Barmy Archives - Michelle Wilcock
And if....you know.....your history....
With the Lionesses on show over the next few weeks along with 15 other women’s national teams competing in the Women’s Euros its a good time to look at the journey women’s football has taken over the last few decades. Not just the development and professionalisation of the top tier in women’s football but the unseen, pay to play experiences of those before and among some of the names we recognise today.
In issue 2 of Barmy Article I interviewed Michelle Wilcock, who played for Man United Ladies before they were disbanded in 2005. Michelle crossed paths with many recognisable names who currently play or do media work in and around the women’s game. Her story is one of frustration but also success. Read about how she forged a career in football, fought to play through ages were girls and women’s teams weren’t a thing and has opened doors for others who previously didn’t have a place in football’s infrastructure.
This year marks 50 since the FA ban on women using their pitches was repealed and while the current women’s set up must look like paradise to those around at the end of the ban, today’s players are still seen as pioneers of the women’s game. But as much as there’s a long way to go (looking at you, Utd), it's been a long road to reach this point. Much is made of the 1992 Premier League cut-off where many stats ignore the previous century or so and the records of Utd Women are similarly ignorant. We weren’t formed in 2018, we were reformed.
Our guest today is Michelle Wilcock, who played for Utd between 1997 and 2004 when fibromyalgia forced her into early retirement at the tender age of 24. Her career saw the team go from a ‘supporters team’ to affiliation with the club, then shortly after her retirement the team was disbanded altogether in 2005. Michelle has continued an inspiring career in coaching beyond her days as a player, still linked to the club in various roles. As I met with Michelle, the conversation started about experiences as a fan, comparing trips to Moscow in 2008. She’s Utd to the core.
When she joined Utd at 17 it was a dream come true. Pressed for a career highlight brought the response “Just pulling on that shirt, every single time” When she joined, Utd were a supporters club team, with affiliation to the club coming in 2001. As a supporters club team they were allowed to use the Cliff for training once a fortnight. Affiliation increased that to twice a week and a move to the Cliff for their home games came in 2002.
Throughout her time there, the kits provided were L and XL men’s kits from previous years. Michelle is far from a large woman, let alone a large/XL man and could probably take one of her beloved camping trips with an XL men’s shirt as her tent.
Before meeting Michelle, I found comments on trusty wikipedia (there’s a real shortage of records about the team at this time) that the team started to stagnate, but Michelle remembers it differently. “We were on the up. We had a really exciting group of youngsters that were within a few years of the first team.” Players such as Izzy Christensen, now at Everton via teams such as City and Lyon, and Dan Turner, also currently of Everton, both spent 6 years at Utd as kids and were encouraged to go, along with many other fantastic young players full of potential, to Everton’s youth set up as Utd abandoned their progress into senior football. “We had so many fantastic youngsters from u10 through the u16 and the future was bright and exciting, in my opinion it was anything but stagnant. I am lucky enough to still be in touch with most of those girls and their families and they have gone on to be fantastic people and many are still playing and achieving in the game as players and some have gone on to be coaches themselves and teachers both in England and abroad…knowing that bit makes me happy”
Michelle started her coaching career with the club working with the U16s girls, a role that soon progressed into a full time coaching position within MUFC in the community. In addition to her community role she worked with all the girls' age groups during her 6 years as an employee at the club and supported the development of the girls program alongside her playing career. “It was such a special experience to coach and play for United, especially at the same time…they are my club, the Cliff still feels like home and I will cherish those memories and experiences forever.”
As I write this I have a feeling of frustration that we as a club never reaped the benefits of all that nurturing of young talent and a feeling of disappointment for all the players from that era who never got to continue their journey at United. We regularly talk of a 3 year old team and where we should be. Imagine the history we could already have had the support been there.
The general understanding that the Glazers put an end to the women’s team is aided by convenient timing, but the truth is Utd, like all other clubs, hadn't been exempt from a widespread culture that women didn’t belong in football. When asked about thoughts on the general attitudes during her time in football Michelle’s answer was both inspiring and infuriating at the same time.
“I have been involved in the game for 33 years, 22 of those have been as a professional coach and coach educator, I have seen and heard it all. As a child I was the only girl in the Wigan league and the general reception from the opposition was predictable sniggers which soon turned to comments of “kick her, don’t let a girl do that to you” from the parents and coaches on the side lines. The overall experiences I have had as a girl and woman in football have been amazing and I have been lucky enough to have some brilliant people around me and looking after me, but it's only as I have got older that I have realised and understood the impact of some of the negative experiences and messages I/we as women who played the game before the recent changes have had. One message that has been loud and clear is that; You don’t really belong here in this man’s world, you are not as important as the men, you are a guest here, so be happy with what you have and be quiet. Those are comments that have been made time and time again from a stranger in the street to the people in charge of the game (it’s boring!) but it isn’t just the comments that promote this thinking, its things like the kit for example and I don’t just mean at United, I mean still now to this day this happens to women in sport, not just football. Being given a men's kit for work is absolutely unnecessary these days because finally sports brands do actually make women’s kits in women’s sizes!! Yet still women get given men’s kit to do their professional job in. I’m not sure a man would ever be asked to wear a women’s size 8 kit? And rightly so because he wouldn’t fit in it, just like my body doesn’t fit in even a small man's kit. In the last 10 years things have really started to progress in football and in society, but we still have such a long way to go.”
