The Rest Is Football: Daly Brightness - Secrets From Preseason & Barcelona’s Big Worry

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

The girls spill the tea on their preseason tours. How did Millie get on herding sheep in Holland? How did Rach enjoy her Chateau stay in France? And what do footballers do in their downtime to bond with new players? Millie also breaks down the taboo of “boob health” and discusses the importance of finding the right sports bra. Find out what the girls make of the Ballon d’Or nominations and their words of advice for KOPA-nominated Michelle Agyemang. And taking a look at matters abroad, the girls deep dive into the deteriorating situation at Barcelona and debate the impact it could have on the women’s football landscape. For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello everyone, welcome to the rest of football daily brighteners. Let's talk. How are you? Good. I am good. I have you obviously been on pre-season talk, but we're going to speak about that in a little bit. How are you? You've been up to some exciting stuff. Yeah, I'm really good, actually, best it. It's been a really busy, busy, like, period. I think after, obviously after a busy summer and us doing the euros, I feel like everything was just flowing and like there's one thing after another each week, like all good stuff, but just things outside of football as well as preseason and you know how tough that is.

And you had your launch with Mary in London. Tell us how that went. Like what is, talk to us about it. What is the connection to the brand? How was it? Who was there? Tell me everything. Well, you know better than anyone, to be fair, like the amount I struggled with sports bras and like trying to feel supported but not in pain like the amount of games i've been through and me wearing two you you literally saw it more than anyone yeah i like to take them off when you had your shoulders strapped at world court yeah this is a story for you all world court did my shoulder thanks a lot erin cufford trip me up in the game smashed my head concourse completely did my shoulder like the worst pain i've ever been in bestie to the rescue she had to do my hair

she had to change my pants she had to literally dress me help me in the bath like i I remember taking one of your sports bras off and I was like, there's another one. What? I've never seen that before. So Rage discovered that, you know, she was like, holy crap mill, you have to wear that. And I had them so tight to be supported.

But anyway, those days are long gone in the coffin, see you later, never going back, connected with Mary. And, yeah, it's obviously been a life changer for me. Like, that's obviously an area that I've really struggled with. It gave me so much. pain in my shoulders and my back and, like, getting through games and just lifting my sports bras off so I could just go, take a hit breath, keep playing. So I've been working with them

for quite a while now and built up a really good relationship. Like, I love, like, what they stand for, their values, what they're trying to do in women's sport. And then, yeah, we both kind of had this idea of creating a Millie Bright bra. Wouldn't fit me. We get your measured, don't worry, bestie. But I think for ages I was super embarrassed by it all. For ages I changed in the toilets. I used to go in the toilets, put my bras on, put my warm-up t-shirt on and come back. Like, I was so embarrassed for ages and then it kind of became like a little bit of a laughing joke in the, in the changing rooms, and I just like joked on it. For me, that's the best way to deal with it. And then obviously

doing the bra and doing my bra launch, it was a way for me to kind of explain that it is a problem in women's sport. And as a woman, you shouldn't be ashamed of it or embarrassed or you know it's not something you should have to deal with you know what i think i i like the most about that and like the campaign that you've done and the work you've done with them it's like it's so connected to like personal to you and working with brands that want to support struggles that you've had is so uplifting like it's so good i was so happy when i saw it all come out because i was like i know i've been there i've seen your struggle and there are a lot of women that struggle with that some of the girls on my team have said oh my god like

what milly's done with that brand is like is amazing like can she get beer bra like how do I get a bra and like you know it's common tell them to get in touch honestly it was and you know what over the years I've been sick to death of people saying this is the best bra like this one and honestly before I connected with mary I was like I kind of stubbed it a little bit and was like no I've heard all this before like I've been fooled so many times that my trust had completely gone I was like I'm not going to be fooled again and then I was like oh don't be stubborn mill like put that stubbornness away and then when I tried it thank God, I did not be stubborn.

I was like, holy shit, this is incredible. And then I started thinking of all these people that I knew were struggling anyway. Even like my sister, like she works long hours as a nurse. She's got a big chest. And to be honest, I've also been educated so much by Mary. Like, she's educated me so much. And I was like, Jesus, I turned 32 on Thursday.

