Carly Williams’ first interview as Brentford Women head coach | OneFootball

Carly Williams has spoken for the first time after being appointed Brentford Women head coach.

Williams joins the club from Arsenal Women, where she spent seven years in various coaching and player care roles within the academy set-up.

Speaking on her excitement to take charge of the Bees, Williams said: "It's an amazing club doing amazing things so I’m really excited to progress my own career, but also progress the team forward.

"I've been coaching for over 10 years in both the boys and the girls game from an elite perspective. For the last seven years, I've been at Arsenal Women, coaching age groups from Under-10s to Under-21s, transitioning players into the first team.

"I've also been an assistant in the England environment with the Under-17s, as well as at English Schools and taking them on international tournaments and really pushing that group forwards, whilst also having elite boys involvement as well and making sure I stayed in that environment to challenge myself as a coach.

Williams continued: "Brentford as a club has always been something that from the outside is really inspiring. I had that initial conversation with Lois [Fidler, women’s football consultant] around what the club stands for and what they're looking for moving forwards. I’m an ambitious person and the club values really stick with me as well, so it all aligned."

When asked about her style of football and what fans can expect, Williams stated: "I love to be on the ball. These initial couple of weeks that I've been with the players have been really important, getting across that we need to control games.

"A big thing for me is around positivity; being positive on the ball, being positive off the ball, having that passion and pride to defend, that competitive nature of wanting to win every single ball, every single challenge on the pitch.

“I know that there was quite a big goalscoring streak last year, so hopefully we can continue that this year and I can bring a bit of structure and organisation to what we're doing and really emphasize that competitive winning mentality."

Williams will lead the west Londoners in their first campaign in tier five following promotion last season, and is thrilled by the challenge.

"There are some strong teams in tier five that have been there for quite a few years, so that's a challenge straight away, but I think we’ll step up to it," explained Williams.

"The biggest challenge is making sure that our programme matches that level and we can give the players that platform to keep moving forwards.

"I've been really excited by what I've seen so far. Obviously, it's always disappointing when players leave the environment, especially players that have been here for 10-plus years.

“I think it's really important right now that we build that unity, we come together and we perform together. It's a really exciting time for the club.”

Finally, Williams addressed her goals for the 2025/26 season.

“Our aim is promotion. I'm not going to shy away from that. I think that that pressure for the players and staff is exciting and it’s important to embrace that pressure so that we can control it in the way that we want to.

“I want to build the way we want to play, that philosophy that everyone knows so if we took the Brentford shirt off, people would still recognise us.”