Another important point I picked up from our chat was that the ban on women playing football ending in 1971 isn’t fully accurate. At the age of 11 Michelle had to stop playing with the boys team, there were no girls teams at the time, they didn’t yet exist and she couldn’t play in women’s football until she was 14, so in effect she and all the other girls of that generation and the one before were still banned from playing between the ages of 11-14. Thanks to a common sense decision by the very forward thinking Wigan Junior League, Michelle was allowed to continue playing despite there being no real place for her. “I was 11 years old for 3 years” she says of the League’s decision to allow her to play through the gap.
Despite being thrilled and grateful with the opportunity to continue playing in the league, Michelle took the decision at the age of 11 to have her hair cut short and adopted the nickname “Mitch” to avoid standing out as a girl in the league. “I did it through fear of someone complaining I was too old for that league despite being really small for my age. I just thought if I had short hair and stood out as a good player nobody would have a problem with it and say I couldn’t play, but if I stood out as a girl I was frightened that someone would tell me I couldn’t play anymore, so I hid! It bothers me now to think I felt like that as a 10/11 year old little girl who just wanted to play and that I felt I had to take such drastic action”
This is why our history, the history of the women’s game and of all the players who have played matters, this is why it hurts those players who paved the way when their experiences and achievements are dismissed and left unacknowledged. It’s important we as fans of the women’s game today realise that what we have and enjoy now has been earned by others we will never know or ever have the pleasure to watch.
When health issues brought her career to an early end in 2004, just before the team were disbanded, Michelle didn’t give up on football. She has enjoyed a long career in coaching and development that continues to this day, and she is still doing lots of work for the club with Man Utd soccer schools. In 2014 Michelle helped to form Cerebral Palsy United FC. There is no affiliation to the club, but having UNITED in the club's name is something that brought a smile to her face when asked about it. “The players chose the name and UNITED just happened to be the best fit for our club…but I do like it!” Talking proudly of CP Utd FC, Michelle talks of some of the barriers she faced in women’s football being mirrored in disability football. “I can relate to some of the challenges these players face when trying to access football. For me it’s just football, not men’s football or women’s football, or disability football, just football! Like the Wigan Junior League did for me, if I can help people play a game they love then I’m in! If the structure isn’t there, build you your own structure, if there are barriers then knock them down or find a way over them and that is what we have done” The club has enabled players to get into the game from a very young age and access all the benefits really early and it has also helped older players to stay in the game.
Michelle’s dedication to her career and to helping others has also seen her offered roles most could only dream of. In 2017 she joined the Utd men’s first team on their pre-season tour of the US. Based in LA and visiting Salt Lake City, Washington DC and Houston, Michelle was part of a small MU Soccer School’s team that worked in the local communities, with competition winners and entertaining kids in a skill zone as they queued to take a photograph with the Europa League trophy.
“It was an unbelievable, surreal, amazing experience for me from start to finish, watching the team play, working alongside legends and meeting so many fellow reds excited to watch United play, some for the first time, was pretty special”
Michelle lists her biggest influences football wise as her Grandad, who as a scout, took her on scouting missions and gave her tasks to report back on certain players, her Dad who ferried her around so she could play her football and always came to watch and support, her younger brother whose team she coached at the age of 17 (her first coaching role) and the lads she played in the street with. She also talked about the women in her life (Mam, Nannie, Nan, Auntie) who have been strong role models and supported and encouraged her to keep doing what she loves despite the obstacles she came up against.
Her football heroes started off as expected, Bryan Robson, (“When I was 7 I wanted to be Bryan Robson when I grew up!”) and Eric Cantona, but she spoke most fondly of Donna Douglas, who she described as Mrs Man Utd. An ‘older head’ who basically ran the team that Michelle played in. Donna played for United’s women’s team for the best part of 20 years and was captain for most of those, Donna also coached the girl’s teams from 2000-2005 “if ever there was a Legend for the United women’s team it would be Dougie!! She was a great player, a brilliant leader and THE BEST person you could ever wish to meet.”
Dougie moved to Australia 15 years ago with her young family and its clear how much she is missed. “When she came home last time we went to LSV to watch a game, within minutes we saw 2 players we used to coach at United sat in the stands and they were so excited to see Dougie. It was a bittersweet feeling watching that game sitting next to my old captain and best mate but I am glad we got to experience it together.”
Michelle’s achievements stand up for themselves. From playing on through unwelcoming circumstances, to creating a space for others facing similar barriers, to winning National awards with the FA for coaching and having experiences like a pre-season tour with the men’s first team.
Football has a long way to go to provide the best environment for female footballers but it has already come a long way to reach this point. As much as we love the players who were assembled in 2018 and the players that have played for us since, remember that whenever we go along with the club’s marketing of ‘first ever’, we enable them to ignore the players that came before.
It’s 50 years since the ban on women’s football ended (kind of) and a lot has happened in those 50 years. Every step of this journey should be celebrated and inspire us to fight for continuous progress. Let’s value our women footballers and let’s value those who helped to get us to this point.