And I've learned things about female health that I've never known. And I should know from a young age. Did you not think that I would have wanted one? Yeah, bestie. You don't know what's coming in the post, darling. You'll just wait there, sunshine. It's an area that I've obviously not struggled with, but I've seen you and go through your struggles

and also a lot of teammates that have come and gone in my lives, like the same sort of situation. And I think it's so nice to see, like, it's inspiring and someone's taken that sort of leap of faith and gone with a company like that because it's, you know, it's female health is so important. And like, I think now we're getting taught a lot more about it. But these are the things that obviously don't happen in men's football.

Like, it's almost for men. it's like it's almost like one size fits all isn't it so yeah you know it's so personal i learned that it doesn't matter what bus size you are whether you're you've got a bigger chest or a smaller chest like boob health is so important regardless you still need to be supported even if you have a smaller chest because i used to be like oh like it didn't really matter and then i was like and then marries like no it really does matter it can affect your performance it can affect your actual like boob health as well and i was like oh my god and then she actually was the one that taught me

it doesn't matter so many women neglect if they've got a smaller chest they neglect it and they're like oh I'll be fine like I don't need it but actually you do for your own health like you do it's so important regardless what size you are that's me told that's you told to get on it now

get a fitting get your damn bra but obviously I've got all my tattoos in there the launch was sick shout out to marry yeah shout out if you've not got your bras go get them and I highly would recommend anyone out there you don't have to be a football by the way, there's so many different models for every day.

I have a bra when I'm just stretching or whatever, or I've got a down day. Go get your fit in and also please, please, please take care of your boob health because it's not taboo. All women have boobs. To boob. It's not to boob. Like that, bestie. Catchy. Right. Moving on. Talk about your preseason tour. Where did you go? We went to Holland.

Oh my God, it was absolutely roasting. Bessie, I were dying. I were dying in that I could not go. I can just imagine you every day. Too hot. So hot. Our, I were herding sheep. Did you see me? No.

Herding sheep. I've seen some alpackers. They were spitting at us, though. They were spitting. Me and Becky Spencer went for a little bike riding. They were spitting. We were like, what they're doing? But it was really, really nice.

Like, we've obviously got a lot of new players, a lot of change. We were still missing quite a few players as well. So it was a really good tour to get some minutes in and kind of push on as a group but also just have that when you go on tour like everyone's you together all day every day

so you really like sometimes it forces you to come together a little bit when you're home you go to training you train you're tired you come home you do your own thing

you escape everyone whereas on tour it kind of pushes you together yeah like we had this ping pong game where you put this song on I don't even know what the song is the girls are playing it

one night and I was like bloody hell what's all that racket next night I were playing it you all move round but you have to hit it over drop the bat

but they have this certain song and I don't know what it is but we get so competitive like with proper rowdy so then they're the moments that pull you together I love that yeah start learning about each other

and people like let the walls down and characters start showing and personality's come out so tour is like massively important but it was hard hot and hard like my God I was dead but where did you go

yours look really nice by the way you're in some like castle so we went to a chateau in France I agree with you I think they're so important like we've obviously got a few new players in

and this is the first one I've been on where everyone's together because obviously people usually come in at different times and I missed a couple with Villa for like not being you know being away on camps and stuff in tournaments

but I found that it was so important to have everyone there because like you said like if you're coming at training right you can come in at any time in a window for breakfast or whatever so you kind of almost sit with the same people but like there it's just you wake up

you go to breakfast You sit with whoever's there. You're sitting with different people. You learn so much more about people that you've already known and you get to really know the personalities and stuff of the new players. And our new players have come in and fit in seamlessly. So it's really nice to have them with us. But we're the same as you.

