Lionesses captain Leah Williamson can't wait to surf the wave of England's Euro 2022 triumph as the new Women's Super League season kicks off on Friday.
Williamson and her Arsenal team-mates suffered WSL heartbreak on the last day of term in May, pipped to the title by Chelsea. The Gunners open the delayed 2022-23 campaign against Brighton with the England skipper admitting: “That Euros fever is still very much alive and I hope people are not just going to switch off.”
Switch off? No chance - all the vital signs of growth are sprouting like the first spiders of autumn. If performing on a Tuesday night in Stoke is English football's yardstick of competence, the Lionesses lived up to the challenge with a 10-0 mauling of Luxembourg on their homecoming in front of 24,000 fans.
And City midfielder Keira Walsh's world record £400,000 move to Barcelona last week was a telling downpayment of serious money moving into the women's game. Now Williamson, 25, wants to transplant the feelgood factor – and big numbers – into Arsenal's pursuit of domestic glory.
After lifting the Euros trophy at Wembley in July, she admitted: “A day hasn't gone by when I haven't thought about it, and I'm dreading the day when I don't think about it at least once. I'm a big softie, I like fairytale endings and you couldn't really have written it much better.
“Going from the highest of highs back into normal life, I had some plans to deal with my emotions around it, and luckily for me I play for a club that I love, so coming back here doesn't feel like a day at work.
“But I am expecting a rollercoaster of emotions at different points. It's nice when people in the street recognise you, or do a double-take, because what we've always wanted is to grow the game and the attention we're all getting has gone up a fair bit.
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“Where the measurement will be greatest is the attendances and viewing figures on TV – that's how the sport makes its money and it's how you grow as a commercial product. If people aren't interested, you are fighting a losing battle, but we have proved people are interested and they do want to watch us.
“Last season it went down to the wire and we missed out by the finest of margins, it hurt me a lot and it tired me. In the summer, the closer we got to the final, the more you realised that if it's not successful, you have to do it all over again to get a shot at lifting the trophy.
“That's given me a little bit of fire back in my belly, and once you've got a taste for winning, obviously you want more. Before the final, I spoke about coping with the big occasion and how, if you have never walked out on to that stage, are you ever going to know if you are ready to deal with it?
“I was happy with how I handled the pressure, and starting a new season will be another test.”
Arsenal's line-up will include England's player of the tournament and Euro 2022 leading scorer Beth Mead, with Gunners boss Jonas Eidevall saying: "Beth brought the same intensity to the Euros as she had been doing with us. Now she brings the same intensity back to Arsenal again."
*Arsenal v Brighton, Women's super League, Friday 7.30pm, Boreham Wood FC, watch on the FA Player
