We Are Chelsea - Fierce Competition with Lucy Bronze and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd

Episode Date: March 4, 2026

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.ukIn this episode, Em Wallbank joins Lucy Bronze and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd to play a game that seriously puts their friendship to the test. Expect a lot of laughs, plenty of tea on their teammates, and some baffling Whistleblower dilemmas. To watch the full episode on YouTube, click here: https://www.youtube.com/@chelseafcwomen/videosSend us your questions and Whistleblower dilemmas to [e-mail] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to We Are Chelsea, the official podcast of Chelsea Women, brought to you in association with Skoda, the official car partner of Chelsea women and proud supporters of women's sport. I'm M. Warbank and today we've got a very special duo joining us, two friends that fans have been asking to see on the pod together. We're going to chat about all things friendship, football and of course we're going to have a little fun along the way. This is We Are Chelsea with Lucy Bruns and Johanna Rooting Canerud. Well, thanks for joining us on the podcast today, ladies. How are you both? I was going to whisper. I'm like, really good, thank you. No, we're not doing it like that.

Hey, we don't, please. We could if you want next time. Really good, great. Yeah, how's training going? Mm-hmm. Good. It's really cold at the minute though. Yeah.

And windy. It's Baltic, isn't it? Yeah. went on like your thigh or something. Yeah, it's like being slapped. It's awful. The podcast listeners have actually been anticipating the two of you being on the pod. You're a very popular duo.

Are you excited to be here together? We are. We're missing our third friend though. I was very jealous. I was very jealous. She is. But yeah, I'm happy with my company. Do you remember your first impressions of each other when you first met each other?

I mean we played against each other before we met each other. Yeah, I remember our first. time or was it in America I think we started to play ping pong and fighting yeah so then I realized

that's her first story she's very competitive so she thought she could beat me in a fight this comes up a lot on the podcast is how competitive you are yo yeah like it gets probably gets brought up at least once an episode in some capacity that you're quite competitive

would you say that you're quite a competitive person No. She's a liar. She's so competitive. And I was like, I could beat you in a fight. And she was like, no way. So we had a fight. That was off.

We did, yeah. That was like within three days of meeting each other. Talked me through, like, are we talking... I won. So we didn't have a referee. I wouldn't see you wrong. But, yeah. Are we talking like fish fight, wrestling?

More wrestling. No, we didn't like punch each other. No. It was more just like who was. the strongest that was me. But the thing was, I wasn't ready and then suddenly I was just on the floor. But then, I mean, it wasn't like

you won easily, I would say. But I won. I won. I've never once come across two people that just decided upon meeting each other that they needed to laugh. But the thing is, I had a wrestling fight with cat, which I won.

So then I thought, so when you sign for Chelsea, you get to wrestle. Is this the initiation? You have to sing, And then you have to wrestle. Yeah. Basically.

That's actually, I can't, I can't, I need to understand the thought process of just looking at another person and going, yeah, yeah, let's wrestle. Let's have a fight. Is this just like a dumb thing? How many of the team have you wrestled? Yes, too, I think. I need the, what do you call this? Arm wrestling.

Do we need to stop? We did like a team arm wrestle last year. Yeah. Because Sonia's son, he may have beat one of the players. Oh, really? I didn't even have that. Oh, this is gossip. This is a hot tea

that we're spilling on the podcast today. It was beaker. Shock. Rematch. What's your favorite thing about each other? How sarcastic she is. I think knows. Yeah.

I think the humor is well. And it's just easy. Sometimes you can just be quiet. That's when you know it's a good friend when you don't have to like talk all the time. You can just be comfortable. Yeah, when you can just like sit and doomscroll together silently. Yeah, that's absolutely ideal.

I laugh at the same things. Is there like a particular funny memory that you've got of each other? Just any time she tries to dance, I think. No, it doesn't help that right, Nat is amazing at dancing. She's. Nat is really, so like Keisha's like professional level, like could win a dance off. I think Nat could be like Beyonce's backup dancer. Really?

