverable money in. Both clubs have a ridiculous number of sponsors involved, which I'd guess covers a good percentage of the costs. What I'm expecting to see is the spend to continue dropping over the next few years, as the sponsors now start to lose interest. A lot of the sponsors were told women's football was going to be something huge, and to get on board before the big rush. However, with attendances of 150-200 on an average week, a number of sponsors are now questioning the exposure that they are getting. The type of player that Rangers and Celtic attract, tends to be lower end Championship, or players who are struggling to get a game at Championship level. An example would be Charlie Wellings, who came up here and hit 40+ goals in the league for Celtic, but has gone back to Reading, scoring 6 in 28. Most who come up here are looking for short-term payday, while also putting themselves in the shop window for a bigger move back down South. The budgets of the bigger WSL clubs will be ten times what is offered up here. I know that several years back, Arsenal were paying Kim Little £120k per year, plus a house and a car. I'd expect for top stars, that number will have risen quite a bit since then, and most of these big clubs have a squad full of those players. The likes of Bristol City at the bottom end, and Crystal Palace in the Championship are probably comparable to Rangers and Celtic. The key difference will be that they can offer ambition. The prospect of playing competitive matches every single week, at a high level, is a huge draw. That isn't available in Scotland, and in my opinion, is never going to be. What Newcastle are already investing, I'd suspect, is more than Celtic or Rangers. I actually think that Newcastle could do well to look at a few SWPL players, as a way of enhancing their squad for next season. There are plenty of talents up here, many not being paid a huge amount of money to play 80% of the season at a below par level. Could probably list a dozen or more potential names that would be worth looking at.

I think this bit in your post is key. Chelsea have spent a huge deal on women's football, perhaps more than anyone else in the world, but the landscape has shifted rapidly over the last few years. I don't want to discredit what Hayes has achieved, her success has been remarkable, and you can only work with what's in front of you. However, others are starting to catch up, after years of disinterest. We are starting to see professional coaching setups, academy systems and more clubs having the money to lure in top players from abroad. As someone inside the game, I can tell you that in previous years Chelsea were running an impressive operation. Up in Scotland, Erin Cuthbert's father was operating as a scout. If he saw any player in the SWPL league that he thought was worth a look, he'd notify the club, and since the game was amateur up here, Chelsea could speak to, and sign the player, without ever having to talk to their club. I'd imagine they were running a country wide network of scouting the best talents, and being able to bring them in to their academy, without much opposition. That changed about 5 years back when the game up here turned professional, and now that ability to operate so freely has disappeared. On top of that, every other WSL club is now operating similar scouting networks. I have to admit, I'm not sure if Hayes has made a great move, taking on the USA job. I know it is widely regarded as the top job in women's football right now, but I think they could be on a downward trend. The domestic league over there remains strong, with not only the college system producing players, but being the central focus for both North America and South America. However, I think as the WSL grows over the next five years, that we may find the balance of power continues to move away from the USA. The European nations are rapidly getting better too. I'm not overly convinced that we'll see the USA win the World Cup again in the short term. If she can achieve that though, then it will certainly be an impressive feat.

