Ex-England star Siobhan Chamberlain opens up on social media abuse and ‘chooses words wisely’ about former boss Phil Neville

In the second part of an exclusive interview with Ladbrokes, former England international Siobhan Chamberlain talks about social media and ex-Lionesses boss Phil Neville.

Part one saw the ex-Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea goalkeeper discuss England coach Sarina Wiegman, the nations in with a chance of winning the World Cup and predict the outcome of the Lionesses’ Group D opener against Haiti.

FIFA banned me from posting clips on Vine

Everything is ramped up so much more nowadays because of social media. Whether that’s sharing the celebrations or dealing with keyboard warriors, it’s just the nature of the world we live in. Things are now so much more instant but pre, say, 2009 or 2011, you didn’t really have to worry about that side of the game too much.

And, quite simply, there just wasn’t that much interest in the women’s game at that time. When we got to the final of the Euros in 2009, there wasn’t really much pressure on us at all because I don’t think many people even knew the tournament was going on, let alone that we’d made it to the final. 2011 was probably fairly similar.

My first experience of that world would have been in 2013, when I did a Vine from the changing rooms before one of our opening group matches. It was a six-second clip of what the girls were doing. I think we were just eating Haribo sweets or something. We went out, played the game, got back home and were in the hotel having our food.

There are TVs on the wall and my Vine is on TV – it made the national news! I got banned by FIFA from doing that in future because apparently I was giving people access to things we weren’t allowed to show. I was like “I’m just showing us eating sweets in the dressing room! Why would that not be allowed?!” Whereas now, that type of content, and that access to players, is everywhere.

That’s probably where things started for me on social media, where I found people really starting to take interest in what we were doing as footballers. And, of course, with that comes criticism from certain people, too.

Social media abuse: ‘The only gloves you need are oven gloves’

It was probably just before the 2015 World Cup where the team had a discussion about a potential blanket ban of social media during the tournament. Don’t read it, don’t look at it, stay in your own bubble. All of that kind of thing.

But I was always so active on my channels, so it’s something I was pretty against. If people didn’t want to go on it, then that’s fine. But for some people – like myself – that’s their day-to-day life and if you take that away from them, that changes their whole experience too.

Social media is just part and parcel of what comes with the game nowadays. As long as people know how to manage it themselves, and are given the right support, then hopefully it will be used solely as a positive.

I’ve always had quite a lot of engagement with my followers both as a player and since I’ve retired. When I used to play, I used to always do little competitions here and there on my socials as a digital ambassador for the WSL when it first started up.

I was always encouraged to use social as a platform to gain an audience and write my own stories because the game just wasn’t getting written about in the mainstream media as much – there wasn’t much access to the game at all.

So I wanted to bring fans closer to the game by engaging with them as much as I could. I’ve always enjoyed doing that side of things and as a pundit I’ve always tried to give my followers some behind-the-scenes content because I think it might be of interest.

It’s great, for the most part. Luckily, I haven’t had too much negative feedback on social media. I know some people do. Maybe I just ignore it, and block certain words that I don’t want to see. There’s a long, long way that these platforms need to go yet to improve things, but you can block certain words and phrases from coming up on your feed, which does help.

There have been times where, as a goalkeeper, I’ve posted a picture of my gloves, and I’ve had replies like ‘the only gloves you need are oven gloves’. Silly little things like that.

I think if it was anything too personal, and a little bit more aggressive, people would step in to defend me because I’ve got a really nice space on my platform full of women football fans and people that can generally recognise idiots.

There was one occasion where someone told me I should be in the kitchen baking, but at the time my husband was actually in the kitchen baking some muffins, so he replied to the comment with a video of himself trying to take the muffins out of the oven in my goalkeeper gloves – assuring the keyboard warrior they weren’t as useful as oven gloves. I think that got quite a bit of engagement, which was great.

Honesty is where Phil Neville came unstuck in England job

I have to choose my words wisely, but my relationship with him [Phil Neville] wasn’t particularly good. I played once under him, was included in one squad and then after that there was nothing. I didn’t have a great experience with him, I didn’t feel I was given honesty from him whenever I asked questions about my future, and where I was at.

Respect is so important, but you want honesty as well – it’s such an important trait in your manager. And if they’re telling you one thing, but doing something different, then it’s always going to be hard to take. As a player, there are going to be things you’re not going to like hearing from time to time; that’s just how the game works. Your manager is entitled to their opinion and can make whatever decision they want – all you can ask as a player is that your manager is honest with you.

If I get told that I’m not playing because someone doesn’t think I’m good enough, or because I’m not playing regularly, then you can’t argue with that. You might not like it, but it’s their decision; it’s fine. But if they tell you ‘you need to do this’ or ‘you need to do that’ but then go back on what they’ve said, that’s when it’s a bit hard to take. And that’s when I think, as a manager, you start to become a little unstuck.

In all areas, everything I’ve heard about Sarina [Wiegman] has been positive. She’s honest, she respects her players, and has open conversations with them so everyone knows where they’re at. That goes a long way towards a united dressing room.

Her Game Too movement…you need to ask yourself if you’re speaking up when you see something happen

I’m aware of the Her Game Too movement. I just think anything you can do to raise awareness of what people experience, to try to help their journeys and better those experiences, is only going to be a really great thing. Football should be a space for absolutely everyone, regardless of your circumstances, regardless of what you look like, regardless of your gender. You should be able to go to football and you should be able to enjoy it.

And I think, sometimes, people are a bit oblivious to what others might experience when they go to games. They’re like ‘oh, it’s fine for me, it’s fine for everybody’. You need to ask yourself if you’re speaking up when you do see something happen, or do you keep your blinkers on and think it doesn’t matter?

The ability to be able to raise awareness in the way that everyone involved with Her Game Too does, I think, is really important. And the more people that can back that kind of movement and help make football a more inclusive game for everybody, the better.

Millie Bright and Rachel Daly would make a brilliant  double act on I’m A Celebrity!

First of all Jill [Scott] has obviously set the bar incredibly high when it comes to future Lionesses going on I’m A Celebrity. Would I do it myself? Definitely not. Absolutely no chance. I don’t like small spaces; I don’t like the thought of going underground or doing any of those kind of trials. I went to Center Parcs this weekend and I didn’t even like staying in a lodge on my own in the forest, so I don’t think I’ve got any chance of heading deep into the Australian jungle.

In fact you can rule me out of any reality TV, I think! Millie Bright would be great Down Under, though, when she stops playing. She might have to take Rachel Daly with her though, because they’re a bit of a double act. I’m not sure any of the other celebrities would be best pleased, though, because there’s no way they’d be getting much quiet time with those two around! Millie Bright and Rachel Daly would be great value on that show.