hannah blundell and leah galton

‘This is my family’

Thursday 08 June 2023 14:00

At the end of May, Manchester United celebrated five years since the re-launch of our women's first team.

Since then, we earned promotion into the Women’s Super League, made our maiden appearance at Wembley in the final of the FA Cup, and secured a spot in the Champions League for the first time ever. 

In our 2022/23 WSL campaign, we pushed the title race down to the final day, with Chelsea the eventual winners, just two points ahead of us.

For the players, United is like ‘family’, and in their own words, they are proud of the journey we’ve been on in the last five years. 

Five years of incredible team spirit Video

Five years of incredible team spirit

Five years of United Women | From 2018 to 2023, the vibe has always been infectious...

“I think that’s one of the main things for me, is this is my family,” Leah Galton said, marking the five-year anniversary of United Women since we re-launched in 2018. 

“It’s so nice to come to work every day and get on with everybody and have that connection. 

“I’ve never felt this kind of way and for me, that’s just a massive perk of being on this team. I love every single person so if we can keep the team together that’d be great!” 

From the Championship to second-place WSL finish this term, including an FA Cup final and a now-secured place in next season’s Champions League, United Women are growing year on year. 

“I’ve seen everything that’s gone on in the five years and I’ve seen where we were and where we are now, and still where we want to get to,”  added Ella Toone.

“I think the levels that we’ve reached as a team over those five years… we’ve never stopped working hard and we’ve never stopped fighting for what we believe in and what we want to do with this club. 

“To be on that journey, right from the very start, is special.” 

The Reds earned promotion to the WSL in 2019.

Our five-year journey would not have been the same without the incredible support of you, the fans, who follow the Reds up and down the country every single week.

“When I was playing at Wolfsburg, there were so many United fans that were in the dressing room,” Mary Earps said. “I was really surprised by how many United fans there were. I didn’t realise outside of the country or outside of Manchester how global [the club] is.” 

“It’s actually so crazy to think about how they’ve grown every single year,” Millie Turner added. “I feel like we’re growing but as well, they’re growing. 

“It’s so amazing to be able to go on the journey with the same fans. I say every single time that I’m asked about, they are 100 per cent our 12th man and we would not be able to do it without them.” 

Your incredible support in the Vitality Women's FA Cup final at Wembley.
While we recognise the significance of the five years to get to the present day, our players already have one eye on the future and where the football club can go.

“If you look back five years ago to what we’ve mentioned, if you were to keep that transformation another five years on, then it’s scary how far the club would be advanced,” club captain Katie Zelem said. 

“I think women’s football is growing at a really rapid rate and it’s up to us and Manchester United to keep up with that and hopefully in the future we’ll have some more stars coming [through].”

Recommended: