We Are Chelsea - Building a Winning Machine with Paul Green

Episode Date: April 18, 2025

This is We are Chelsea, the official podcast of Chelsea Women, brought to you in association with Škoda, the official car partner of Chelsea Women and proud supporters of women’s sport. www.skoda.co.uk In this special episode Caz De Moraes is joined by Head of Women's Football at Chelsea Paul Green at West London Skoda. Paul's been a player, a coach, a scout and started at Chelsea in 2013. Caz finds out the role he's played in turning Chelsea into a winning machine and setting the culture at the club. To watch the full episode on YouTube, click here: https://www.youtube.com/@chelseafc/videos Send us your questions to [e-mail] #WeAreChelsea Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to We Are Chelsea, the official podcast of Chelsea Women brought to you in association with Skoda, who are the official car partner for Chelsea women, and they are proud supporters of women's sport. I'm Casdemore's and today I'm delighted to be joined by the head of women's football at Chelsea, Paul Green. Now, Paul's been at the club since 2013, so he is the perfect person to talk about turning Chelsea into the winning machine that they are today. We've also broken out of common, and we are bringing you this special episode from West London Scoda. This is We Are Chelsea with Paul Green. Paul, welcome onto the pod. Thank you so much for joining me. How are you today? I'm good, thank you. How are you?

I'm all right. The sun is shining, so I'm in a good mood. Yeah, well, it's pleasure to be here. I'm really excited to have you on. You're the first member of staff that we've got on this season. For those that don't know, can you tell me what your official title is? Yeah, I'm the head of women's football. And what does that mean, Paul? Break it down for us. Yeah, it means I'd oversee the whole program from the first team to the academy, involved in the recruitment of players, retention of players, managing the budget.

Well, you're very VIP. That sounds like a lot of responsibility is on your shoulders. Yeah, as long as the team's winning, then I'm okay, I think. Well, I read somewhere that your phone is like red-hot, always ringing. Break down what a typical day looks like for you. Yeah, it can be different agents ringing about the next superstar player that they've got and are recommending to the club or yeah, it could be members of staff wanting to have a meeting about different things, looking ahead to next season's budget planning. It can be the sporting directors wanting to check in,

see how things are going or yeah, it's quite a vast, wide role. But yeah, it's something I wouldn't change really love football always have and yeah it's a pleasure to be involved with with the club and and be there for such a long time you've got to have a kind of a variety of roles or masks I say because if an agent's calling you about this superstar player you've got to be able to sometimes show keen interest and then sometimes be like I want to kindly let you down like she's not on our watch list that's quite a hard role as well sometimes no yeah I think that's what we've done well over the years really is knowing which calls to take and which ones not to or which players to pursue and which not to because I think in football you know you're only as good

as the players that you recruit ultimately and I think we've got a really good track record of doing that at Chelsea. Talk to me about how you came to football. I know you come from a footballing family and your dad Bill was a footballer. Tell me about his influence on you and what it was like growing up. Yeah, my dad was a huge influence on. me he was a footballer like you say played for a number of different clubs played for hartlepool carlyle um west ham peterborough chesterfield and doncaster and then he went into coaching um with scumthorpe united he was the assistant manager there then became the manager and then he had a fantastic scouting career as well um where he worked for southampton for lester wigan derby

a lot of different clubs so he was very experienced in the field before he passed away and yeah it was a massive influence on me I was always destined to work in football like saying my dad got transferred when I was 10 days old from Carlisle to West Ham I don't obviously remember that

but I was on the move from a very young age and moved around a country with him myself and my sister Victoria are the only two in our family that aren't born in Newcastle because of where my dad was in his playing career. I was born in Carlisle and my sister

was born in Chesterfield. So quite a unique position for your dad to have been a player or a coach and then also have the scouting process because we sometimes forget that football has such a huge ecosystem around it and most of the time people think

I really love football I want to be a player. But actually you can still love football and if you can't make it as a player you could work in a variety of different roles. I would love to be a scout because I feel like it's my dream job. You just get to watch football all day.