Like one day we just set up randomly, like literally after dinner. We're like, right, anyone want to play rounders? Like football rounders and we had this massive field. So we just literally got like staff players involved, barefoot playing like football rounders. me, Sarah, Ellie Roebuck and one of our new players Lucia Patsy

all them played we all played Spikeball like we're absolutely obsessed with Spikeball now so we played that for hours and it was so hot I literally was drenched you can imagine me like goalkeeper diving

trying to keep it on but yeah it was good we had a good game against PSG yeah I've seen that really good result yeah so it was really nice to be with everyone spend some good quality time with them and the weather was nice

and yeah it was good overall we really enjoyed it. Nice. Anything happening outside of football? How's the family? Everyone good. How's my Lulu? Yeah, she's good. I haven't been able to get back. We literally got back on late Saturday, had Sunday after we were back in again Monday, so I've not had time. I'll see her next week, I think. So that'll be nice. Lulu, just, if you're listening, this is for you. You will be coming on the podcast at some

point. Good luck. Darling. You'll have to pin a down. All right. What about you? How's your family? Everyone good? Yeah, Albie's so funny. He's literally, I'm just going to show you. a picture actually he's at that age now where he's just so chatting and you know what

best he's got the cutest little northern accent ever like proper little northern accent now yeah he did have fun before and I remember last time I saw him I was like oh he's proper Yorkshire oh my god look at him he had my mum's glasses on earlier

he's too cute and he's always yeah he's just so cute is it like such a fun like fun age like the boys are like getting so big now Dad's busy as ever. Mum and Dad have finally moved into their dream house.

Yeah, honestly, it's so sick. I don't know my dad does it. I honestly do not. The man is like Hercules. He literally is Hercules. Oh, I actually have to tell you a funny story that we did on our preseason tour. So when shit was hitting the fan last year when we were just losing all the time and then we turned like those last five games when we were winning,

the night before the first game that we won against Liverpool, Lucy and Stan and Patti did a quiz. And it was like not a normal quiz. a funny quiz like they'd like dive into your Instagram from like 2010 and like whose caption was this just absolutely stitched you up and they did like challenges

in it and stuff it was so good so they did one again but this time like staff were involved and everything but before we went they did like a you know you do a secret sign that you like draw someone out of the hat and you've got them and you had to pick them an outfit yeah I've seen you were dressing up yours looks so good

did you see Sarah's Ali G outfit so she got an allergy outfit and so did Natalia our manager. And they both rocked up with this allergy. I was absolutely crying but it was fun because it was just like everyone took part. You're wearing literally like one of our male staff was in like a

body con leopard dress. Like you could stitch as much as you want or like dress them up as what you think they'd like so that was stuff like that sorry I had to jump back because I just thought it was stuff like that like that's what makes the trips though and that's what makes you look back. That's what we used to say about the aura is like it makes everything

like we did load of challenges like on the golf course on the volleyball because when you talk about that you'll go oh my god remember you did that yeah like remember that happened so we had some initiations to be fair

they smashed it like out of the park to be fair was so good we had like a big barbecue and then initiations came so yeah it was pretty sick to be fair

but I'm always happy to come home you know what I'm like same I literally was like I miss my dogs I miss my birds love you all love you all but like but get me back nobody speeds me for 24 hours

yeah and do you know really miss my car when I'm away I miss driving. I got in the car at the training guard and I was like oh god I feel like I'm not driving months yeah then I just go for like little drives and I'm like I go the longest route to training and the longest route home because I'm just like I miss driving driving is like my escape it sets me up for the day

I get my music on I completely agree we were just a bit weird aren't we just a bit weird on that note let's head for a break we're just on the same page bestie we'll be back soon guys see you soon Welcome back to the rest of this football, Daily Brightness,

with the new season fast approaching, we thought we'd chat about some general news from the world of women's football. Millie, what do you think about the Ball and Door as an award? Is it something like you think people think about or... I think it's personal preference, you know. I think I've definitely seen a mixture in this and I've experienced a mixture in terms of like some people are like,

I don't chase that and like speaking from my experience and my opinion, I would never chase individual awards I just believe that if you do well for your team and of course individual performance is important but I've never, yeah, it's never been like at the top of my list I would much rather win the team trophies and if that comes off the back of it then fantastic and I think it naturally would if you're successful

especially Ballandoor if you're successful for club and country because that's what the Ballandore is you know you've got to be the best in all domains and you're literally crowned the best like club, country, everything that you participate in, you're the best. And I think if you do that, naturally, you know, the Ballandoor is a standout player for both. And if you do that and you succeed and you're winning and you're like someone that the team relies on, then naturally for me, you'd be on that list and you'd be in with a shot of winning.

