Katie Chapman has moved from Fulham to Charlton.
Settling in at Charlton
Thursday, 15 July 2004.
New Charlton Athletic player Katie Chapman catches up with TheFA.com with the latest from her regular column.
Well, quite a lot has happened since I last spoke to you and I am now a Charlton Athletic player. I made the decision this week as I have been training with them and the sessions have been good and enjoyable so that helped me make my decision.
It is a great set up at The Valley and the men are right behind the ladies teams.
It was a very tough decision to leave Fulham. I have been with the club for four years and I felt it was time to move on as most of the players have left. Rachel Yankey has moved to Birmingham; Rachel McArthur has gone to Bristol City; Rachel Unitt has joined Everton and Mary Phillip has joined Arsenal.
Fulham have lost nearly all of their international players and it is a shame that the team has split but it is good that they have gone to different teams to make things a bit more even.
The main thing for me is that I want to enjoy this season as I didn’t really enjoy it that much last season and I think I will be able to do that at Charlton. They can also win things as they are a club on the up.
I am looking forward to starting my pre-season at The Valley, although I have been keeping fit in the off-season. On my recent holiday I was running, biking and I did a lot of walking, so I was keeping myself in shape because I want to be ready. This season I want to be the fittest I have ever been in preparation for Euro 2005 and hopefully playing my best football as well.
The National Division will be a different league this year with all the transfers that have been taking place over the summer. I am hoping that it will be more interesting as there will be a few more teams involved rather than just the usual suspects. I think that will make things more exciting.
So the hard work begins now as the league season is just a month away. The next England friendly is also in mid-August so it will be a busy time for me. I will speak to you again soon.