'I make decisions to win' - Lionesses boss Sarina Wiegman breaks silence on Mary Earps' explosive autobiography remarks about Hannah Hampton

Wiegman’s record suggests that she has got plenty of big calls right, with her time in charge of the Lionesses delivering back-to-back European Championship triumphs and a 2023 World Cup final appearance.

She was, however, subjected to criticism in Earps’ new book ‘All In: Football, Life and Learning to be Unapologetically Me’. In that, ex-England keeper Earps - who helped her country to continental glory in 2022 - accused Wiegman of “rewarding bad behaviour” in her recalling of the previously excluded Hannah Hampton.

Hampton went on to usurp Earps as the Lionesses’ No.1 ahead of Euro 2025, leading to an icon of the modern era announcing her international retirement. Earps watched on from afar as her replacement starred on Swiss soil and delivered penalty shootout heroics en route to capturing the ultimate prize.

Wiegman has now said of Earps’ comments and why she will never make decisions just to keep people happy: “We have conversations with different players all the time. What my reality is and what someone else's reality is can be different because how you experience things is very individual. I just know what I want to do is create an environment where we speak up and have clarity.

“I make decisions to win. And what I've said all the time is that we have two incredible goalkeepers and at the end I made that decision to the one I came to and that's what it is for me.”

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Wiegman admits that she has not spoken with Earps following the release of her book, with there nothing to be said. She is eager to point out that she cannot “control” the behaviour of others and “would have done the same thing” again if turning the clock back to Euros preparations.

She added on making decisions that will not always be universally popular: “The competition has been really hard. We had a very good goalkeeping unit and the two goalkeepers were competing for the number one spot. I would have done the same thing. In the bigger picture I don’t think I would have done things differently.

“As I always say, I always keep conversations private. When I have individual conversations, I keep that private because I think that builds trust. When I do that I think players will come to me and have conversations with me. We create an environment where we want people to be themselves and everyone’s different. I think that helps on and off the pitch to connect people.”

Wiegman does not believe that Earps’ revelations will cause divides in her squad, with everybody in the current England camp pulling in the same direction.

She went on to say: “When there are teams there are always dynamics going on. We're working with people and everyone is different. No matter what the topic is there are always conversations going on. I want my door to be open at all times to have conversations when needed or if someone needs support and the other way round if I need to challenge a player for whatever reason.”

Wiegman sought to end the discussion by stating that she “enjoyed working” with Earps as they shared some “incredible” times together. England’s focus now is on upcoming friendly dates with China at Wembley and Ghana at St Mary’s, with a group of 25 players being selected for those fixtures that will bring the curtain down on another memorable, and often eventful, 12 months for the Lionesses. Chelsea keeper Hampton will play no part in those games as she is currently nursing an injury.