Yeah, but then obviously Nat and Yo are like this. But to be fair, now I'm holding my hand up. In comparison, it's quite funny sometimes. My rhythm have become much, much better. I feel like now I can actually move. I can dance. You have gotten better, yeah. But that is very, very good.

All right, new idea for the pod. We're having a Chelsea women's dance off. I'm all for it. They'd be right up for that. What's like you go-to dance move on and I'm out? What are you busted out? No, you don't want to know. Can't show them.

No. Give the people what they want. No, no, no, no. Because on the subject of dancing and busting moves, didn't you lot recently go to Magic Mike? Yeah, we did. Yeah. And was there much dancing involved there?

What do you want to do? It's your birthday. You're 10 and 30. No, she's not really. She turned 29. I said, it's your birthday. What do you want to do? And I'll organise it.

And the thing is, we always talked about Magic Mike. It's like a thing you need to go to, I think. So, I mean, it was perfect timing. I love that for it. Yeah. Yeah. Did you have a good time? We did.

Yeah, we did. We did. I mean, we've heard about the Instagram stories and it looked like you're all having a good time. Yeah, we made friends with the dancers like. Like I said, Nat, I think Nat wants to be magic, Michelle. Yeah, she could actually. I love that.

Not like the clothes part. She just wants to dance. Yeah. Yeah. Just the dancing. She just wants someone to dance with and she wants to dance. I like it. And I'm normally the one who obliges to dance with her because I'm better than Yo-Yo.

I mean, I mean, yeah. There's beef about it is. that's 2-0 yeah we've you've mentioned that quite a lot we see quite a lot of Instagram posts of you guys and that so you obviously

hang out a lot of outside of the three Swedes apparently yeah we are now Z left so then I put my application and to be like the third Swedish girl

and you're accepted and I got accepted yeah what's on the criteria to be a Swede I mean first you have to learn like the basic words

for fun oh that's important Quitsama like I can't really explain the word And then we used, so. Asso. We used that a lot.

So, it's like, like. It's like when we say like. Oh, like. Whereabouts are you in the approvals of being a Swede? Is Lucy doing well? I act like I understand when they speak to each other. Maybe that's a thing. You act like I understand, but you don't.

Sometimes I can get the context a little bit. Sometimes I think because I know languages. They think I know Swedish and I'm like, it's nothing like the languages that I know. What languages are doing now? I like, do you really try? I wouldn't say you really try. No, I'll just be like, I'm not listening. Yeah, I mean, it is a hard language to learn, actually.

But yeah. And they speak really good English, so. What else do you sort of get up to when you're not training and when you're not on the pitch, especially with Nat as the little trio that you've sort of become? I feel like we do a lot of stuff. We do everything from like, I'm often the host, I would say, cooking, making dinner and then we have like games nights games nights yeah that's something we like playing yatsy

playing sequence is that the name of it what's the yeah the music one hitster hitster that's good is it what is hitster i've not heard that one it's good because all the songs are predominantly like english-american so i do quite well but i'm always on vika's team and then two are together yeah so we kind of ballets each other 1-1 in games. You have to get the song, you have to guess what movie or TV show it's from.

But first you have to guess what year the song's from in like, so you say you've already got one that says 991. You have to go higher or lower. And then the more you add, then you've got to keep putting it in where it fits on your timeline. Oh my gosh. So you could end up with like seven cards and you're like, oh, is it 1987? Is it 2012? And then you get an extra point for guessing the movie.

So even when you know. not playing football, you're always competing on some sort of level. We do. You do more lapsing. But then in sequence, you and me. Sequence, we will go together. Because she's so smart. Like, she, I don't know how we do it, but somehow, you're like,

she's so smart. We're going to have to get a full ranking of all the games that you guys play. Because we were talking about banana. Bananaogram. That's the American. Well, I said the Americans. It's Ellie and the Americans. But Ellie gets counted and so that.

Because apparently that's a bus game. We're trying to play it, Hips. Hitster. Hitster. Yeah, I've told Naye and Alyssa they need to play Hittster because I feel like they would quite enjoy that. You listen to music. Yeah, it's alive.

We have a confession to me. So you know it's 1-1 in games in Hittster. You cheated? Of course she did. She cheated. We've just got a live confession on the podcast. There's been some cheating allegations. Do you know what?