There's an inevitability in this. The North-East is likely to change in much the same way that Edinburgh has over the last five years. Up here, Hibernian were always the top women's club, closely followed by Spartans, and then Hearts in a distant third. However, Hearts have ploughed money in over the last few years, and are now the best side by far, while Hibs have had to settle for second and Spartans, who have no money to spend, are a good bit behind now. Just looking at the three teams in the North-East, it's hard not to see Durham going a similar route to Spartans. They won't have the finance to match the other clubs, and I'd suspect Sunderland won't be able or willing to pay what Newcastle can on contracts, and even potentially transfer fees. What often isn't considered though is how the financial input influences the academies. The lure of girls potentially earning a full-time playing contract with a big club, very quickly results in academy growth in terms of volume and quality. The Hearts academy up here has become one of the best in the country within the space of 3 years. Parents pulled their kids out of other academies, to send them to Hearts, pretty much overnight, because suddenly the pathway offered a golden ticket at the end. They have some of the brightest prospects at 14-16 years old in the country. I think you are going to see the same at Newcastle over the next couple of years. Better coaches are going to arrive at academy level, more teams will be created to accommodate development and Newcastle will start to produce the best young players in the region. They are not going to like it along the road, but unfortunately, that's how it is going to be. I think had they managed to get into the WSL this season, they might have delayed Newcastle's ability to overtake them for a few years yet, but at the end of the day, money is always going to the defining factor, particularly in women's football, where it isn't exactly in abundance at this point. I have to admit, though, I don't know a great deal about the model they are operating at Sunderland. It looks intriguingly similar to something that Hibernian were trying to do when other clubs up here first went full-time professional. They had this hybrid model, where a handful of players were on full-time contracts. It meant that the core of their best players were being paid, while they were relying on everyone else viewing the club as their best option for football. What eventually happened is that the best players, who had no real ties to the club, eventually just moved on to clubs who were fully professional. They have since abandoned that model and gone full-time, suggesting that they realised it wasn't going to work longer term. Funnily enough, Aberdeen are running a similar model at the moment, and that has them 7th in the league, and I've heard they are also switching full-time from next season. Back to Sunderland, it does seem, from the match reports that I've read, that they are struggling to draw on the gate. I keep seeing numbers between 300 and 400 for home attendances (except for Durham). If they aren't drawing money on the gate, then I'd guess that most of their finance is reliant on sponsors. That's a fairly common model in the women's game. I would go as far as to guess that they don't receive a huge sum of money from the club itself. I think it'll be quite interesting to see where they sit in five years time. With the Championship now having two relegation spots, the league is going to start to sort itself out much quicker, with plenty big name clubs below, starting to put more money into the women's game. If Sunderland are operating a hybrid model, with what feels like limited investment, I'd imagine that they'd do well to stay in the Championship for that duration. I know there are clubs in there right now, such as London City, Durham, Reading etc who are all likely to disappear first, but as more teams below start to put more money in, it could get interesting.

You can probably get a good idea of the dates of those fixtures already. I would expect a little calendar cooperation will come into play to schedule the Sunderland fixtures on men's international weekends. Probably find the Durham home match is the same.

Durham are pretty much safe as Lewes need 4 points from their last two games, and their next game is at home to table topping Crystal Palace. Similarly, it would be some achievement if Sunderland were to win the league. Home to Charlton next week will be a very tough fixture, with the visitors still in the promotion hunt themselves. They've lost the least amount of games this season, too. If they can win that one, then the final day trip to Palace will be a cracker. I don't think it'll go down to the last game, though. I reckon they'll struggle to see off Charlton, and Palace will win the league next week at Lewes.

I think they'll be alright. Getting the first goal will be critical. I think the ball hitting the back of the net will ease the pressure and any sort of tension building in the ground will evaporate if they can get on top early on. It's a little sad that so many people feel the need to share their opinions on social media, particularly as replies to posts from the club. As I've said before, football is a game of opinions. Everyone is entitled to their own thoughts on particular players and incidents. However, there is a time and a place for sharing those thoughts with others, and an appropriate manner in which to do so. The big concern I've always had with social media is that it allows people a platform to speak without fear of any consequences, often with a channel to reach the subject of their thoughts. Constructive opinions and educated debate are one thing. Directing abuse towards or ridiculing someone is a different matter entirely. It's positive to hear that the club seem to be on top of it. On the similar situation up here, this is absolutely brilliant. Rangers captain, and Scotland international fullback, Nicola Docherty has come out in support of Partick Thistle's young goalkeeper, Ava Easdon, after people have been piling on via social media.

I think the important thing right now is to focus on the present. Newcastle have built a squad that is probably not good enough for the second tier, but is absolutely excellent for the third tier level they are playing at. The current players have put in an outstanding effort to get themselves into a position where they can win the league in the next few weeks, should they continue to win football matches. However, it has to be noted that the job is not done yet, and both the players and coaching staff will be desperate to show that the weekend was a blip and that they can get right back on course this Sunday. What I feel is key, is not to let the final defeat cause a loss of momentum with the support. There have been some really poor comments over the last few days, many of which are ill-informed and coming from people who haven't regularly backed the team until recently. In general, the support this season has been outstanding. The turnout at matches has been huge, for a third tier outfit. Hopefully people realise that with four matches to go, that the girls deserve that support, turning out again to help push them towards the finish line. What happens in the summer, is something to consider tomorrow. It's a distraction that the team doesn't need until after promotion to tier two has been secured. I'm sure there will be some very difficult conversations to be had in the coming months. I've seen it before at Rangers, when they turned full-time professional. There will be mixed emotions in the future, but for now it's important to back the current players towards achieving that phenomenal success that comes first.

It's very frustrating, and in a league where two clubs have riches, you quickly get the picture. Not only do they have a first team squad of 30, but they end up with all the youth players in their academies, queuing up in the hope they'll be the next one to get a professional contract. There are so many talented players not playing at the moment, because they are sitting on benches, or on the sidelines, or playing in youth leagues that they are too good for.