Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor has launched a staunch defence of her goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, criticising Mary Earps’ ‘lack of respect’ for her former England teammate and manager Sarina Wiegman.
Earps, 32, claims in her forthcoming autobiography All In, which has been serialised in the Guardian, that Hampton’s behaviour during England’s Euro 2022 campaign was ‘overwhelmingly considered disruptive and unreliable, with a risk of being destructive’.
The Chelsea boss, who has been in charge of the champions since May last year, was quick to defend the 24-year-old following the champion’s 2-0 defeat over London City Lionesses on Saturday.
‘With what I read in terms of the comments coming from Mary Earps, it’s not acceptable to not show respect to your team-mates or managers,’ Bompastor said.
‘We are talking about Hannah, but also I want to raise my voice for Sarina (Wiegman). When you use some words about someone who won the Euros three times in a row, you should probably think about it before you speak.
‘If you look at what Hannah said in her previous comments about Mary Earps, then what Mary is saying about her now – one of them is class, and Hannah is the class one.’
Earps claims in her forthcoming autobiography , which has been serialised in the Guardian, that Hampton’s behaviour during England’s Euro 2022 campaign was ‘disruptive and unreliable’
Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor has launched a staunch defence of her goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, criticising Mary Earps’ ‘lack of respect’ for her former England teammate
Bompastor also went on to praise the character of the young keeper, who managed to keep a third consecutive clean sheet the morning after the first extracts of Earps’ book had been released.
‘It’s tough because Hannah is an athlete but also a person. I just want to say that since I joined Chelsea she has grown so much and is such a professional athlete and also a good person,’ she said.
‘Probably what she was able to achieve today showed how much she is class and professional. I think she is the best goalkeeper in the world in many ways, as an athlete and also mentally. We just want to show her the respect and love.
‘She knows she can trust me and come and talk to me any time she wants. But for now, she’s fine.’
Earps played a key role in the Lionesses victory at Euro 2022 – as well as saving Jenni Hermoso’s penalty in their World Cup final defeat by Spain a year later.
She reveals in her autobiography All In, which has been serialised in the Guardian, that Hampton was dropped from the squad following their triumph in 2022 due to ‘bad behaviour’. These claims were also reported at the time by the Guardian. Wiegman said at the time she had been left out for ‘something personal’.
Hampton, 21 at the time, was reintegrated into the squad a few months later, with Wiegman insisting that she ‘deserves a second chance’.
Earps did not detail Hampton’s behaviour but told the Guardian: ‘We had a different idea of what being a teammate looked like … the goalkeeper dynamic was professional throughout and was difficult sometimes.’
The England boss began to rotate the two goalkeepers in 2024 before telling Earps in April 2025 that she was no longer her first-choice goalkeeper ahead of the Euros
Wiegman began to rotate the two goalkeepers in 2024 before telling Earps in April 2025 that she was no longer her first-choice goalkeeper ahead of the Euros.
Earps then retired five weeks before the Lionesses set off for Switzerland for their European Championship title defence, where Hampton played a starring role – including saving two penalties in the final against Spain.
Meanwhile, Hampton previously praised Earps following her shock retirement in June: ‘I think there’s been quite a bit of scrutiny that she probably doesn’t deserve, with everything that she’s achieved in the game, as well as putting women’s goalkeeping on the map for the younger generation.
‘Goalkeeping was never really a thing, and Mary has changed that,’ she said.
Bompastor also said that Chelsea will ‘find solutions’ to support Hampton and that she has the full backing of the club.