I said this in a BBC interview, they were like about a traitor. They were like, who would be good at traitors? And I said, well, Yo-Yo would cheat. Yeah, but I wouldn't be- But I was like, you would cheat. I'm not good at it. I'm not good at lying, but I would. But if you were so certain, you would cheat.

100%. 100%. If I could, it doesn't surprise me. I think we need a Chelsea women's traitors. I absolutely think we need that. Yeah, they asked me about. I said that would be a good host, like Claudia. I think you wouldn't be a good.

She wouldn't be a good traitor because she can't lie. That's why I was so proud, the fact that she was the one looking at the car. It's like, well done. The whole night, that was like... Yeah, Nat can't lie and then she just wants to lie. Me. So if you were going to do traitors, would you rather be a traitor or faithful?

I wouldn't mind. Traitor. There was no hesitation there whatsoever, like, let me bamboozle everyone who knows. Who do you think it'd be the worst traitor on the team? Nat. Sorry, Nat. LJ as well. LJ as well.

Yeah, Lauren would be. Who'd you think of the best traitor? Kira and me, I think we would be good. I said Becky might be good. Becky as well. Because everyone, like, everyone talks to Becky. Becky would be good. She'd be so good.

No, Kira is not. We did it at England and she wasn't that good. Okay. Maybe Beck's... Millie was good. Oh, but do you remember when we played, that's not traitor? What is that called? No, but we played it at England.

Okay. And Millie was like one of the best. What did we play? An imposter. Imposter. And Becky was... Becky was okay. No, she was not good.

every single time. Are you played an imposter? We've played that game as well, imposter. This entire episode is just me really about games. And she cheats on that as well. How? You used to were like, in Swedish. Are you the imposter?

Yeah, I am. I don't know what you're talking about. They can't say next to each other. Do you know what? There's only one way to resolve this. There is a version of monopoly called the Cheaters edition where you have to cheat to win and the best cheater has to win.

I'm going to set you as a challenge now. We might have not. No, we don't even need to play. She would win that. That's really bad. We've seen a lot of TikToks of you guys. Whose idea is that? Not mine, definitely not mine. I'm the one just like, okay, I do it just because you asked me to do it,

but no, I'm not the one taking the initiative. It's not. Yeah. But I do enjoy doing them because I can dance. Uh-huh. And I can't. I mean, I'm in the background. I'm just trying to. I'm just here for a laugh. Like, I can do it and then people can laugh at me. It's fine. Some people are just here for the vibes and that's absolutely okay. Yeah, she doesn't take self too serious. No, it's fine. That's fine. Have you got a favourite TikTok dance? I like the, um, what did we do in Portugal?

Is Sarah Larsson? Yeah. She's Swedish as well. She's not mate. We love a bit of Zara Larson. She's having a moment. Yeah, can we have Zara Larson? If you're a fan of Chelsea Women's, can we have you? Come down to Stamper Bridge. Yeah, come chat football with us. We'll have you for a live episode. It'll be brilliant. This podcast is brought to you by Scudder, the official car partner of Chelsea Women and proud supporter of women's sport.

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There's something in the range to suit teams of all shapes and sizes, but don't just take my word for it though. Search the Skoda Range today to jump in and see for yourself. We're going to play a little game. We're going to have a bit of a friendship face off. I'm going to give you a who's most likely question and you're going to give me an answer out of the two of you. Are you ready? Yeah. We're in the spirit of competition.

Who's most likely to survive a zombie apocalypse? Me. Oh yeah? Yeah. I think me. What's your strategy? How are you surviving a zombie apocalypse? sprinting.

You'd be scared. Of course I would be scared. Yeah, I don't get as scared as you. So what do you mean? Just because you won't be scared, you would. Well, that edges me, yeah. I've got to be honest, unless you've encountered a flesh-eating being before. She's really scared of like scary movies, though.

Yeah, I think most people are, but like, if you're actually in front of something that's willing to eat your brains, I reckon you might be scared, though. I'd smack it. You wouldn't be wrestling it. Yeah. Okay, you can have it. There was a real, like, sense of... She's like, like, you can have it because I'll have the next one.

Who's most likely to eat dessert before dinner? That's you, yeah. Are you a big pudding person? You could, but me, me, probably more. Yeah. What's go-to pudding? What, anything. Anything?

Yeah, I love everything. Tiramazoo. Oh, solid shout. Pudding, is that dessert? Yeah. Yeah. Oh. Tiramazoo, Sticky tough pudding, ice cream.

Have you come across the man on TikTok who rates sticky toffee puddings yet. No, have you had a sticky toffee pudding? Do you know what it is? I'm not sure it's gluten-free. It's, I urge you, even if you can't eat a sticky-toffee pudding, go on TikTok and search STP guy, and it's a man who opens nearly all of his videos

by turning around and going, as a person who's tried over 50 STPs, like, refers to them as an STP. He's figured out there's like 40,000 different STPs in London. He's very passionate about it. I'm all for his journey, honestly. I mean, have you tried Swedish pastries? No, I haven't.

So a Swedish clad caca or a cinnamon bun or anything. It's top, top, top. See, I like a cinnamon bun. I can get on board with that. Are they much different to like English? Yeah. What makes them different? Everything.

Just everything. They're just better. It is. It is. We're really good at it. We love that. Who's most likely to forget what date is? both of us. Yeah, easily could be either one of us. I imagine it's quite easy to lose track of the days

when you, especially in like the thicker training season. I feel like I lose track of the days more than you. Same I was going to say. What you do? I feel like I do. I do. That's not neat. Here's a good one. Who is most likely to win a TikTok dance off? Oh, you. Of course. There's real confidence there as well. I mean, it depends, actually. She said dance off. It wasn't a TikTok challenge. was a dancer. But I'm very competitive, so I think I could actually like... Come on, man.

No, okay, yeah, there you go. Right now. Drop out one. Who would be the most likely to appear on a reality TV show? You. Yeah. What show would you do? There's been discussions here.

There's definitely been a discussion. Any one of them, to be honest. Is this where we're going to find out that you're going on, The Island. Love Island. No, no, no, no, no, no. Gladier is. Is it Yo-Yo for Strictly, 2026?

I mean... Gladieres? Are we seen? No, I haven't. Is it the same like Gladius Horner? Yeah, probably. Yeah. I could do that.

Or a survivor, Robinson. Bit like Bear Grills situation. After, I don't know what they do on that. It scares me to think about it, actually. Who would be the better podcast host out with the pair of year? That's a great one. I mean, if it would be in Swedish, it would be me. Well, obviously.

And if it was in Spanish, it would be me, probably. Right, I think you meant if it was in our own languages. Yeah, that's what I meant. Do you in Swedish compared to me in English? Exactly. Yeah, probably. That was so mad. It's like, yeah, I feel in Swedish, me.

We are going to move on to a segment that we call whistleblower, which basically we're going to give you the chance to be the referee in people's lives fans have written in some scenarios and you get to give your feedback and advice we're going full agony on sounds like my everyday with her honestly is this just a segment that we need to give to me

but she doesn't even give me you don't even finish my sentence she's like no well I already feel for these fans that have written in our first scenario my friend is running the marathon in April and I said I'd go, but my mum's just booked us tickets to a game,

and I feel bad bailing on either one. What do I do? Can do both, can you? Is it the marathon early? I don't know. They've not sent me like their schedule. They've not sent me like their calendar or anything. If we're going theoretically on the same time,

because I feel like that's safe to assume from, or if they're in different places. If they're at the same time, I think you should probably go to watch a friend in the marathon because it's not a regular occurrence. that's yeah go be a supportive friend because they're not going to run the marathon every weekend no they're not and like that's a lot of miles you probably come to another game yeah even though yeah no i think that's solid advice you'd go to the game wouldn't you yeah i know that

what we need from this podcast is an edit of luci and yo yeah sat on someone's shoulders like an angel and a devil yeah yeah is that that's very much the sort of vibe that the two you give off. I love that for you guys. Second scenario, I joined a new gym class and the instructor keeps using me as the demo person and it's cringing me out. I keep getting embarrassed every time. Why is it always me? Does he think I'm doing it wrong? Do I ask him to stop? Ask him to pay you? I mean, if you do that every time, no, I would not be okay with that. What, a Pilates class? It just says a gym class, Yeah.

