Leah Williamson

Summary: Reader messes up on her first day at Arsenal, and Leah, being her usual grumpy self, doesn't make things any easier.

Warnings: A bit of angst + McCabe walking in on R and L in a rather awkward moment.

Word count: 2.6kThis is a new universe I'm writing about, so just let me know if you guys enjoy it and if you have any requests! <3

..

Leah Williamson became a living legend after leading the Lionesses to yet another win in the Euros 2025 as the team captain and a defender. Unfortunately, for her, 2025 was the last year she played as a professional footballer, having suffered a career-ending injury at the end of the season.

Leah was completely distraught when she got the news. She isolated herself from everyone she knew, finding it hard to discover another purpose in life. That was, until Leah's formal coach, Serina, stepped in and invited the blonde to some coffee in North London.

"I think I know what would help you," Serina said, taking a sip of her cappuccino.

"Are you going to give me a new knee?" Leah asked, a hint of madness in her voice. Everybody thought they could help her, but in reality, half of her friends couldn't even understand what was going on inside her head.

Sarina ignored Leah's mood. "Belgium has one of the best coaching center in the world. I went there, Renée too. If you could get a coaching certificate, you could start working as an assistant, or as a youth coach at Arsenal. You've been there since you were a kid, and with your history Arsenal's management would be mad not to give you a chance."

"Coach?"

"Why not? You have a football brain, you have good leadership, people trust you. You are a full package," Sarina responded. "Just think about it, will you?"

Sarina left the coffee shop, leaving a contemplative Leah behind.

..

"If you need anything, you have my number." Renée's voice echoed through Arsenal's training grounds.

It was Renée's last day as the head coach. Three years ago, Leah went to Brussels and got her coaching certificate. It wasn't as hard as she thought it would be.

She was already very keen on football. After eight months of entering the Coach Academy, Leah was ready to start a new chapter of her life: assistant manager of Arsenal, alongside Renée.

The whole time Leah spent as Renée's assistant was very productive. Leah learned a lot from the older woman, but Leah couldn't wait to the day she would be officially named Head Coach, aka Manager. As an assistant, Leah had some type of power to make strategic changes during a match and give her two cents on matters of hiring new players, but still wasn't enough.

Leah promised herself she wouldn't stop until she became the manager of Arsenal women. She would build her dream team and be the best manager she could be.

And that's what Leah did.

Renée decided to retire, and Arsenal agreed to sign Leah Williamson—the ex-captain of England Nacional team and Gunner-born—to their team.

"I have everything under control, Renée. You know I've been wanting your manager position for a long time." Leah said with a smirk. "The only thing you have to worry about is your wife and daughter, alright, mate? You've already done a lot for arsenal."

Both Leah and Renée were wearing Arsenal's matching outfits. They had just left a small farewell party on the Arsenal's event room; almost all players were there to say their goodbyes to Renée, and of course, welcome Leah into her new position.

"Still, Williamson, if you need any help, tips or even a friendly shoulder, just know that I'm here," Renée insisted. The older woman was carrying a box in her arms, the outside having Once a gunner, always a gunner written on it.

Leah stared at the box, she had seen Renée packing things up in her office earlier that day, carefully putting pictures, books and even newspapers articles about Arsenal inside the container. It being full meant that Leah's new office was officially ready for her to take in.

Both women walked through the front door of the Arsenal Training Grounds, and a cold breeze met Leah in the face, making the women shivered. Renée looked at the busy street ahead of her until she pointed to a black Audi A3. "That's mine, guess I'll go then," Renée said, a bittersweet smile on her face.

Before Renée could walk, Leah gave her a hug. "Thank you for everything, If I ever need you, I'll give you a call."

Renée hugged the blonde woman back before heading to her car. Before she could open the driver's door she turned to Leah.

"Don't forget about the new girl coming in tomorrow, Leah. You'll have to show her around and everything, plus she's not from the UK, so—"

"Renée don't worry! Y/n is coming tomorrow at 9am, I have everything planned out," Leah rolled her eyes playfully.

Leah watched as the ex-Arsenal manager got into the car and left.

Leah Williamson. New Head Manager, now official.

..

Leah thought her first day as Manager would be unfazed. What could go wrong? It was her first day of manager, of course, but it wasn't like she was completely new to it. The team hadn't changed much compared to last season, aside from Y/n, the newest Arsenal player.

