‘Bring The Team To The Next Level’ – Miquel’s Ambitions At LCFC Women
The 40-year-old takes charge of the Foxes having led Stade De Reims to a fourth-place finish in France’s top division last term, their highest position during her seven-year stint as head coach of the Marne-based outfit.
Now set to manage in the UK for the first time, she is savouring the prospect of being involved in the Barclays Women’s Super League and pushing LCFC Women to greater heights, having viewed from afar in recent years and admired the quality on display within the division.
“I’m very happy to be given the chance and excited for this new project,” Miquel said in her first sit-down interview with LCFC. “It’s very exciting because for me it is one of the top leagues in the world, so it is one of the best places to be. I often watch the league because it is one of the best leagues.
“For any manager, the idea is to bring the team to the next level and that’s why I am coming to this project because I feel there is a big potential with this team and the Club has an ambitious objective with the women’s team, so I think it’s a good place to be right now.
“It’s a very exciting experience and here in England you also have people coming to the games, more advertising and things around the league, which is very interesting and a good level on the field, which is a good place to be right now. It’s very exciting to play in such a nice stadium and have the fans coming over for the women’s games.”
Discussing her experience of developing young talents in France, Miquel also explained her style of play and how she will work to get the best out of the players at her disposal in order to earn positive results on the pitch.
She continued: “I’ve been working for a long time now in the top league in France, which is also one of the best leagues. I’ve got a very good knowledge of that high-level football and bringing in young players and making them better.
“Performing at the high level is one of the things I’m very good at and also making any player progress through a season. Finding the great, young players and then helping them to improve and perform is one of the best parts of the job.
“More confident players can progress many times so getting a team from one point to a high level is just one of my ambitions. It will be a good opportunity for them to show their qualities and for me, it’s not about the age but the quality, so any player that has the quality must play.
“You need to see what you’ve got but I definitely have a football philosophy that it has to be a show before it’s a game. You have to bring people to watch it, so it has to be ambitious, offensive football and making sure that everyone is doing the best that they can on the field and really have this fighting spirit.”
Eager to get to work, the former Reims head coach has already analysed matches and areas of potential improvement, with pre-season set to start at Belvoir Drive later in July.
“I’ve been watching the games and following the last few seasons,” Miquel revealed. “There is a big place for the team to improve and we’ll be looking to do that as fast as we can, but still progressively to make the players develop and become better.
“We’ll be working as fast as we can and then the idea will be to go up in the table but for that we have to analyse and take time to see what our strong points and weak points are.
“And for me, the thing that I really want to bring out of the players is to get the best out of every player and to work for the team and to bring the team higher and make the Club proud of the team.
“It takes some time and we’re looking forward to starting. If I could, I would get them in now but they’re on holiday so we will wait a little bit, but we’ll definitely have the time to get to know each other and the staff and work to make the team progress as high as we can.
“The facilities are an important part of the developing of the players because it is where they spend the most of their time. It’s a very nice place, a very nice feel and that’s very important for the players to have that quality to train on.”