Aggie Beever-Jones: Chelsea's WSL breakout star looks destined for Lionesses success

For those who have watched Beever-Jones at England youth level, it has always felt more a case of when, rather than if, she would make her mark in the WSL. She is an electric forward, one with all the confidence to drive at players, and the versatility to play out wide or as the No.9.

She’s racked up 13 goals in 30 appearances with the Lionesses' under-age sides, one of the highlights coming around two years ago when her second-half hat-trick secured England’s place at the UEFA Under-19 Women’s Championship, via a 3-0 win over Belgium.

“She's a great character who has a huge influence on the group just because of the sort of bubbly nature that she has,” Gemma Davies, England’s U19s coach at the time, said after that Belgium win. “She's very funny but down to earth and hard-working - and probably hard-working is key. You saw that, I think, in her performance. She's super diligent and hard-working and that sort of led to her staying in the game, because I think at this age, players can have a tendency to kind of drop off, switch off, lose focus in moments, but she, throughout 90 minutes, just stayed in the game. You saw that in the three goals that she scored and also her performance.”

But if it rarely felt in doubt that Beever-Jones would become a WSL regular, there was always uncertainty over whether it would be with Chelsea, just because of the sheer depth and competition that exists in the squad of the English champions. Loan spells were vital, then, and the 20-year-old has had two great ones.

At the start of the 2021-22 season, aged 18, she joined Bristol City in the Championship for a season that would help to kickstart her senior career. "They welcomed me like I was one of their own and helped me in many ways both on and off the pitch, with living away from home and getting the support I needed,” Beever-Jones told Sky Sports. "Then on the pitch, they trusted me to play, which as a younger player is something you really need. You need that game time to experiment, try new things and make mistakes. I was able to do that at Bristol City."

“We were part of the process and that’s what we hope to be – part of the process for these players that go on and play at the top level,” Robins boss Lauren Smith said. “I hope she [carries] on smashing it because I’m so pleased that she’s managed to get herself into that squad and get onto the pitch. For Emma to rely on her week in, week out is so pleasing to see because she is a phenomenal talent.”

After an impressive season in the second-tier, it was only natural that Beever-Jones made the step-up to the WSL with her next loan spell, and it was Everton who got the chance to utilise her talents. Having helped Bristol to a third-placed finish the year before, the youngster had been able to showcase her attacking abilities, but a temporary switch to Merseyside helped develop another side of her game entirely.

Though a good footballing team, Everton are not one of the WSL’s big fish, and so there were games that Beever-Jones played in where it was backs to the wall stuff and there was more emphasis on her to track back and help out on the other side of the ball.

“At Chelsea, we’re ball dominant and at Everton, we had to defend a lot more,” she told Sky Sports. "For me at the time, that’s what I needed to work on, so it was a perfect fit for me to go to Everton and work on that part of my game. After the chats I’ve had with Emma and Denise [Reddy, assistant to Hayes], they can see the progression I’ve made, and that was ultimately what the loan was for."

Beever-Jones had the opportunity to return to Everton on loan ahead of this season, and that’s certainly what Toffees boss Brian Sorensen hoped would happen, but the departure of Pernille Harder to Bayern Munich opened up a bit of space in the pecking order in Chelsea’s attack, and their 20-year-old academy product chose to stick around. That decision is paying dividends, too. She’s made 20 appearances for the Blues so far this year, scored seven goals and provided two assists. "She went on loan as an academy player and came back as a first-team player,” Hayes said.

It’s being reflected with her national team, too. Now part of the U23s side, one which has fed a number of promising players into the senior team recently, Beever-Jones was called up to train with the Lionesses during a joint-camp in February, and was even part of the matchday squad for the friendly against Austria, for the first time in her career.

“She's so coachable, that's one thing I will say about her,” Hayes said of the 20-year-old this month. “She will take on any bit of information to get to the next place. I think she had a really good experience with England, she got moved up to the seniors, I think that was really nice for her to meet Sarina [Wiegman] and get some exposure to that. There is only one direction as far as I'm concerned, there's only one place she's going to go, and I think that will be a more regular feature with the England team going forward.”

It certainly feels like Beever-Jones is right on the brink of that first inclusion in a full England senior team, and head coach Wiegman admitted in November that she had been in the Lionesses’ staff’s “conversations” when it came to picking her squad at that time, though a call-up felt “a little bit too early” because of the “competition” in attack.

“We see good things,” Wiegman said. “We have contact with Chelsea and of course the England U23s, so it's really good that she can get the minutes there and keep developing, and I hope she just keeps improving and gives us headaches again with our selection.”

Her promotion from the U23s to take a spot on the bench in the win over Austria was another step towards that breakthrough with England, but Beever-Jones is happy to wait until Wiegman feels the moment is right for it to properly happen. “We can be guilty of it as a young player, wanting everything straight away,” she told the Guardian in January. “There’s no harm in me being in the U23s and getting that game time there. As long as I’m making Emma and Sarina happy, then I’m happy.”

Whether or not Beever-Jones makes the next England squad later this month, only time will tell, but she’ll have plenty of opportunities to impress Wiegman before her roster is announced because Chelsea’s schedule for March is packed. The Blues have a huge clash with Arsenal on Friday night in the WSL, both legs of their Champions League quarter-final tie against Ajax are coming up this month, and there is also another meeting with the Gunners in the Continental Cup final.

The injuries Chelsea have been hit with suggests that Beever-Jones’ role in these massive matches will increase, too. She made just her third start of the season last weekend in the FA Cup quarter-final clash with Everton, and her mazy run led to an assist for Catarina Macario, only a week after she had teed up the American for her first goal in Chelsea blue in a win at Leicester.

Strikers Sam Kerr and Mia Fishel have both been struck down with devastating ACL injuries since the turn of the year, and January arrival Mayra Ramirez is also sidelined at the moment. As Hayes looks to keep her team fresh during the business end of the season, Beever-Jones' versatility will certainly come in handy, as well as her quality.

“I’m an attacker who can play anywhere in the front line and who wants to get on the ball, be creative and offer something a bit different,” she said earlier this season. “Being in a squad like we are, you have to get used to sometimes playing out of position. I’ve grown up playing on the wing, but I’ve come here and transitioned more into a nine. I see it as a positive that I can understand the game from different aspects.”

Hayes sees it like that, too, citing Beever-Jones earlier this month as someone who can help cope with the absentees. It’s likely we’re going to see even more of the 20-year-old as Chelsea’s quadruple hopes intensify, then, and Wiegman’s headache is only going to grow as one of England’s most promising forwards looks to continue showing everyone why she has such a bright future.