But it's not quite just that, is it? No. Yeah, the game's grown so much from, you know, when my dad was playing to even when I was playing. You know, now there is so many different roles and so many different departments. Whereas, yeah, back in the day, it was probably a staff of three or four people

that ran the whole club from the performance point of view, whereas now, you know, our staff is 25 plus. And, yeah, there's certainly a lot more opportunity now in the game than what there ever has been. So you were always going to be working in football. What was your first job or role in the football world? Yeah, I wanted to be a player. I wanted to follow him my dad's footsteps.

He played over 400 league games and then gone into management, as I mentioned. So, yeah, I was always trying to emulate him. I didn't quite make that. I was at Scunthorpe United as a YTS player and then moved to Rotherham United and did a year's pro there which yeah I don't think was fulfilling what I wanted to because I never made my football league debut so I always felt I underachieved in that area comparing myself to my dad did play against some pretty decent players in the reserves for Rotherham though in David Beckham, Nicky bought Gary Neville the sort of class of 92 just because the similar

age to me. David Batty. A few little names then. David Batty, Paul Warrest, Kevin Gallagher, who was in the Blackburn team that was very successful. But yeah, I felt I didn't quite make what I wanted to. And then I moved into

non-league football, played for a number of different non-league teams in the North East and then moved into coaching. I did my UA for B coaching qualification and then quickly did my UA for A. I was scouting.

for different clubs in the men's game that my dad was attached to on a part-time basis and looked to get into women's football. John Buckley, who was my course tutor for the UAFA B license, was actually the manager of Don Castoroba's Bells. And he invited me down. I'd known him for years because he was a player at Rovroom at Scunthorpe, and I actually used to be his boot boy, so I knew him pretty well anyway. Okay.

He invited me down to Donnie Bell's just. to do a little bit of coaching and see what I thought of it really and yeah I'll never forget the first night I went down to Can'tley Park at Doncaster where they were training and in that one moment I was drawn to women's football

became the assistant manager with Doncaster Bells a couple of months later the secretary left and I said well I'll do that I'll organise the matches I'll do the registrations and so I was like doing a joint role where I was the assistant manager and the secretary

and yeah that's sort of how I got into it really so you're a bit of a dark horse because you've been a player you've been a coach you've dabbled in a bit of scouting so a great person to be head of women's football and you started at Chelsea in 2013 you've got to be one of the longest standing members of staff

maybe in the men's and the women's team right yeah I'd say so I'm not sure if that's good or bad to be honest but no yeah I think I am probably one of the longest serving and it's just changed so much much in that period. Talk to me about how much things have changed, in particular, the team, because I know we've spoken to Fran last season and she talked about how much it has changed. Carly talked about how much it's changed.

How much change have you seen from when you started to where it is now? I mean, that's a whole podcast episode on the same, I know. Yeah, it has changed massively. Like going back to 2013, you know, it was a very small staff. There was, I think, three full-time members. members of staff. There was myself, Rob Udberg,

who was the head of development, who did a lot of good work in the early days to help get the club to where it is now. Emma was part-time. The team were training fully together

two nights a week in the evening. And then during the day, there was, I think, eight to ten players that me and Rob used to coach during the day. And then we'd have the games on the weekend.

So, yeah, it's very different to what it is today. But there's been various stages in that development of you know first turning fully professional in 2015 where emma then became full time with the team and the staff started to grow out but yeah it's it's been built from very small but strong foundations and that growth and the investment that the club have put into the women's program has really helped that that journey and we've built it gradually over time

into what it is now one of the best women's football clubs in the world what do you think the biggest change has been? I think the biggest change was turning professional. Coming out of the foundation and going into the main club at the time was a massive shift for us. And I think also across the whole club and the various departments across the whole club, that's really when we started to get access to the commercial team, to the legal team, to the ticketing team, you know, all these different areas of the business that we didn't

have access to in the first instance so that helped us grow and it became more sustainable because you know for myself the first part of my role when I joined I was doing doing everything with Rob you know I was coaching on the pitch during the day I was going out to schools giving away free tickets I was doing the kit you name me I was pretty much doing it but but that was the norm in women's football and I'm sure there was other people of the clubs doing exactly the same because having multi roles was just the norm and I yeah I enjoyed it I reveled in it and could see the potential that the club had and Emma driving it it was an exciting place to be even though we were working crazy hours I want to touch on Emma because I want to ask about

