Everyone should take accountability for the choices they make and the consequences. That’s just how it should be.
I also think we want these archetypal angels in women’s sport, who are role models, do everything perfectly and say all the right things. But women’s football and sport wouldn’t be where it is if no-one put their head above the parapet and ripped up the rule book.
That is a lot of pressure – to be someone that can have no flaws at all. Everyone is multi-dimensional and people will get things wrong.
It’s really unfortunate that for whatever reason, Mary Earps decided to write an autobiography and release it now while she’s still an active player, as well as the timing of it.
It’s made a lot of people feel very uncomfortable, uneasy and sad about how it’s all unravelled because it has put two players in the spotlight – Mary and Hannah Hampton – that many have played with and enjoyed seeing their rise to the top. We’ve all felt part of their journeys and in the success that they have brought to the Lionesses.
This situation seems to have questioned the notions we have of what a role model is in women’s football. It feels like it’s a shattering of that bubble which has amounted to all this reaction.
People have different ways of handling hurt, pressure, transition or changes to their role or position within the team.
I understand why Mary felt the need to use this autobiography to tell her side of the story, to close a chapter metaphorically on her England career, but it sits very uncomfortably with me to not recognise the impact that this could have on Hampton and manager Sarina Wiegman.
There is a collective, unwritten understanding that what transpires within a team, stays in the team. That’s how you build trust and respect. You don’t have to love each other all the time but you respect each other.
Mary is navigating a new life and this will be a lesson she didn’t want to learn but I know she’s a top person. I hope she gets a second chance to remind us why she was our national sweetheart.
