The Genero Adran Premier has been growing year on year, and this summer, we saw the biggest indication yet of that.
Having spent time at the likes of Manchester City, Sheffield United and Burnley, Cymru international Maria Francis-Jones moved back across the border to join The New Saints.
Plenty of eyebrows were raised when the move was made, however, Francis-Jones explained the reasons behind the move back to her homeland.
“I wanted to move back home for a start, and then alongside that, I spoke to Shauna Duffy and since speaking to her, I always thought that this was the place I wanted to be. The women’s side have just turned semi-professional, and their ambitions matched mine. We both want to do as well as we can and push on this season.
“It’s really important for women’s football, not just in Wales but everyone outside of Wales too, that we’ve got a really good league here and we really want to promote it.”
The move highlights the ambitions that the Saints have. To start, this will be the first season that the club will be working under a semi-professional model.
Franics-Jones admitted the move to a semi-pro club was a big reason of why she joined TNS, but said it’s clear to see the club are embracing the change.
“I know we’re semi-professional, but we act almost as a fully professional club in everything that we’re doing currently. Everything within the club is improving, and I think you’ll see that in the way we play this season.”
There’s also been plenty of personnel changes at the club over the summer. No fewer than eleven new players have come through the door, and they’ve been welcomed through by new manager Shauna Duffy.
Joining a new club can always be a daunting prospect, but Francis-Jones praised the close-knit nature of the team for making the transition easy.
“Everyone is gelling together well. We’ve got a lot of new players who’ve come in over the summer, but the new players and the ones already here have really gotten along well. We’ve had ten weeks of preseason and we all feel like we know each other well.”
With such a high turnover of players, changes can occur to the club’s hierarchy, and that’s clear to see in the team’s leadership model.
Lia Lewis has taken the captain’s armband for this season, while Francis-Jones has been named vice-captain, a role she’s honoured to have.
“It’s a great honour to be named as vice-captain of this club. Everyone is a leader in their own way at TNS, but to be named as vice-captain, it’s something that I’m really going to embrace.”
And this new TNS era got off to a perfect start over the weekend, as they defeated Barry Town United 5-0 away from home on the opening day.
Scoring plenty of goals and keeping a clean sheet in the first game is something to celebrate, but Francis-Jones and the rest of her squad are dreaming big this season.
“It’s obvious that, as a club, we want to finish in the top four, and hopefully we can go beyond those expectations too. We’ll see how far we can get this year, but we’re all looking forward to seeing what we can do.”