the club culture and the ethos seems to be never settle and I know that Emma's been the the face almost but actually she can't have done it on her own and that actually we're now discovering that you did a lot of work behind the scenes that the fans won't know about. So I want to shine a light on you, Paul. Tell me how you guys set the culture. How did that ethos become so ingrained in the team now, even after Emma's gone? It seems to be never settle, win, win, win all the time. Yeah, we worked very closely together for for 12 years, sat in the same office, made decisions together on everything. So yeah, we built it on being both from hardworking families, working class families,

being humble. That was a big part. We wanted the humility to remain, even as we grew when we were getting more and more things into the program. We wanted the players to remain humble, have no egos and be good people. and I think again going back to the recruitment whoever we've recruited whether it's been players or staff that's at the heart of everything that we did

and fortunately we had the club supporting us financially and really investing in the women's game because they wanted us to be a winning team and I think yeah anyone that's played for Emma or works with Emma that is one thing that stands out above everything else she's a winner and she drives standards and she doesn't accept anything less than winning

and yeah, she's obviously now gone on to the US but she grew the team at an unbelievable rate and she got the club to really buy into her vision and the potential that she saw in the club and to help get us to where we are now. You're so humble. You've managed to turn that question about how it was all Emma and actually it was you too.

You were also doing it. Yeah, the combination of me and Emma worked really well. And I think with the recruitment, for example, she was coming out of a job in Chicago where she knew the player pool internationally. And because I'd worked at Doncaster for seven years before joining Chelsea, I knew the domestic player pool. And with my background in recruitment,

then the combination just swept up the best players from around the world and helped start. the process of a winning team but we did have to rip it up when we first joined I think 2013 I think it was we released 10 or 11 players at the end of that season because we realised to be

competitive in the league we needed a total reset and that's hard yeah that was that was hard it's never nice having those conversations with anybody at any time and it's still difficult conversations even now but I think we were brave to do that

and yeah success didn't come immediately it nearly did on that fateful day at Manchester City that I'll never forget but shortly after that we did become a winning team and we've been fortunate we've managed to keep that going over 12 years and winning 17 trophies in that time is unbelievable really you touched on recruitment I want to know what it was like back then when you started how it changed

but the the step by step for those that don't know from the scout to the agent to the transfer window how does it work back then it was a lot simpler than what it is now i would say because yeah there was probably no women's teams that had scouts it was the coaches that were the scout so it was emma and i identifying the players and then signing the players and do you have like a little watch list that you're always looking at we do now but i think back then it was more because of our knowledge of like the international market and domestic market of who was available bear in mind then there was no agents in the game really in the early days there was no agents there was no transfer fees so it was really around your knowledge on players and because

we'd both worked in the women's game for a lot of years I think that's where we perhaps had the edge over other teams that our player pull knowledge was was quite vast and Whereas now, you know, there's a whole team behind it. There's T.J. O'Leary, who's our lead scout, who does a fantastic job. He's identifying players with his own small scouting team. And how would you like to see the recruitment process change in the future, maybe? I think that process will stay as it is. But from the club's point of view, we want to be trying to bring more of our own young players through from our academy.

because we are conscious that, you know, in the league rules, you have to have eight homegrown players out of 25 for Champions League. You have to have four club trained players out of 25. And that's really where we want to look at as well as signing some world-class players for the here and now. We also want to be getting that pathway right for our young players. And it started to happen with us creating the loan program, which was something we decided to do a number of years ago,

probably the first women's team to do that. And it was really to give our best young players coming through the academy a platform to gain good match minutes to try and help bridge the gap between academy football and first team because that gap is big at the moment across all women's teams

but particularly with ours. So we created the loan program and have put a number of players through that. And we've had one success, real success story at the moment in Aggie Beaver Jones that's come all the way through our pathway, being on a two-year loan, one year to Bristol City, one year to Everton

and then come back into our squad and having a real impact. It's obviously gone on and played for England. So I think in that area of the club, in the women's academy, there's a real air of like real, they're really excited to see what the future is like in there, that they can now see a player that's come through that pathway. It's not just someone saying it. They can now actually believe it. They've seen someone do it.

yeah um she's sort of become the poster girl for for that pathway hopefully aggie will be the first of many to come through yeah uh you know we have got lexie potter that's out at crystal palace on a second year loan who uh potentially could be somebody coming to the squad in the future lola brown there's another good young player coming through and vera jones so we are doing good work in that air it just takes time and i think yeah the loan program gives them that platform I hate the comparison between men's football and women's football, but when it comes to the academy players, are you starting to see that there is more of a similarity now?

