Nothing is decided yet, but is this Hannah Hampton’s chance to show she should be England’s first-choice goalkeeper for Euro 2025?
Lionesses boss Sarina Wiegman did not really clarify who her number one is when she was asked about it last week, and it feels like she has left the door open.
I’d be surprised if Hampton does not start ahead of Mary Earps in Friday’s friendly against Germany – but that won’t show that Wiegman has decided anything for next summer’s tournament in Switzerland.
What Wiegman is big on, though, is form and playing time – and Hampton is currently ahead of Earps on both.
She has started England’s past three games, after replacing Earps when she was injured early on against France at the end of May, and has done well as an ever-present in Chelsea’s strong start to the Women’s Super League season.
While Earps has been back into the Paris St-Germain team for their past two matches, she has had a tougher time since her move from Manchester United in the summer.
‘Take advantage of your opportunity’
As Wiegman says, it can take players time to adapt to new situations when they move countries as well as clubs.
Earps has fought to get back in at PSG, where she had lost her place to Katarzyna Kiedrzynek, and she might have to do the same with England now.
Her situation is the same as all goalkeepers who occasionally find themselves out of the team, no matter who they are and what they have achieved in their career.
I found that out myself – when you are out of favour, you have to bide your time, work hard in the background and wait for your opportunity. Then, when it comes, you have to take full advantage of it.
That’s exactly what Hampton has done to get in the England team in the first place.
Technically, she is strong. Her shot-stopping is particularly good on her left-hand side and her distribution is impressive too. For Chelsea, she seems to favour playing out on the right-hand side, probably down to the fact that Lucy Bronze is there, and they can continue that relationship for England too.
It does not get any easier for her from here, though. Now she has got to prove she has the consistency to sustain this good form, especially at the very highest level.
Earps has already done that in the past, of course, but she has made some high profile errors too.
So, what happens in these next few friendlies – England also play South Africa in Coventry on Tuesday, before the United States in November and Switzerland in December – will be important for both players, whoever gets picked.
Having competition like this is not a bad situation to be in, for anyone involved.
Both keepers will get better because of it, even if the environment when they are working together might be a little awkward at first.
That’s inevitable whenever the goalkeeping hierarchy is not clear, but it’s not a huge problem – it just takes time to manage.
From Wiegman’s point of view, there is time between now and the Euros for the situation to work out before she has to make a decision. If Earps stays in the PSG team and plays well, then it becomes more difficult to choose, but it’s a good problem to have.
Ideally, Hampton continues to play well, which would give the team confidence that both keepers can perform at the level required, whoever ends up being the established number one.
Who else is in the frame?
At 23, Hampton is eight years younger than Earps and it is definitely healthy for the squad to have a younger keeper pushing for a starting place.
Their current battle for the number one shirt has been described as a possible ‘changing of the guard’ when I am not convinced that is the case yet – but the focus on that maybe masks some possible concerns over England’s pool of senior keepers and who else could be in the frame right now, if required.
It feels like there has been a bit of a gap from Earps to Hampton – a kind of generational development lag, where other keepers have not challenged Earps, at least consistently.
Hopefully, Hampton will span that and then, further down the road, there are good young keepers such as Manchester City’s Khiara Keating coming through.
In the meantime, I thought Anna Moorhouse staying in the squad for the Germany and South Africa games was interesting, because it reinforces that Wiegman values playing time and form, not just potential.
It’s a way of establishing credit with her, which I like. I feel like she understands the journey of a player – you can have good or bad times, and you can be on an upward or downward curve.
Keating, who only turned 20 in the summer, exceeded expectation with City last season, and performed well above expected levels, in terms of the shots she saved.
That earned her an England call-up at the end of 2023, but she has been rotated with Ayaka Yamashita this season, and has not started a WSL game.
Moorhouse is much older at 29 and has not had a straightforward path into the England set-up – she was only called up for the first time in the summer, and is yet to win a full cap, but the way she is playing at the moment is what justifies her place.
Equally, you could argue Sophie Baggaley deserves to be in the squad based on how well she’s playing for Brighton, but Moorhouse’s selection is a reminder to everyone that just because someone is not playing in the WSL, it doesn’t mean they are not capable players.
Moorhouse left the WSL in 2020 to move to Bordeaux in France and, since 2022, has been with Orlando Pride in the United States.
Her story is an example of how all players need to find coaches and environments where they feel comfortable, understood and allowed to do what they are good at. It’s also a reminder that no one’s path is every straightforward or easy and that you have to be determined and resilient to make it to the top.
If you put all of that together, that’s how you see the best of any player and, in the past and present, it applies to Hampton and Earps too.
Karen Bardsley was speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan.