Molly Bartrip on Beyond the Pitch Podcast
Lily Young
In the latest Beyond the Pitch podcast episode, we were joined by Molly Bartrip, the vice-captain of Tottenham Hotspur Women. Molly talks candidly to Beyond the Pitch, discussing the highs and lows of her football career, her personal mental health journey, and the crucial role of advocacy both on and off the field.
Her professional journey:
Molly grew up in a sports-loving environment, with her grandfather playing football through the ranks at Arsenal and her mother enjoying hockey and gym. She talked about her early days with her father, recalling how her passion for football began:
“My dad took me over to the local park and… he used to kick the ball up into the air and I miss-controlled it every single time and I’m not somebody who likes not being good at things so I stormed off many times and said ‘I am not going back dad, I’m not going back’, and he was like ‘you will’ and obviously I did and it all started from there.”
“There was a local boys’ team that played on that pitch and one time I kind of plucked up the courage to just join in. At the beginning there was no other girl but as I progressed there, there was one other, but she didn’t really continue the path that I did anyway. It got to a point where I was kind of playing Saturday with the boys and Sunday with the local girls’ team which I found”
She discussed her early career in youth football, including her time at Tottenham Hotspur, and Charlton Athletic. She shared her experiences from those formative years in football, describing her journey by stating:
“I kind of went for a little trial with Tottenham and I got in at Tottenham under 10’s… We didn’t play like centers of excellence like the Arsenal’s and the Chelseas at the time it was very standard… and it was my first real experience of people, females, at the time enjoying football.”
“My mum and dad were like ‘let’s try somewhere else’ so I went to Charlton. They were a Centre of excellence at that time they were a better option to go to”
She also talked about her time at Arsenal. She described her experience at the Arsenal Academy, saying:
“I was there for five years I would say. I went to the Arsenal Academy where I then got coached by Jane Ludlow and played with some amazing players there and got the opportunity to train with the first team a few times.”
She began her senior football career in 2014, playing for Reading at just 17-18 years old. She mentioned how Jane Ludlow was taking over as manager of Reading around that time, and on her first day, she found herself passing the ball with Fran Kirby. Reflecting on her time at Reading, she discussed the ups and downs she experienced:
“I was there at reading for seven and a half years… yeah it was tough if I’m being completely honest. A lot of ups and downs. I wouldn’t say it was the best experience of my life, some really good moments to be honest but there were some dark places I went into whilst I was there.”
“I haven’t been completely honest, I got released from there when I was, yeah, before I signed for Tottenham… I got told things that weren’t really about my footballing ability. If I’m completely honest I was quitting football after Reading cause mentally I wasn’t in the best place”
Her career at Tottenham Hotspur:
After discussing her youth career, Molly talked about her mother’s encouragement to not give up football. She highlighted how her mother emphasized that she cannot base the decision off of one club, highlighting the positive experiences she had at Arsenal and Charlton. She then recounts how Rehane Skinner contacted her, showing interest that led to her signing with Tottenham Hotspur:
“They protect me for sure, you know, they look after me and they know what my history is… I just know I’m kind of in a safe space there and that’s what I need to be able to play football at my best, I need to know that I might cry, I might get upset, I might have bad days, good days I don’t know but I’m still Molly.”
She then spoke about her experience, so far, at Tottenham Hotspur, going from a relegation battle to playing an FA Cup Final at Wembley, Robert Vilahamn and the strong group that has been built within Spurs, saying:
“[Robert Vilahamn] coming in for me, he put confidence in me and trust in me and to be fair the playing style is right up my street… it suits me really well.”
“Going through a relegation battle is tough for any group of players you know you can rebel against each-other… and we didn’t and that shows you the group we had, it shows you that, you know, a few signings coming in, a new manager, a new style of play, a new identity and then all of a sudden look at what Tottenham can do”
Molly then spoke candidly about her team mates at Spurs, saying:
“All the new signings fitted in so well, like how can you not smile when you’ve got Charli Grant walking around smiling all day! The young girls, everyone has really created a community at Tottenham to make everyone feel welcome from the moment they arrive.”
A big part of Molly’s career has been how she has bounced back from struggles with mental health and an eating disorder, to which she so brilliantly articulated in The Players Tribune just over two years ago.
Molly explained to Lily and Daisy:
“Look, my past has made me who I am, I can’t change that and why would I.”
“I still get help, I’ll be honest, I still suffer with anxiety and that will never leave me if I’m being honest. Being in football has helped me learn to control it. I want to show myself in the best way possible, I don’t want people to hate me. More than anything, I want people to know that I have their back and they have mine.”
With the stratospheric rise in Women’s Football over the last two years or so, more sellout crowds than ever before, more eyes on the game than ever before, it is easy to forget that sometimes, this could well be the first time some players are exposed to these levels of publicity for simply just doing their jobs.
“I don’t think you can ever stop supporting it. Mental health is its own little bubble. You’re telling me that the Lionesses with constant media attention aren’t going to struggle? Of course they are, it’s natural.”
“You can’t just have 85,000 people and not realize how to cope with that. Nobody prepares you to play infront of 45,000 people, or if you make a mistake in that game. They need somebody in every club with psychologists, every club should have it. It shouldn’t be seen as a weakness. To talk to someone so openly should be seen as a strength, I just want to help people and do it in the right way.”
“People are starting to believe in it. Beth Mead, Viv Miedema are starting to do bits of it.”
Another thing that Molly eluded too alongside the growth of the game, is the environment younger players are now walking into, compared to when Molly entered the game way back, with the Spurs star adding:
“I am 28 now but I wish I was 20, what these young girls are walking into now, it’s a job.”
“I play professional football and I f***k up, does that not tell you enough. There may be times that you do want to quit, I did but I still came back.”
“It sounds deep but I think the main reason I am still here is football. Yes it sent me down a direction I went in, but it also saved me. If I can do it and I see myself as a normal person, I am just a normal ginger from Romford! No different to anyone who walks down the road. If I can do it, then you can too.”
“If you’ve got enough passion, enough belief and you want it enough, you will get it. It’s the passion, belief and determination that will get you to where you want to go.”
Molly knows all too well, even two years down the line from her famous piece we mentioned earlier, that now, in an era of social media everywhere you go, your emotions can still be beamed to everyone around the world.
“I remember we played Man United at the Spurs Stadium, I scored an own goal and, I cried. After the game, we went to see our friends and family in the area we go too and I looked up at Sky Sports and there was a video on there of me crying.
“That’s the life I live, but when you go on social media and see people tagging you in anything and everything, it makes you feel like you have done something really bad, when in reality, I was just more concerned of what my teammates thought of me than everyone else in the world.”
“There’s been times where I’ve gone on social media, I have read it, and my mum has had to grab my phone and be like no, don’t read it, what are you doing. But I am someone who cares too much about what people think about me, social media is the devil.”
We would like to extend our warmest thanks to Molly Bartrip for her heartfelt interview with Beyond the Pitch and we want to wish her all the best for the coming season.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, please visit any of these links to help:
SHOUT - https://giveusashout.org/
The Samaritans = https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/
Photo: https://www.ignitetalent.co.uk/ourwork/molly-bartrip-speaks-to-players-tribune