Each Wednesday, after they have completed their morning training session, eaten lunch and finished in the gym, West Ham Women players drive home from their Chadwell Heath training ground.
But since Emma Harries signed for the Hammers in August, she has stayed behind for one-to-one training sessions every Wednesday, working hard to refine certain parts of her game.
“I have been doing extra sessions to ensure I am a better player for West Ham”, the 21-year-old forward tells Standard Sport. “My development is going to be really good here, it just might take a little bit more time.
“I do the team session and then do my own individual training session with the assistant. It’s at the training ground, for 45 minutes or so after lunch and after gym, just to work on stuff I need to improve on.”
Harries was a shining light in the famed Reading academy that produced the likes of Fran Kirby, before leaving for West Ham last summer after three full seasons starring for the Reading first-team.
“I was at Reading since I was seven, so for a very long time”, she says. “I was built for Reading in terms of their playing philosophy, so coming to West Ham has been a transition period. Being at West Ham is definitely improving me as a football player.”
Of her first season at West Ham, Harris says: “I think it’s going really well. Maybe my season, statistically, is off to a slow start. However, I feel I’ve developed very well as a player and I’m absolutely loving it here. This is a massive club, and there were people here I wanted to work with.
“I’m a process-driven and goals-driven individual. I look at it and go: ‘If I can improve this part of my game, the statistics like goals and assists will come.’”
The England Under-23 forward may have hoped for more than her 460 minutes of action so far in the WSL this season, but her drive is matched by a realistic outlook on her situation at West Ham.
“Moving to a new team, I probably wasn’t expecting to play over certain senior internationals,” she says. “But that is my goal. It’s about establishing myself in the team and showing consistency with my performances, and I’m sure that [greater game-time] will come.
“Playing in the England set-up has been an honour. The Under-23s getting so much media coverage is what they deserve. It’s a really exciting group of players and hopefully more of them make the senior team eventually.
“The ultimate goal is to play for my country at senior level one day. Hopefully, in years to come, that will be at my prime, scoring loads of goals.”
I’m a process-driven and goals-driven individual. If I can improve my game, the goals and assists will come.
West Ham finished eighth in the WSL last season and sixth the season before, but this term they sit second bottom.
Only one team gets relegated from the WSL and the Hammers are fortunate that Bristol City - six points below them and with one win all season - are likely to be that team.
“I probably wouldn’t say it’s been a difficult season, I’d say more a transitional period”, says Harries.
“We’ve had a new manager [Rehanne Skinner] come in, a new set of players, a new philosophy, and that does take time for different systems to work and different players to build relationships. Our performances, now, are really positive.
“I don’t think you can [think about relegation]. For us, it’s about continuing building on what we’re developing here.
“The league is very unpredictable; anyone can beat anybody. If we can take points off the bigger teams in the league, I think we’ll be fine.”
Emma Harries was speaking to Standard Sport at the film premier for ‘Omarsson’, a West Ham original film documenting the second pregnancy of Hammers midfielder Dagny Brynjarsdottir and released on International Women’s Day.
The Hammers welcome Chelsea to Chigwell Construction Stadium over Women’s Football Weekend on Sunday 24 March. Tickets for the derby can be purchased here.
