Sarina Wiegman has said she ‘makes decisions to win’ following the public fallout with former goalkeeper Mary Earps, with the England boss admitting that she would handle the situation the same way again if put in that scenario.
Former England goalkeeper Earps went into detail on the breakdown of her relationship with the England head coach in her autobiography All In: Football, Life and Learning to be Unapologetically Me, released earlier this month.
In the book, she criticised Wiegman for ‘rewarding bad behaviour’ by recalling the previously dropped Hannah Hampton to the squad, as the younger goalkeeper usurped her into Wiegman’s starting XI ahead of the summer’s Euros.
Hampton went on to star for the Lionesses at the tournament in Switzerland, including saving two penalties in the final as England retained their trophy against world champions Spain.
Wiegman said: ‘We have conversations, we always have conversations, and what my reality is, someone else’s can be different. I just know what I want to do is create an environment is where I give clarity.
‘I make decisions to win. And what I’ve said the whole time is that we had two incredible goalkeepers, and in the end I made my decision, and that’s what it is for me.
‘When you’re in teams, there’s always dynamics like that. You just want to be open and I want my door to always be open.’
Wiegman, who confirmed that she hadn’t spoken to Earps since the release of the book, said that she ‘couldn’t control’ the behaviours of others, only her own, and that she ‘would have done the same thing’ again if put in the same situation.
Mary Earps’ bombshell claims that Sarina Wiegman was ‘rewarding bad behaviour’ by selecting Hannah Hampton rocked women’s football earlier this month
Wiegman has dismissed those claims, saying she selects a squad to win silverware – as her Lionesses went onto achieve in the summer
Hampton was one of the stars of England’s successful Euros campaign
‘The competition has been really hard. We had a very good goalkeeping unit and the two goalkeepers were competing for the number one spot. I would have done the same thing (again). In the bigger picture I don’t think I would have done things differently.’
She added: ‘As I always say, I always keep conversations private. When I have individual conversations, I keep that private because I think that builds trust,’ she said.
‘I think players will come to me and have conversations with me. We create an environment where we want people to be themselves and everyone’s different. I think that helps on and off the pitch connect people.’
She did add that she had ‘enjoyed working’ with Earps, and that the two shared ‘incredible’ times together.