Hull City Ladies Manager, Chris Hames became the first guest of our official Beyond the Pitch Podcast, speaking to Ed, Daisy and Finley on the challenges of managing players, Hull City, how he got into management and more.
Speaking on Zoom, Chris was first introduced to the listeners as the manager of Hull City Ladies, a club who tasted promotion this season from the FA Women’s National League Division One North, which as a result, will see them competing in the FAWNL Northern Premier Division next term.
“The night after we achieved it (promotion), was the first time I had a proper night’s sleep in a very long time”, as Hames touched on the importance of having a break and time to recharge following a grueling season.
Chris has had quite the career working in football, from Crewe Alexandra, to fulfilling multiple roles at Hull City including Director of Women and Girls Football, alongside First Team Manager, he has come from humble beginnings at the start of his career.
“I loved the game. I was sort of really passionate about potentially getting into the media side of it, but I don’t quite have those skills or that side of it. I went along to an event about getting into coaching, loved it, loved every second of it. I was useless at it, but I loved every second of it. I had a really good mentor along that journey who just sort of said go away, practice and keep going as you’ve got some skill set there. I ended up just sort of falling into a position where I was coaching every age group imaginable, all hours of the day, on less than minimum wage, just to try and earn some money from doing it to live.”
Hames touched on the break he was given in the game at Crewe Alexandra and was quizzed on whether any elements of the environment he walked into, surprised him.
“Did it surprise me? Probably not, because like I said it wasn’t my first step into the game, I was doing the hard yards like carrying more footballs than I had room in my car, working out what players were available in what age groups. Where I was really lucky with Crewe was it was run at the time by an amazing coach, Nick Pierce, who has gone on and been assistant manager at Burnley and worked at Manchester United and various different roles from there. Whilst he was young himself at that point, he had an amazing outlook on it and really tried to professionalize it.
“I think at the time they were competing at tier six, but it was a fantastic setup regardless. That gave me a good outlet to recognise that for myself personally I didn’t want to jump around the grassroots game. I was in the game to try and create a career for myself and a pathway for myself, that was a fantastic first step.
After touching on his past pre football, which included a history degree and being a Maths teacher, Hames’ passion for football shone through and the conversation quickly turned to the sad news of Thornaby FC and Reading FC Women, two clubs who have been in the news, with their respective Women’s Teams under threat.
With conversations about how players themselves are treated within the club, Hames gave his say on how players should be treated.
“They are people; they play football after. They play football as a part of their life now. There’s two sides to it and I’m really honest and open at the very start of meeting players. I will treat you like professionals, I will fight with whatever budgets we get, I will fight with the club, I will fight with everything to make sure you get the absolute best that I can give you.
“What I ask back is in the moments that you are available you give me everything you’ve got. I think the key line in all of that is the ‘moments you can give me’. We’ve got players who are parents, we’ve got players who are in the police, we’ve got players whose jobs are earning them fifty times what football will ever give them at this point in their career now. Their commitments and their priorities are elsewhere. The fact they commit and play football is because they love it. It is a priority then because they love something.”
Chris also balances his fledgling Hull City career with a job within Women and Girl’s football at college local to him, Bishops Burton, to Beyond the Pitch’s very own, Lily Young wanted to ask Chris about his role at Grassroots level and how important it will be in England, with Chris giving a fantastic response.
“I can only speak about us but our ETC programme for example. We have 140 girls involved in the programme, an extra 260 involved in our recent trials, in our region, you know Hull’s not the smallest place but it’s not the biggest place in the world. That’s incredible and that’s just the ones who wanted to be involved in it, let alone everyone else. Grassroots is the heartbeat; it is the central point and it’s really important that’s maintained. The FA have recognised that with the way they’ve shifted away from the RTC model towards an ETC model and how players are expected to stay in their grassroots teams, and we grow the grassroots in our region. I think the wider side of it is just making sure that people aren’t lost to touch with it. We have at our games young girls and boys come down and they love the fact they meet the girls at the end and can get things signed. It’s really important that that’s not lost. We’re at tier 3 doing that but I also see that at tier 1 with Manchester United, Tottenham and Arsenal, they’re amazing at that. Making sure that people feel connected to the game throughout is key. Realistically as a man, if I was twelve years old playing in a grassroots team, I’ve got absolutely no connection to any of my local clubs, local professional clubs but that’s very different in the women’s and girls’ game and that’s really important.”
Finally, and in new Beyond the Pitch tradition, we asked Chris what makes Women’s Football special, in a selection we are hoping to ask all guests on the BTP Podcast.
“95% of it is the same. It’s a sport we’re all passionate about. We’re there to watch a team win, we’re there to see how well or badly a manager sets a team up and the intensity and the work rate and the desire. The fans, young and old, have bought into the girls because of their passion and their commitment and their skill, so that’s what makes the game really special. The same things that make football special everywhere around the world. I think for us at Hull in our region, Hull as a place is in the middle of nowhere, you’re an hour and a bit before you hit any other area of civilization. It’s a region and a place that is so passionate about the sport, all sports, you know rugby league is huge here, but football itself…
The women and girls game here has always had a really solid foundation, way before the game was anywhere else really. We have a responsibility, and the fans have a demand that women’s football is big here and it continues to grow here, and they’ve got a place to engage with it. They’ve jumped in 110%. Our responsibility and our love for the sport in this region comes down to its historic roots but also its place within society and the community. Then you couple that with ‘we’re all here to compete and do really well’, that all pieces together.”
Photo: https://hullcityladies.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/KG-8-1-scaled.jpg
You can watch the full episode here:
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/QC2KO21RTEc?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0