But then I also meet people that are like, I want to win the Ballandoor. Some people strive for it. Some people don't. Some people think, oh, it'll come with the team stuff. some people like I want to win the ball and dawn that will be their motivation to then do well with the team so it really is like individual to be honest like I don't know what your

it really is there's no right or wrong I think the same to be honest I think obviously when I was nominated for it I was like oh my god that is sick it is really special in it yeah because it is probably the best individual awards you can get yeah and if you want to be successful like you want to win everything don't you so I get that but yeah I'm the same like I was just like well if I got it sick

if I don't whatever to the next one. Yeah, I'm excited to say. I don't think I could, like, falter from what you've just said. I'm very much, like, mm. Like, I wouldn't ever retire and be like,

oh, I feel like I've failed my career in my legacy because I've not won the Ballandoor. Like, I wouldn't, if I've won all the team stuff, I'm like, a tick, I've done, like, I've ticked it off. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. I think the one thing that is, like, really cool out of this is that Michelle Lajumant nominated for the,

obviously the best under 21 play, which I think is massive because... That is huge. At that age, to come up and do what she did. obviously was massive and the season that she's had. Having had hardly any, like not even a debut,

like no cams, you know what I mean? And I think that's an important one for me. I'd absolutely love to see her win that because I think she's had such a good year and I'm actually glad for her that she's gone back on loan to Brighton again because I think that game experience

is going to be massive for her this year. I was a little bit concerned that she was going to stay and then not play. Yeah. There's so much hype around her that, you know, I'm sure she's absolutely

massively valued by Arsenal, but... You need to be playing as a youngster. Yeah, exactly. Like, the amount of players that they've got now, like top quality players, that the rotation is obviously going to be a lot more. I think for her, the biggest thing coming off the back of this tournament and the season she's had is minutes, regular minutes.

Yeah. Getting in the league, getting your name about there again and, like, just keep working hard. Just gaining experience as well. Like, she'll be playing against top, top players, like week in, week out. And also, make yourself a known player. Exactly.

The key is to not just, like, get your name in the Euros and then sort of fizzle out. you want to be playing regularly, you want to push yourself, you want to experience the league at different levels as well as just at the top. So, yeah, I think that's important for her, to be honest.

Well, you want your team to be begging you to come back. You want to go out, have the season of your life, and be like, I'm ready. Like, after the season, I'm ready. And then they say, right, come on back, and then you get in the team. That is the aim. I think that's probably the hard thing with loans as well is

not everybody uses them to maybe the best of their abilities or it doesn't quite go the way that they want it to go. But you make it what you. you want it to be, do you know what I mean? So you look at somebody like, Aggie, going on loan to Everton. All right, you do is the best example.

Grace Clinton. Like, there's players that go out on loan and they don't see it as a negative. It's like, right, here's my opportunity. I'm going to take it with both hands. This is my team. And that's another thing that's quite hard, I think, for lone players, is making the team that you've signed for your team, because obviously you've still got that connection to your parent club.

But I think, yeah, you get out of it what you put in, I think. And I think, you know, these types of players have done really well with that. So wish her the best of luck Any youngsters out there If you're going out alone Use it Wish her the best of look But not in the first game of this season

Because it's against me No Up the Villa That's so weird That is so weird Because literally I'm just like doodling on this paper I won't show you my doodles

Because they're just wild But it literally says wait Up the Villa Moving on What do you think about this situation with Barcelona? Because I think it's wild. Because if you don't know what's happening, it's a deteriorating situation at Barcelona,

one of Europe's elite women's teams. The club across men's and women's teams has one billion dollars debt and has spent more than they're allowed to by La Liga on wages. So to reduce the wage bill and save money, the women's team has lost six players so far this summer with more expected to leave.

