Emma Harries is hoping that she can establish herself in the West Ham United women’s team starting XI in the upcoming 2024/25 Barclays Women’s Super League season.
The 22-year-old forward is entering her second year in east London, having joined from Reading in the summer of 2023 - a Club that she had been at since the age of eight.
Last season was a summer of transition for both Harries and the women’s team, with Rehanne Skinner taking the reins, and foundations being put in place behind the scenes.
Harries is now looking to continue with the development that she showed last season and kick on in Claret and Blue.
Indeed, Harries made 20 appearances in her debut season, eight of those being starts, and bagged her first West Ham goal in a 2-1 victory over Charlton Athletic in the Continental Tyres League Cup group stages.
She admits it was a year of adjustment and learnings, and now she's hoping to push on in Hammers colours ahead of another exciting season.
The young forward spoke with whufc.com on the first day of pre-season and discussed what she hopes to achieve during the upcoming campaign, her thoughts on being back at Chadwell Heath and her excitement about the upcoming tour trip to Australia before the WSL season begins…
Emma, how does it feel to be back in the building and back with all your teammates?
"It's lovely. I think it's really nice to see everybody. Some of us look a lot more tanned than others!
"It's great to be back and I'm really looking forward to getting started. There’s been a lot of work done at Chadwell Heath across the summer to make the areas that we have on the women’s side look even better!"
What have you been up to this summer?
"I haven't really stopped to be honest. When you get this time off, you have to use it! I went to Spain for three weeks, which was lovely. I spent parts of it with my family and parts with my partner's family, so that was really nice. I went to Lisbon for five days, Lisbon is a beautiful place, it's so nice, and we just did all the sightseeing and all the touristy bits. So, it was really nice summer."
Can you tell us what you've been working on fitness wise? You've had your own individual programmes, but what have you done, whilst you've been away to stay and keep fit?
"Our strength and conditioning team have done a brilliant job at creating everyone's programmes. I was training whilst I was in Spain, which was actually really good for me because I was obviously on holiday, but I still felt like an athlete, which was really good. I managed to do exercise in different forms, like we played padel, and I was still able to run but run on the beach, which was nice.
"Then I had three weeks off, which was amazing. It was the first time I'd had that amount of time off as I was coming back from an injury a couple of years ago, so I didn't have the summer off. Then last summer, I was transitioning into coming to West Ham. So, for me, having three weeks off was really nice, because I haven't had that for a long time."
I suspect you’re happy to be back training with your teammates as a big group again...
"You know what, I've actually missed the team element of training. Being a part of a team, especially like West Ham, where it's a very together group, you really do miss that part of training.
"When you're training here, you can push each other and you set standards for each other that you have to hit, whereas when you train on your own, it's quite difficult sometimes to motivate yourself when you've got a 50-minute run to do in the rain, but obviously, you have to do it. I think I've really missed like the team environment for sure."
We've got a pre-season tour in Australia this summer to look forward to. Have you been to Australia before?
"I've never been outside of Europe! It's going to be really exciting for me. I'm not the biggest fan of flying, but it's going to be really good experience, maybe after this flight I'll be over my fear! I'm trying not to think about the creepy crawlies, if I just focus on the football, I'll be fine."
We've got at least two games out there. How much are you looking forward to training in a new country and coming back together as a group?
"In our first meeting that we had back with all the players and staff, Rehanne showed us the stadiums that we'll be playing in, and you don't get these opportunities very often. To go to Australia on tour to play some of the best teams in the world is quite surreal.
"I think for us, even though it will be a huge test in terms of the clubs that we will be coming up against, I think we could definitely use the experience for more than just games but also for team bonding and things like that. I think it'll be really, really good trip for us."
For you personally this season, have you thought about your own aims?
"I think, for me, obviously last year was a transitional period as I came over from Reading, and they had a completely different style of play to how I was asked to play here. And I think, for me, I would have liked that transition to have been a bit faster in terms of how I was performing. It took a little bit of time for things to click for me here.
"This year, the aim is definitely just to be more consistent in my performances. And I think I did a very good job last year of being the best teammate for people, supporting the team and making an impact when I could. I'd like to hope that it's my season now to establish myself in the team and that's the mentality that I have."
Like you said, this has been your first summer where you've had a proper break, do you think that will help you going into this season?
"I think sometimes I forget that I am only 22. There's a lot of players here that are incredible football players at senior level and international level. And I think for me, just kind of remembering that I am only 22 can help put things into perspective.
"But at the same time, I can use all my learnings that I had last year, which was an amazing and really beneficial year for me for my development and I absolutely enjoyed every minute of it. So, I think if I can use that and translate that into next season with performances, with results, with statistical things like goals and assists, then I think that'll be really good for me."
How much did you enjoy being part of the home kit launch? Can you talk us through some behind the scenes of the day and did you enjoy the 1960s retro style of the shoot?
"It was a really cool event. I've not really been part of anything as big as that in terms of modelling and advertising a kit. I'd never done a photo shoot as big as that before. I've done bits like it in the past, but nothing to that extent.
"The kit is lovely, and I think you can see by the reaction that everyone's had on socials that it's gone down really well. The kit is amazing. It's my favourite West Ham kit I think that I've seen. I It was a really cool experience and obviously we were working with the men's team who were absolutely lovely with us as well.
"I’ve had a couple of comments about my hair on the day of the shoot - the beehive, especially from my grandma who said that she liked it, but she would say that I looked nice in anything. She was a big fan of the beehive and said that it reminded her of the 60s, so there you go - it worked!
"Personally, I wouldn't come to game day wearing it like that, but I'll never say never!"
