Sonia Bompastor criticised Mary Earps for a lack of respect for comments made about her player Hannah Hampton and the England manager, Sarina Wiegman, after the Chelsea manager watched her goalkeeper keep a clean sheet in a 2-0 victory over London City Lionesses.
The buildup to Chelsea’s industrious Women’s Super League victory had been overshadowed by the revelations made by the former England No 1 in extracts of the book published in the Guardian on Friday night. Earps, who retired from international football before the summer’s European Championship, described a breakdown in the relationship between the two goalkeepers and with the Lionesses’ manager, which led to her telling Wiegman that she was rewarding “bad behaviour” by recalling Hampton.
“I think Hannah is fine,” Bompastor said. “It’s tough because Hannah is an athlete but also a person and it is never nice to hear these comments. The only thing I want to say about Hannah is that, since I joined Chelsea, she has grown so much. She’s such a professional athlete and also a good person. We have a really good relationship together and I want to show her my support in this situation.”
The Chelsea manager continued: “I just feel like with what I read in terms of comments coming from Mary Earps, it is not acceptable not to show respect to your teammate or your manager. We are talking about Hannah but I am also raising my voice for Sarina. I just think when you use some words saying something about someone who won the European Championship three times in a row, you should probably think about it before you speak. Hannah has been fine with us and all the club, myself, the staff and the players are all behind her.