Just go to the back of the room now. Oh, smart tactics. Get there early. Maybe they can't choose. Get there early next time and then go like in the corner. Yeah, but maybe he goes and pick her as well, even if she's... Well, then if he does that again, then at the end of the class, just be like, why did you keep picking me? Yeah.

Social anxiety would do me in on that one. We'll end it on a bit of football. We'll chat a bit of football with it being a football podcast. Imagine that. On the 1st of April, you're taking on Arsenal in the second leg of the Champions League, final at Stanford Bridge. How important is this game in the context of the season, especially given it's against your rivals? Yeah, I mean, especially as it's Champions League as well. We've done really well in the Champions League so far this season, and it's at Stanford

Bridge playing Arsenal again. So obviously they're the holders currently of the Champions League, so it'll be exciting. I think a lot of people have the eyes on that game. I think it'll be when I think of the quarterfinals, I'm not being biased or anything, but it's probably one of the most exciting ones. Yeah. I agree with everything you said. Nice one. What difference does having like a packed home crowd actually make for the moments when the game's tie and are you going to be at home for this one as well? Both of your roles, both of your roles. Yeah, of course. I'm playing in front of our fans that Stem for Beaches is something special. So I mean, if we can get a lot of people coming to watch us and just share for us and support us, we will 100% just have those extra.

represent to give on the pitch, I think. What she said. The devil and the angel are uniting on this one. It's lovely. How have both of your roles at Chelsea evolved? Because Lucy, you've been here a season and a half and you've been here a few years now. What has like the progression in your sort of space and the team look like over that period? Oh, I mean, I've been here more than three years now and I feel like the time just flies.

So I guess that's a good thing. I really enjoying it here and I think I'm taking steps all the time. Obviously in football it's going to go ups and downs and it's going to be challenging times and I think, yeah, for me now, I'm just looking forward to what's coming. We have a lot of interesting games coming up

and yeah, we still have a lot to compete for. So I'm super excited to see what's coming. I feel like I still have more and more and more to give. Yeah. What about you say? I feel like my role's been the same from the minute I walked in the club, which is funny because I remember the first week I was here, and I think Vika, it was her first week as well. And she came up to me and she asked me,

where do we get this or who do we have to ask for that? And I was like, Vika, I'm new here as well. Like, I don't know. But I feel like the minute I got to the club even to now, I've been like, it's like I've always been here. And yeah, easily to do. to talk to any staff members and figure things out for players and things like that, obviously being one of the oldest.

But yeah, I enjoy it. Yeah, there's such a lovely camaraderie amongst the whole Chelsea team. Everybody seems to get on so well. Do you think that is sort of integral to your success as a team overall? Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think we have a lot of fun as a team. And obviously, there's people who are you closer to. But we can all, like, hang out and there's always, like, jokes going on in the pitch.

in the changing room and things. It's nice to see people interact with, like, for example, we get on with Vika. Like, I get on really well Vika because we walk our dogs together. And she's like 15 years younger than me. But like all those things don't really matter. We're just, yeah, really together, I guess. How do you sort of push each other to improve as a team? I think every training session, every game, everything matters.

and I think everyone who plays for this club knows what it's about and I think it just comes natural to push each other every day even if it's a small passing drill or if it's yeah doing recovery outside the pitch I think we are just very good at like helping each other supporting each other and yeah I think having fun as well I think that's important thing as well to have a laugh sometimes Is there any like sort of habits or routines that you've picked up from either one another or from anybody else on the team that's sort of been like, oh, I've noticed that may doing

this because that person's done it all? Not sure. I feel like I'm so in my head. Like I do my same routine and I've done since years back and I know what's working for me. But of course there's a lot of players who are very professional and like inspires me as well. So I guess like even if it's a few recovery bits or stuff, like you have 100 different machines and stuff that I never heard about. But I'm super interested in like, okay, I want to try.

