And A Super Hayley Ladd (Hayley Ladd Interview)

Six pages with the Manchester United and Wales midfielder, caught between a World Cup play-off defeat and a season in which United were pushing Chelsea and Arsenal. Ladd is reflective about Wales still building under Gemma Grainger, wanting to dominate the ball rather than absorb pressure, and about how fast the standards have risen from campaigns that needed four flights to reach Kazakhstan. She talks about switching from club midfielder to international centre-half, about a United leadership group of four, about Christen Press and Tobin Heath raising everyone’s standards, and about Marc Skinner telling her to trust her technical ability. There is a fine passage on going full-time after low wages at Bristol, a referee’s course abandoned after two games of parental grief, and a UEFA A Licence now in progress.