The switch from a summer to winter season has been a big talking point but the real interest once the action starts this weekend will be how promoted clubs fare in the two WSL divisions

The Women’s Super League starts a new chapter this weekend. Since its launch in 2011 the league has been played during the summer months, now it embarks on its maiden winter season. The gap created by the switch was filled by the Spring Series, a one-off mini-league that helped give game time to players before the summer’s European Championship finals.

The WSL now has 20 teams competing across two leagues. BBC Online and BT Sport are broadcasting more games than ever before. Some of the best players in the world play in the English leagues. It’s an exciting time for women’s football.

The WSL isn’t like the men’s top two tiers. The disparity between the top of WSL1 and bottom of WSL2 is a story of professionalism versus amateurism. It’s like the Premier League all the way down to below the National Leagues condensed.

Sunderland Ladies lose access to first-team facilities at Academy of Light Read more

The concentration of resources at the top of the women’s game is a result of the uneven backing for women’s football by clubs. How this uneven development is combated, while still encouraging investment which grows the game, is a question nobody appears to have an answer to yet.

What this situation has created is a set of tough leagues that teams fail to establish themselves in once promoted. Just look at Yeovil Town and Bristol City – first and second in WSL2 respectively, in the WSL1 Spring Series they struggled massively. Yeovil failed to win a game, Bristol City won once. Yeovil’s Kayleigh Green, speaking at the FA’s WSL launch, described their Spring Series outing as a “reality check”.

Yet Yeovil and Bristol City are actually lucky. There are many arguments for and against the switch to a winter league, but one almost accidental upside to the move is that the placeholder Spring Series, which didn’t allow for relegation or promotion, gave these clubs a chance to experience their new league opponents before the real competition gets under way.

It’s something the Bristol City captain, Millie Turner – recruited from Everton – was quick to praise: “Luckily, we were in the Spring Series. That was really good experience for us and we learned a lot of valuable lessons. Without it we would have gone into this new season very unprepared.

“We did notice the jump between the leagues in our first Spring Series game. We didn’t have WSL1 experience and it was quite difficult for us to adapt to, the Spring Series was perfect for helping us test the waters having come up from WSL2.”

The jump between WSL2 and WSL1 is marked by the obvious qualities gained from full-time professionalism. “It’s sharper, faster and a lot more physical,” says Turner.

Green, who won WSL2 with Yeovil before heading for a loan spell in Italy as she made the unconventional switch from centre-back to centre-forward, agrees. “It was great we had the mini-league to test out the league’s quality. It helped us work out what we needed to work on as a squad, what the back-room staff needed to do and what needed to change. The standard is massive, you’re looking at full-time athletes against part-time athletes.”

Highlighting just how far she is from the England and Manchester City captain, Steph Houghton, who she will be attempting to get past in their first game of the season, Green is back at college balancing her playing with a plumbing course. “When football ends, I’ll be a tradesperson,” she says.

Yeovil and Bristol City are being joined in the top flight by Everton, who were handed a WSL1 berth after Notts County collapsed on the eve of the Spring Series. Everton won the WSL2 Spring Series and have embarked on a summer of bold recruitment, professionalisation and tough friendlies against teams such as Arsenal and Chelsea in order to strengthen their chances of staying up.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chelsea celebrate after winning the WSL Spring Series. Photograph: Chelsea FC via Getty Images

The Everton defender Danielle Turner believes making the leap to professional status is crucial to their aim of competing at the top. “Going full-time was massive. It was the next step we needed to take having been a bit left behind in the past when other teams were going full-time. Now we’re training five or six days a week and you can see the benefits already.” The reality is all three sides will be relegation favourites and they will be trying to avoid the fate of Doncaster Rovers Belles who were relegated from WSL1 in the 2016 season with only three points from 16 games. The Wales and Doncaster defender Rhiannon Roberts is brutally honest about just how tough it is. “The difference between the two leagues is really big, it’s a big step up,” she says. “You’re playing against international players week in, week out in WSL1. It was disappointing for us when we got relegated last season but we’ve kept the core of our squad together, we’ve still got the majority of players full-time and we’re running it as a Super League 1 club. So everything off the pitch is built to help us get back up.”

It’s not just moving to WSL1 from WSL2 that is challenging. Getting into the second tier and staying there is also hugely difficult for those coming up from the tier below, the Women’s Premier League. Promotion from the WPL to WSL2 was introduced only in 2015 and with Brighton and Tottenham making their first forays into the WSL second tier this time it is hoped their clubs’ long-term ambitions will see them survive.

For Tottenham’s captain, Jenna Schillaci, the club is transformed from the one she joined 10 years ago.

“When I first started we were training once-a-week down the local artificial pitch. Now, we’re at the men’s training ground three nights a week and have the full backing of the men’s club. It’s moved so quickly. We’re attractive now and attracting players that can compete in WSL2.”