I want to see if that can like give me a few percent better than I'm willing to try it. Yeah, I think we've got like in the team, there's always someone who's doing the maximum that you're supposed to be doing. And they probably influence everybody else in the team. It's hard to be 100% all the time and do the right thing every single second of the day. But I feel like there's always somebody doing it. And then it kind of has a knock on effect. You'll see like Ellie go and get in the ice bath and then you just then you'll see a bunch more people.

Or you'll see someone go start foam roll and then everyone else goes like I think we've got a lot of players who know the right things to do. Whether it's like the way that we play or certain things you have to do off the pitch. and then everybody else sort of follows on from that. So talk us through because you've probably got very specific routines being where you are in women's sport. What does your day-to-day routine look like on a normal basis when you're training and preparing for matches and stuff? I feel like we're the last to come into training.

Yeah. We get there at the same time. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. No, because we lived the closest. though. Maybe it is.

Like the girls who live the furthest away, like the Americans and Kira, Millie, Aaron, they're in a bit earlier. Yeah. But my days looks exactly the same. I feel like I go up, eat the same breakfast every day.

I feel like I do the same exercises in the gym. Obviously with my history, with all my knee injuries, I think I found my way to, yeah, to perform. So I guess that's just kind of like a safeness for me and it's probably a mental thing as well like i want to do it because then i feel like okay i'm 100% ready to go out on pitch and then yeah all the recovery bits you're doing after i mean

it's not just um here at the training ground you do stuff you do stuff at home as well it's important like everything sleep eat um it's a 100% job i guess i think i have like the focus of like a five-year-old so I don't have the same routine every day I kind of like go from one thing to another then I end up staying there for too long then I'm here and then I'm there I get everything done in the end

but normally when I go home I get things done once I'm like on my own and I don't have a million distractions but once I'm in training it's like a shiny object just distracts me like a magpie dipping about

what's that I need to do this and I should do that and you speak to them How do you support each other in the team when things get busier and more intense? I think it's about having a balance. I think it's once again important to laugh, to have fun, to take the opportunity when we can to do stuff together. I guess sometimes you don't have the energy, especially when it's a lot of games, a lot of training sessions. That's important too to get some rest if we're on a way trip and you just need to stay in your room and just be by yourself.

That's 100% like a septipal as well. but I think just trying to be there for each other and support each other and, yeah, have fun and then when we're on the pitch, it's 100% focus. It's so nice seeing obviously the different parents of girls come through and hearing all your different downtime and how you all hype each other up behind the scenes. It has been so nice chatting to you both here.

Thank you so much. What are you up to for the rest of the day? We're going to the gym. Are we on a training plan? Is it just like a... I'm going to show her the recovery machines. Yeah. Nat's in the room with us.

He's not joining you. Matt is tagging along. Unfortunately. A little naughty of the situation at the gym. Where are you going? Yeah. Do you get much done when it's the three of you? Or do you find each other distracting?

I think we're really good at like. We're all very different. We are. Yeah. She's the crazy. Not calm. Calm? I don't know.

I wouldn't say calm. I think you, Nat is the one putting on. music and the different vibe. The good, always positive, positivity. Yeah. Like the Power Puff Girls, I like it. What are their names? Bubbles, blossom and the other one.

Is it what's the one? I can't remember. The purple one. Because Bubbles is the blue one, blossom's the red one, and I can't remember what the green one's called. Buttercup, that's it. Smashed it. Which one's which?

That's all of them. we don't really get it. That is all three of the barbuff girls and no one called like the witch or something. Or the cheater. It's Chelsea's very own powerful girl. We've got the witch and the cheetahs. Well, on that name, thank you so much.

Thank you. It's honestly so much fun and good luck with the rest of you season. And if I don't get to see you, yeah. Thanks, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening to We Are Chelsea, the official podcast. of Chelsea Women brought to you in association with Skoda, the official car partner for Chelsea women

and proud supporters of women's sport. Remember, if you want to get involved with the podcast this season, send us your whistleblower stories to our email. We are Chelsea at Chelseafc.com and make sure to comment on our YouTube video as well.