'Just being picked doesn't really mean anything'

Jordan Nobbs has long dreamed of representing her country in major tournaments.

But now she's part of Mark Sampson's squad for this summer's European Championship, she's not prepared to just settle for that.

The box-to-box midfielder impressed in Arsenal colours during the recent Spring Series and now hopes to make her mark in competition in the Netherlands.

Here's what she said when she sat down to speak to Arsenal Player ahead of the trip:

on how it felt to be named in the squad...

It’s an incredible moment you know. I think since you were little all you want to do is play for a good club and for your country and to know that I’ve been selected and that I’ll play another major part of a tournament is just an incredible feeling for me. I’m very privileged that I get these opportunities, but now is just the time to work hard and just because you’ve been picked doesn’t really mean anything. I want to be in that starting team and I want to be fit and fresh and ready for it.

on how she was told…

We got told at an England camp a few days before we met up. It’s just a nice moment, you receive that email and it shows that your name is in the squad. Obviously they did a lot of media when we then met up with the England girls which I think was just a nice moment for everyone to celebrate the fact that they have been picked and how much hard work they’ve put in over the last few years to be a part of that squad. It was the same feeling for me, it was just a time to enjoy the moment and relax and know that you’re there but now it’s just the next step of pushing yourself to be that better player in the tournament.

on building on an impressive World Cup campaign…

I think people are now looking at England and saying that we can win it and I think that’s good pressure for us. We’ve probably never had that before, I think we’ve always been the underdogs and now we’re that pressure team we need to thrive off that and really push ourselves. As a squad right now we really believe and Mark [Sampson] has shown that belief in us since the World Cup of how good we can be. It’s just us on the day not dropping when it comes to those pressure games because it is a different lifestyle when you go into a major tournament and things are different, but you’ve just got to be ready for that. I think the way we’ve prepared over the last two years has been a very good credit to Mark and the staff and I think we’re ready for the tournament.



on Alex Scott saying in many ways the Euros are harder than the World Cup…

I suppose you don’t really get that diversity of completely different teams. Everyone’s very structured, very set in the way they want to play and sometimes you counteract that with each other. It is normally a lot tougher than sometimes the end to end football you get in the World Cup with the different type of players you come up against. But I think a lot of the European teams are very structured and developed in a strong way like that. It will be tough but it’s just that extra edge and I think the pressure games will be where people either grasp hold of that pressure or they let it affect them.