In between those Arsenal years, Chloe made a name for herself with plenty of goals and assists for both Manchester City and the Lionesses. Those experiences have helped develop our winger into a different type of player for Smith to work with.
“We've had a good few sessions, split practices where we've worked closely one-on-one, just working on pure technique,” she explained. “She's got such a good shot with limited back-lift and power coming through. It's just probably taking some of that power out and just working on the hip shape and angle to get that ball whipped into the corner, which we've been doing over the last couple of sessions.
“She's deceiving for any defender. Obviously she's strongest on the right, but she can cut in onto the left and whip it in too, so she's got two weapons. Hopefully I can help her on one or two aspects of her shooting. Even if it's one thing, just to help her improve.”
The landscape of women’s football has also changed rapidly since Chloe’s first spell at the club. Smith points out how much our London Colney training base has transformed in such a short space of time. Back in the early 2010s, it wasn’t unusual for players like Chloe to have to go above and beyond, showing high levels of commitment to even make it to training; she would travel by train on two-hour round trips regularly.
“You just do it because you love your passion,” Smith said. “Back then, obviously, we weren't paid a lot of money. Chloe probably wasn't even paid in the youth setups. I was probably on peanut money, mostly because the game wasn’t where it is now. So you just purely do it for love of the game. For a two-hour journey for her, it was just the norm because you wanted to play for Arsenal.
“You wanted to become a better player, being at one of the best clubs in England. You just don't think about it. But now, you look back at it and you think, ‘wow, that's impressive’. That commitment so early in her career holds her in good stead for where she's at now.
“A lot of the growth of where the women's game is in England is because of the Lionesses and them winning the Euros a few years ago. Now the Lionesses are all household names because of their Euros triumph, so it's helped with the fan base, massively. The fans now have a connection to a lot of the Lionesses.”
When Chloe scored the winning goal for England, followed by her now iconic celebration at Wembley Stadium, Smith was watching on from a box with Karen Carney.
“We got quite emotional at the end because we, as former England international players, that was our dream to win the Euros and the World Cup. But we never really had the support and the backing that the Lionesses have now. That's what we dreamt of, but we weren't able to do that, so we were kind of living our dream through the Lionesses that day. We felt like we had a little bit of a helping hand.”