Are we seeing agents with younger players coming through? Yeah, it started to happen this season, which is a first in that space. And how do you handle that when they're so young, I guess? Yeah, it's difficult. It's one that Dean probably does more of than myself, but it's definitely I think an area of the business

that's growing at a rapid rate is the academy and I do see in the future it is going to turn into the boys academy it's just a matter of how quickly that happens which I guess has pros and cons Yeah no we we want it to be fully professional eventually like what it is on the boy's side

But yeah we just need to get that infrastructure right And build it slowly like we did with the first team But certainly even last summer you know there's been a big increase in investment into that area for the reasons I mentioned before with the homegrown and club trained because if you don't then you know look at the way the transfer fees are growing you know there used to be no no transfer fees now you know six figure fees or even more is becoming more prevalent in the game so it's going to be more important we get the investment right at the academy to maybe stop us having to go out and buy somebody yeah and further down the line if we can get the early, develop them and then bring them into our environment, it will, yeah, it'll make more business sense as well. This podcast is brought to you by Skoda, the official car partner of Chelsea Women and proud supporters of women's sport.

It's football season. Time for afterwork training, muddy boots and early morning weekend games. Whether you're playing five-a-side after work, cheering the kids on from the sidelines on a Saturday morning, or gathering with your mates to watch the big leagues each weekend. Scoda's the perfect companion for your everyday adventures. Zip around town in the fully electric eniac or give the squad a lift home in the all-new seven-seater Kodiak. There's something in the range to suit teams of all shapes and sizes. Don't just take my word for it though.

Search the Scoda range today to jump in and see for yourself. We've talked about Chelsea wanting the edge for the recruitment process, but then if we look at inside the club, the girls have talked about, how Chelsea are always pushing for those marginal gains that ultimately become huge gains. So the menstrual cycle tracking is one. Hannah Hampton mentioned the gymnastics coach for the goalkeepers. What is the next kind of focus? Yeah, we're always looking for an edge, but I'm not going to tell you what that is.

Paul, you can trust me. Tell me. No way I can divulge what's next on that list. but yeah, we're always looking to stay one step ahead of our competitors and, yeah, the future will be no different. Okay, and is that something that Emma brought in and you guys have carried on or was it something that was a group decision that actually let's look at this, this, this and this. I think one of them even mentioned a stretching coach.

I think it might have been Satira and she said, I didn't know I needed a stretching coach until I had a stretching coach. Whose idea was it to focus on those little areas? Yeah, Emma was always looking for little one-percenters. to make a difference between us and other teams. And that's something that we've continued since she's departed. But yeah, that was very much brought in from Emma. She didn't settle for what we had,

even if we'd been in a winning season. She was always looking for something else to make sure we stayed one step ahead of the chasing pack. Never settling. Never settling. No. So talking about Emma, I've got to then talk about Sonia.

How did the recruitment process happen from we've talked about players but now for a coach because Emma was pretty big shoes to fill so how did the whole process work around Sonia coming in? Yeah I led that process and created a long list for possible new coaches I drew up of like a characteristics of what I thought would be important both on the pitch and both off the pitch

Can you give me some examples? I'll give you a few, yeah. I'll give you a few. He's like, I'm gatekeeping a couple of these. It was to be, oh, sorry, to have good experience in women's football, to be a winner. Big tick. I've had previous experience of winning. Be good in the media.

Good, good person, good character. Can handle a big dressing room with a lot of diversity within that dressing room. But yeah, it was put together a long list. brought it down to a short list and then presented the short list to the sporting directors and then we took it forward to to interview process and then we we worked in collaboration to decide on who was going to be the next coach and sonya was our number one choice and we were really glad that she joined us and she's made her unbelievable start to her first season well i can't even say start now we're near the end so yeah unbelievable journey so far

her first season. And Chelsea are always on the hunt for silverware. I know from the players what their goals and their aspirations are. I know from Sonia from speaking to her. But I guess from the staff perspective, how do you set goals and how do you keep silverware as being a dominating objective? Yeah, I think it's all comes from the top. So, you know, when Sonia first met the staff and the players, she made it very clear.

and I think she made it very clear in the media in her first interview she wants to win all four trophies that we're competing for and everyone else needs to get on board with that and that's no different really

to how Emma was the ambitions have always been the same in recent years that we want to win all four trophies every season and yeah we've made a good start to that this season winning the Subway Cup

so the first trophy of the new era but there's still a lot to play for the rest of the season. We're in a fantastic position. It's just a matter now of how many trophies we can bring back to Cobham. Paul, I've got to ask, you've been at the club for over 10 years. You've seen it where it was. You've brought it all the way to hear.

