WSL Club in Focus – Everton: Back and With Full Backing

On a Tuesday morning at Finch Farm, on the other side of the complex from Ronald Koeman’s Premier League squad, Everton’s women train as full-time professionals for the first time in the club’s history. Captain Danielle Turner, more than ten years at the club and through relegation as well as the Champions League, calls it the best place they have ever been. Andy Spence describes pressing a reset button and being backed almost beyond what he expected, going into WSL 1 aiming for twenty full-time professionals. Deputy CEO Denise Barrett-Baxendale frames it as a long-term commitment rather than a cheque, and Spence refuses to accept staying up as the target. Gabby George, the first to sign professional terms, says she is the fittest she has been.