And Y/n was exactly what made Leah's day go wrong.

It was 9:37 am and the girl was nowhere to be seen.

Leah was waiting alongside the media team to greet and get to know Y/n officially for the first time. Leah didn't participate a lot in Y/n's hiring; it was mostly Renée doing the work of checking her statistics and all the bureaucracy of recruiting someone from another country. Leah didn't even agree with Renée at first, she couldn't see why Arsenal needed another defender.

"Arsenal needs a sweeper," Renée had argued during one of their meetings. "Someone who is faster, logical but not aggressive. This kid Y/n is great for the position."

"Leah, we really to get going, we need to take solo photos of the players, maybe when Y/n gets here we can try to make a small welcoming video, or something," Clarice, the media director said as she looked at her watch. "I mean she is very late, and we have so much to do—"

"Yeah, of course, Clarice, you all can go. If she arrives, I'll give you a call," Leah said, impatience clear in her voice

How can someone be late for their first day of training? It was clear to Leah that Y/n didn't care so much about being the priciest Arsenal hiring in the last 10 years since she didn't worry about actually coming to training.

Leah walked around, tapping her foot against the pavement. 5 minutes. Leah would wait 5 more minutes and if Y/n wasn't here, she would go inside, into her office and let the new girl fend for herself. Leah was busy and she needed to watch a bunch of matches to study Arsenal's future opponents, but instead she was here waiting for this girl like a fool.

9:42am.

Leah turned around, heading to the door. feeling stupid about waiting on someone who was not coming.

Before Leah stepped into the building, she felt a warm hand on her shoulder and turned around slowly, not enjoying the non-welcoming physical touch. Leah locked eyes with a girl.

Y/n.

Leah, for some reason, was expecting to find the girl in full footballer mode, perhaps with her hair tied back, or dirty clothing from and intense match, but Leah was not expecting to find a very... cute girl instead. Leah had only watched the videos Renée sent of Y/n on the pitch, so she was rather surprised to see the new girl didn't naturally have grass all over her hair.

Y/n was wearing what looked to be five layers of clothing, and a coat which was way too big for her. She was wearing very inappropriate shoes for the light layer of snow accumulation on the floor. It was like Y/n didn't know how to dress for cold weather.

Before Leah could blink, the new girl began rambling.

"I am so, so sorry, ma'am," Y/n quavered, taking her hand off of Leah's shoulder as she watched the frown on Leah's face form. "So, you see, my cat ran away, and I had to chase after him and that took me twenty minutes, and then I took the wrong tube—"."

"You are late," Leah said before taking a last glance at the girl and getting inside. "Don't let it happen again."

Leah heard the girl walking behind her, the squeakiness of her shoes making Leah even more angry.

"I-I'm sorry, and of course, it won't happen again, ma'am" Y/n apologized, looking down at her feet.

Today was supposed to be a good day, Y/n thought. She had written down on her planner everything she needed to do in order to get to the club in time. She had printed the map of the Tube so she could get around easily and not get lost, but of course it didn't work out and now her new manager was clearly pissed at her.

And of course, the women angry at her had to be THE Leah Willianson, one of the most skillful defender of all time and one of Y/n's biggest inspirations.

Great Y/n, just great. When Y/n thought things couldn't get worse, she heard Leah snap.

"And don't call me ma'am."

..

Y/n was trying to see the bright side of this situation. She was in a new country, had her own apartment, she had signed with one of the best teams in the league right now, but she just couldn't shake the feeling of Leah's harsh treatment against her.

Now, laying in her bed after her horrible day, Y/n could recap every bad interaction she had with Leah, which was, unfortunately, all of them, but it seemed Y/n just had the talent to make everything worse.

"This is the locker and the changing room. You can grab that one on the left," Leah pointed at one of the lockers, with no identification on its door. "Basic rules: don't let your clothes or boots lying around, lock your locker and just keep tidy. I hope can do that."

Y/n hated Leah's tone. It was like the manager wanted to be everywhere else in the world but here with her. But she couldn't blame Leah, she wouldn't enjoy it if somebody kept her waiting for almost 50 minutes.

"Look, I'm really sorry about what happened earlier," Y/n mumbled, following Leah through the corridors. She didn't know where they were going. Maybe the kit room? "I'm normally very punctual."