You've seen it now just win after win after win. I know from asking players, how do you keep the determination and the kind of drive alive on the pitch from them? but how do you do it when you've kind of it must feel like you've more than done what you needed to do how do you keep the drive alive I think it's the desire to

make sure the chasing pack don't catch you we've got a target on our back we have had for a number of years but yeah I think the desire to make sure that doesn't happen I mean that's in all areas it's not easy winning's not easy

but yeah that's I would say that's the one burning ambition is to win the champions League we haven't achieved that yet we've been close on a number of occasions and yeah maybe the referee making a different decision in the semi-final last year might have helped us get through in that game I still think we'd have beaten sonya's Leon in the final but I'm not sure she'd agree with that so yeah that's again another ambition that's not yet been achieved so for me yeah it's it's clear we know we want to keep going until we do achieve that and we

We want to make sure we stay one foot ahead of everyone else. And do you think being the super glue of the club, do you think that you need to show that drive in order for the other members of staff to also? Do you feel like you need to lead that drive? Yeah, I think that's very important. Like in a leadership position, whether it's Sonia or myself, yeah, you need to be showing the rest of the staff. That's the expectations.

That's the standards. And everyone's accountable to that. and I think that's no different to anyone in leadership because people are looking at you for direction and yeah, for us it's very clear. It's been seamless transition, which again, it's not easy. We had six, seven staff leave with Emma and go to the US.

But so I didn't have much summer holiday. I was happy when the October international break rolled around so I could actually go away because I was doing a lot of the recruitment in that area. But where did you go? where was your holiday of choice I can't even remember where I went actually I love that that's not all good

it might have been Tenerife I think it was actually it's just come back to me got a bit of beach good yeah so yeah I think that was important to get the right people in and I think yeah they've all made a really good start and the rest of the existing staff have really brought into the new coaches ideas

and the environment and you know Sonia's building on that environment that Emma and I created Paul I've taken up so much of your time already, so I'm already very appreciative that you've spoken to me for this long. My last question is, in the 12 years that you've been at Chelsea, what has been your favourite moment? That is a very difficult question to answer, but yeah, there's been so many great memories, but I think the one that stands out beyond the others is probably

the opportunity that I had to walk the team out at Wembley for the FA Cup final in 2018 against Arsenal and yeah it coincided with my dad had passed away in the August so it was a really special moment the rest of the family were there and he'd actually walked his team out there for Scunthorpe and I think it was 1992 so yeah it was a lot of similarities and brought back a lot of memory so yeah there's been a lot of other moments as well throughout the 12 years but that would definitely be the main one and it was quite funny how it came about Emma was pregnant and she said to me earlier in the campaign that she said to me earlier in the campaign that she was going to be giving birth sort of mid to end of May.

So she said if we make the FA Cup final, you'll have to walk the team out. And I didn't really think too much about it. I'd forgot about it. And then when we beat Man City, Frank Kirby, I think, scored the second goal for us to beat them 2-0 at home in the semi-final. It still didn't dawn on me that I was going to walk the team out.

And then after the game, she said to me, oh, by the way, now you do know that you are walking the team out, don't you? And I was like just really excited to do that. But yeah, it's sort of passed me by. I totally forgot about it. It's just so focused on the game. But yeah, that was really a special moment because there's not many people get the opportunity to walk a team out. And we did win against Arsenal that day as well, a free one. So it was extra special. Absolutely. Well, you've been integral to the journey that Chelsea have been on. And it's been really special to speak to you. So thank you. It's been my pleasure.

Thank you. Thank you for listening to We Are Chelsea, the official podcast of Chelsea Women, brought to you in association with Skoda, who are the official car partner of Chelsea women and proud supporters of women's sport. A huge thanks to Skoda for having us here today, and we'll see you next time.