When Emma Hayes departed Chelsea last summer after 12 remarkable years at the helm, it was only natural for there to be some trepidation about the club’s next chapter. As Sonia Bompastor arrived from Lyon, where she won the Champions League as a player and a coach, fans sat and wondered whether she would be the right fit. The squad, too, shaped entirely by Hayes, had a new face to impress.
As Aggie Beever-Jones, the 21-year-old academy product who enjoyed her breakout season in Hayes’ final year, pondered what the change could mean, her mother had done some “research”. “She was like, ‘Oh, she’s known for developing young players’,” the forward tells GOAL with a laugh. So far, Bompastor has lived up to that billing, while also having not yet tasted defeat as the Blues’ boss.
Along with youngsters such as Wieke Kaptein and Maika Hamano, Beever-Jones has played a growing role in that success, already surpassing her minutes and starts from last season while having a best-ever goal return well within her sights. She has won high praise from Bompastor and made her first England start back in December, with a place in Sarina Wiegman’s squad for this summer’s European Championship well up-for-grabs.
“She has a lot of quality, she is able to score and help the team to possess the ball,” Bompastor told Sky Sports earlier this season. “She just needs to trust herself more sometimes.” It’s a message that is getting through to Beever-Jones as the business end of the season approaches and she looks to produce big moments for a club she admits she still has to “pinch” herself at times to believe she is representing.