While they have dreams of reaching the top flight, they felt just how much further they have to go when brutally beaten 10-0 by Arsenal in the FA Cup last season. “When playing against Arsenal in the FA Cup we noticed just how massive the gap is. You have a team like Arsenal who are training five days a week and while we’re training three nights a week the gap will just get bigger,” says Schillaci, who has a full-time job for the London Playing Fields Foundation and says the Spurs side include teachers, students and a paramedic who “comes off a nightshift on Saturday and then comes to play on Sunday.”

Brighton’s Vicky Ashton-Jones, who balances captaining the Seagulls with her job as a police officer in Kent, expected to find a gulf in class in the WSL2 Spring Series having won the WPL in 2015-16. “I was expecting a massive leap between the two leagues,” she admits. “It was big, but not as big a leap as I had thought, instead it’s a very consistent league. Every single team is very consistent.”

Like Tottenham in WSL2 and Everton in WSL1, Brighton have been bold in their quest for WSL safety. The former England manager Hope Powell has been drafted in to lead the team in their maiden WSL2 season and the commitment from the club means Ashton-Jones can’t wait to get started.

“Personally I’m very excited to have Hope Powell coming in and I know the girls are too. When the news came in the atmosphere, on the WhatsApp group for example, was buzzing. I was blown away, it is such a massive accomplishment for the club and gives us the best platform possible to succeed in WSL2.

“I wouldn’t put us too far away from the likes of Man City in terms of the access we have to the men’s team facilities. Not many clubs can say that.”

The acquisition of Powell alongside the impressive facilities the women have access to leaves Brighton in a strong position. How these teams will fair, whether they will buck the trend of promoted sides immediately getting relegated, remains to be seen. What we can be sure of is that the Spring Series gave many of them an invaluable practice run. Following their progress may be more exciting than the battles at the top.

The FA Women’s Super League season kicks-off on the weekend of the 22-24 September. For more information on both leagues and to purchase tickets, visit FAWSL.com

Talking points

• The stand-off between Demark’s national team players and the Danish football federation (DBU) led to the cancellation of the country’s friendly re-run of the Euro 2017 final against the Netherlands last week. They’re not the first football association to find themselves locked in battle with their national team over pay and conditions; the Republic of Ireland, Nigeria, Australia, Scotland and the United States have all found themselves forced to at least threaten action. High-profile solidarity for the team has come from US superstars Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan (two players that have joined Juan Mata’s Common Goal, pledging 1% of their salaries to charity). With the DBU refusing to budge, Tuesday’s World Cup 2019 qualifier was thrown into doubt, a last minute “partial agreement” was announced on Monday afternoon that will allow the match to go ahead.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Denmark coach Soren Randa Boldt stands at Horsens Stadium in Copenhagen, where the players did not appear for a training session due to an ongoing conflict with the DBU. Photograph: Scanpix Denmark/Reuters

• In the US, the NWSL play-off finals have been scheduled following the confirmation that Portland Thorns and North Carolina Courage have secured the advantage of home semi-final slots. The semi-finals will be hosted by Portland Thorns FC on Saturday 7 October at Providence Park and by North Carolina Courage on Sunday 8 October at Sahlen’s Stadium with both matches kicking off at 3.30pm (ET).

Orlando Pride, Chicago Red Stars and Seattle Reign are in the race to join them. Pride need one point and Chicago need two to secure their playoff berths. If either team fails to do so, Reign can leapfrog them with wins in their last two matches.

• Fifa has announced the dates of the 2019 Women’s World Cup and 2018 Under-20 Women’s World Cup. The youth tournament will take place between 5 and 24 August next year, while the senior sides will battle it out in France between 7 June and 7 July in 2019.

French double winners Lyon will host France’s opener and the final at their Parc Olympique Lyonnais stadium. Other games will be held in Paris, Nice, Montpellier, Rennes, Le Havre, Valenciennes, Reims, and Grenoble.

• With the WSL transfer window now closed a number of players made moves before the new season. Most notable among the moves were Bethany England joining Liverpool on loan from Chelsea, where competition for places would have been tough. Another sees Lorca van de Putte switching to Bristol from the Danish league while Birmingham have signed Maddy Cusack from Aston Villa. The striker Courtney Sweetman-Kirk has joined Everton from Doncaster Rovers Belles, while the midfielder Georgia Evans has made the short hop to Yeovil from Bristol, and Chloe Melton has also joined having impressed in pre-season after a stint in the US at Minot State University. Watford have signed Bianca Bragg from the sadly collapsed Notts County. Sunderland brought in four players on deadline day; Zaneta Wyne joined from Icelandic side Thor, Austrian Simona Koren moved from Duisburg, the midfielder Kasia Lipka joined from Doncaster Rovers Belles and Tyler Dodds has rejoined following a spell at Durham.