"Hm," Leah said, sounding indifferent.

Maybe Y/n was going to cry on her first day after all.

Leah took a turn on the corridor and both women were in front of a white door, "Medical Room" written on it.

The room was fairly normal, having a couple of physios and massage tables. It looked like the place hadn't been used today, since the tables were all made. A few Pilates objects were scattered around, making the room seem more lived in.

What really caught Y/n's attention were the photos on the wall. Y/n took a step closer to the wall, leaving Leah behind her.

There was Kyra and Alessia smiling, both receiving massages from an older woman, whom Y/n guessed was the physiotherapist. Kim Little was right next to the girls' pictures, wearing an air cast and using a crutch.

Vivianne Miedema and Beth Mead laying on a massage table, holding hands as they smiled for the picture. "ACL couple #1", written just below it.

Next to it was a picture of Leah, a few years younger — maybe she was Y/n's age — running in her arsenal kit. "Leah's first run after ACL", written in the same way as Vivianne and Beth's photo.

Y/n felt her heart ached for Leah. Y/n was young, but she remembered how the football world was talking about how much Leah was trying to be back after her ACL tear during the Euros. She did everything available, every new therapy, and nothing worked. Sure, she could walk and even run for small periods of time, but Leah would never come back to football again.

Y/n wondered how Leah felt having to look at that picture every day.

"This is obviously the physio room," Leah said, breaking the awkward silence that had formed. "I'll email you the medical staffs 'scheduled. if you ever need anything, you can just talk to them."

When Y/n turned around to talk to Leah, she didn't expect the blonde to be so close to her. Their bodies bumped together, making Y/n lose her balance and, if things weren't bad enough, she stepped right into one of the exercise objects on the floor.

Y/n closed her eyes and waited for the impact of her head on the wall, but Leah was faster, holding her waist with one hand and her head with the other.

Y/n held her breath, feeling Leah's torso against her, well, as much as she could considering she was wearing seven layers of clothing.

Y/n opened her eyes, meeting Leah's gaze just for a second. Both women seemed like a deer caught in headlights.

"Hey Mary could you see my knee—"

Y/n and Leah were met with Katie McCabe, her green eyes staring at the two women in confusion.

"Am I interrupting something?" Katie said. Y/n could swear she heard teasing in the Irish women's voice.

"What?! No, of course not." Leah blurted, taking her hands off of Y/n's body abruptly, if it wasn't for Y/n year of balance training, she would have fallen again, that's for sure. "I was just showing Y/n's physio room, but Mary wasn't even here so..." Leah seemed defensive now, looking everywhere but at Y/n or Katie.

"She almost fell," Leah continued, overexplaining herself. "She tripped on this thing," Leah lightly kicked the equipment, it was just a rubber ball. Y/n would laugh if Leah didn't seemed so nervous all of the sudden. "You know I hate when things are left lying around."

"Leah."

"Yeah?"

"You are rambling," Katie said making the blonde close her mouth.

"Why don't you go do some manager things and I'll finish the tour with her, yeah? It's Y/n, right?" Katie offered her hand to Y/n, shaking it firmly. "I'm Katie."

"Hi, yeah I'm Y/n, so sorry this is how we met," Y/n said, looking down. "Guess I'll just go with her, if that okay—."

"More than okay," Leah mumbled. "Bye, McCabe, I'll see you at training." Before Y/n or Katie could responded, Leah had already left the room, a frown on her face.

Katie was a way better host than Leah, showing all the places in the facility without making the young girl feel like a chore. The Irish woman couldn't help but notice that Y/n wasn't as happy as new players usually were when they first visited the club, so Katie asked what had happened.

"She hates me," Y/n confessed to as soon as they get to the pitch, the last place on the tour.

"Who?"

"Leah." Y/n mumbled "I was late earlier, and everything went south after that. I don't know how I'm gonna get her to like me."

Katie placed a comfortable hand on Y/n's shoulder. "She doesn't hate you, she is just grumpy like that, Leah doesn't like when things don't go the way she planned, she'll come around."

"Do you really think so?"

"Of course, it's your first time at Arsenal, but it's also Leah's first time as our manager. She never had a new player before; you are her first. Renée was the one handling the greetings and initial meetings with the players. Leah will understand that other people don't always react in a way she expected."

Y/n hoped Katie was right.