such a established club they have signed some of the best players in the world over the last few years and now they've just got to get rid of them all for the sake of the men and I think that is where women's football it's nowhere near it needs to be

for that reason alone because it doesn't make sense to be like this team wins the Champions League they win La Liga they've got they sign because of that they signed some of the best players in the world and now it's just like off your pop

because we can't afford you They lead with the crowds in things that are really important in women's football, not only attraction of players and quality and winning, but they lead with the crowds, like, you've seen the bars of fans in, like, crowds and games, and, like, they've, I feel like they were the first to do everything. So it's like, you've now taken that away, and you're potentially affecting what effect that has on the wider game.

Anything that any team does in the women's game, yeah, you're not just doing it for yourself, you're representing the whole of the women's community. Like, that's what people don't understand, like, this is like when we speak about, how good like Arsenal get their crowds in the WSL like they're representing the WSL of women's football because it's out there they've beat another start

they've broke another record then someone else edges back up and it's like a domino effect that's why it's so important so like this could be like really detrimental not only to them which it's going to be like what they've got 17 signed players

they can't register anymore they have been such a dominant powerhouse in the world women's football like they're so consistently good but at the same time it's like as well like thinking about the players like they're just getting shipped off left and right because they can't afford to keep them like they've built their lives there some of them are born and raised there you're talking barcelona like you're not talking a random small club that can't afford you anymore it's like i'm one of the biggest in the game even players going on a on a free

like look at rolfo going man united on a on a free like imagine the caliber of player that you'd be expected a big transfer fee for that you'd be expecting cash like it's a shame it makes me sad to see it yeah i don't i don't understand it and again these are these are things that shouldn't be front news like they shouldn't be making like articles like this shouldn't even be a topic of conversation like it shouldn't be but it is so that's a problem so we have to analyze it and look into it and figure out what the hell has gone wrong because like this can't be happening like it it just can't it's ridiculous i don't understand i don't i don't i don't get it. I don't get it. I don't get it. Someone please explain. So let's raise that with some

positive gratitude time. Are we going to do one? All right, let's do one. My thing I'm the most grateful for this week is my bed, right? Where we said in France, I knew you were going to say that. The beds are so soft, which fine, some people love soft beds, but you know me and my back. I can't have that. Honestly, Millie, I've been sleeping on floor. I've been waking up every morning like oh god I can't get a while I'm like it's killing me and I got in my bed the other night when I got back

and I thought oh my heaven God I will never take you for granted ever again I went out and bought just cause I went out and bought new bed in washed it ironed it oh can't be fresh bed in wash and ironed that so my bed I'm so grateful for you

I love you my gratitude is my journal nice I've been very consistent I've been yeah just really zoning in every morning doing my journal and also when I journal like before we've spoke about it before but it's like it's positive things to work on

things that affected me things that are troubling me like it's a real mixture of everything and I've been really conscious to to make sure that it's not just heavily focused on things that are going wrong or like emotions that are like are quite overwhelming or taking over me

see gratitude you're showing things what you're grateful for yes and this would be a good addition to the pod something you'll be proud of me for i am staying very consistent with my counselling i'm not good put it out there so that is yeah really really helping and i would suggest anyone that is struggling or has struggled or if you even if you don't feel like you struggling but things are just getting a little bit overwhelming and don't let it get bad like counseling has been like such a blessing and it's really really hard though I'm not going to lie don't think people speak about that enough and how actually hard it is but that's my other gratitude my counselling sessions love that proud of you for that I've been I've been putting it off for far too long

I'm proud of you for doing that I've stepped into the world of that so yeah really good gratitude this week guys but that is it for the rest is football daily brightness we hope you enjoyed we are back in flow we will also be back on third with a Q&A episode. So getting your questions. As always, thank you for listening in. Thank you for those that I've already subscribed. If you haven't, get it done, what you're waiting around for. We know you love us. Goodbye from me. Have a wonderful week. And goodbye from me. Thanks for listening. We're back.