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Emma Harries interview: ‘West Ham is the right place for my development – the end goal is to play for England’

Each Wednesday, after they have completed their morning training session, eaten lunch and finished in the gym, West Ham Women players drive home from their Chadwell Heath training ground.

But since Emma Harries signed for the Hammers in August, she has stayed behind for one-to-one training sessions every Wednesday, working hard to refine certain parts of her game.

“I have been doing extra sessions to ensure I am a better player for West Ham”, the 21-year-old forward tells Standard Sport. “My development is going to be really good here, it just might take a little bit more time.

“I do the team session and then do my own individual training session with the assistant. It’s at the training ground, for 45 minutes or so after lunch and after gym, just to work on stuff I need to improve on.”

Harries was a shining light in the famed Reading academy that produced the likes of Fran Kirby, before leaving for West Ham last summer after three full seasons starring for the Reading first-team.

“I was at Reading since I was seven, so for a very long time”, she says. “I was built for Reading in terms of their playing philosophy, so coming to West Ham has been a transition period. Being at West Ham is definitely improving me as a football player.”

Of her first season at West Ham, Harris says: “I think it’s going really well. Maybe my season, statistically, is off to a slow start. However, I feel I’ve developed very well as a player and I’m absolutely loving it here. This is a massive club, and there were people here I wanted to work with.

“I’m a process-driven and goals-driven individual. I look at it and go: ‘If I can improve this part of my game, the statistics like goals and assists will come.’”

The England Under-23 forward may have hoped for more than her 460 minutes of action so far in the WSL this season, but her drive is matched by a realistic outlook on her situation at West Ham.