Mao Itamura is another exciting player for the future who is going to need some time.
We’re going to have to be patient with her this season because we’ve now lost her to the U20 Women’s World Cup, which is a bit of a frustration. We’ll lose her for those first three or four games.
But we understand for her in this instance that it means a lot and it’s an important part of her growth within the Japanese set-up.
We have also strengthened our defence with Sara Agrez and Mari Ward coming in.
Sara is another exciting player who will take a little bit of time to adjust to the WSL, but I think she is going to be a good prospect for us and a good player to help the team.
It was good to have Mari back in action during our final friendly against Durham. I think she is going to be a really good player for us going forward.
With a little bit more time and more training hours under her belt, I think she is going to be a really exciting talent for the supporters to see.
It has been fantastic to see Marie Höbinger back after her ACL injury. It’s always difficult when you come back after that injury, but the early signs are good and she is someone I think can make a strong contribution to this team.
Mia Enderby and Sophie Roman Haug have missed the pre-season games but we are hoping they both aren’t that far away now.
With Sophie, we just need to get more training weeks into her before she can be available again after a long time out with the ACL injury.
Mia’s injury is a frustrating one because it has been longer than we anticipated. Hopefully we can get her close to a return because in that first month before the international break we have a heavy schedule.
We start our new WSL campaign with a trip to Charlton Athletic.
We have good memories of Charlton last season when Zara Shaw got our winner in the Women’s FA Cup. But it was a tight game and we had to show personality to get through, which we did.