DENISE O’SULLIVAN IS sitting in a coffee shop in her new home of Liverpool as she chats to The 42 on a rainy Thursday morning.
The Irish centurion’s excitement shines through as she talks about “the really good fit” over the phone, and settling into life in the north-east of England after almost a decade in America.
O’Sullivan’s “pretty quick move” from North Carolina Courage to Liverpool — reportedly for a club-record fee of €350,000 — was confirmed on Saturday, and she scored just six minutes into her debut in the FA Cup the following day.
The 31-year-old midfielder has settled well, with her fiancé James joining her for the first fortnight and hoping to move over at the end of the season when there’s a plan in place for the house they bought in the US.
Given the option of club accommodation or her own place, O’Sullivan went for the latter and is living in a two-bed flat a 20-minute commute away from Liverpool’s Melwood training base.
Lifestyle-wise, it’s a bit of a change returning to this side of the world. The rain pelting down outside serves as a timely reminder, but O’Sullivan has taken to it like a duck to water.
“I think it’s been more of a struggle for James maybe, who loves the hot weather,” Liverpool’s new number six laughs on her day off.
“I’m fine. It’s very similar to Ireland, so I adapted to it really, really quickly.”
The Corkonian spent a brief spell at Brighton on loan in 2020, and admits a WSL return had always been in the back of her mind. There were previous offers — with links to Manchester United particularly strong — but the timing wasn’t right. Until it was.
“I had been with the Courage nine years, in America 10 years, and really had a fantastic time there. I absolutely loved the club, won a lot of trophies, but coming to the end of the season with the Courage, I just had this feeling that I really needed a change.
In recent years, I would have got offers from the WSL or whatever, and I’d stand tall in it and be like, ‘Nah, I’m not ready to go’. But this time, I really felt that I was ready to go.
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“Look, the WSL is one of the best leagues in the world. It’s similar to the US league in standards, so I thought that was the best place to go for me.”
Initial conversations with WSL strugglers Liverpool were positive, from manager Gareth Taylor to Irish legend Niamh Fahey, who is now the Reds’ women’s technical coordinator, and international teammate Leanne Kiernan.
Across football and life, the benefits added up, and her decision was soon made.
“Speaking to Gaz on the Zoom call before coming here, I was very impressed by the way he wanted the team to play.
I thought I would fit into the style of play really well, how they like to press high, how they like to keep the ball. So I thought it was a really good fit for me.
“The standards of the facilities here, genuinely, I think they’re one of the best in the world. Showing up every morning to the club, you just feel like a real professional, you’re really well looked after and everything you have is there. I come in at 9am, I don’t go home until 4pm. I don’t want to leave the place!
“Obviously, being 40 minutes away from my family was a massive push for me to go to Liverpool as well.”
There’s a classic Liverpool-United divide in the O’Sullivan clan. “I’m not sure how happy the United fans are,” she grins, happy not to be forced into sharing her own childhood allegiance.
“Nah, they’re all absolutely buzzing for me. I think they’ve been hinting at me going to Europe the past few years and this time I was just really ready.
“It’s such a massive club — the city here, the fans, they’re all about Liverpool Football Club.
Obviously the club has a lot of history as well, so it’s really, really cool, and I think it comes with a lot of responsibility as well, coming into a massive club like Liverpool.”
Gareth Taylor speaks to his Liverpool side. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
While a football powerhouse, the women’s team are bottom of the league with four points – all from draws – and currently sit one point behind West Ham United.
They welcome fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur to St Helen’s Stadium on Sunday. (O’Sullivan’s family are making the trip for her WSL debut.)
Taylor has bolstered his squad in January, and will be hoping for an immediate upturn to avoid relegation: the bottom WSL side play a promotion/relegation playoff against the third-placed WSL 2 team in a change amidst expansion plans.
“Obviously sitting bottom is not what you want,” says O’Sullivan, “but I think the team has gone through a lot this year with a lot of injuries and a lot of stuff happening off the pitch as well.
“Getting these new signings, hopefully that injects positivity into the team and lifts them up and hopefully we can go on and win games from now on.”
While Liverpool is the focus right now, the countdown is on to Ireland’s 2027 World Cup qualifiers.
Carla Ward’s side open their campaign against France at Tallaght Stadium on Tuesday 3 March, with the Netherlands and Poland the other sides in their group as they bid to reach back-to-back World Cups.
You can sense O’Sullivan smiling down the phone when international duty is mentioned, just like when she’s detailing the “full circle moment” of joining Fahey at Liverpool, a player and a leader she looked up to and learned so much from.
O'Sullivan on the ball for Ireland. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
O’Sullivan has now surpassed Fahey’s 115 caps, and with 128, is closing in on Emma Byrne’s all-time WNT record of 134.
“I can’t wait,” she says, looking ahead to March. “Going in to play for Ireland is amazing, and I love going to camp to see the girls.
“Look, we’re coming up against world-class oppositions in France and Netherlands (in the first window) — France at home in Tallaght Stadium. I’m really looking forward to that and hopefully, we can get off to a good start.”
One along the same lines as O’Sullivan’s Liverpool beginnings would be most welcome.
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'I had this feeling that I really needed a change' - Denise O'Sullivan's Liverpool challenge
DENISE O’SULLIVAN IS sitting in a coffee shop in her new home of Liverpool as she chats to The 42 on a rainy Thursday morning.
The Irish centurion’s excitement shines through as she talks about “the really good fit” over the phone, and settling into life in the north-east of England after almost a decade in America.
O’Sullivan’s “pretty quick move” from North Carolina Courage to Liverpool — reportedly for a club-record fee of €350,000 — was confirmed on Saturday, and she scored just six minutes into her debut in the FA Cup the following day.
The 31-year-old midfielder has settled well, with her fiancé James joining her for the first fortnight and hoping to move over at the end of the season when there’s a plan in place for the house they bought in the US.
Given the option of club accommodation or her own place, O’Sullivan went for the latter and is living in a two-bed flat a 20-minute commute away from Liverpool’s Melwood training base.
Lifestyle-wise, it’s a bit of a change returning to this side of the world. The rain pelting down outside serves as a timely reminder, but O’Sullivan has taken to it like a duck to water.
“I think it’s been more of a struggle for James maybe, who loves the hot weather,” Liverpool’s new number six laughs on her day off.
“I’m fine. It’s very similar to Ireland, so I adapted to it really, really quickly.”
The Corkonian spent a brief spell at Brighton on loan in 2020, and admits a WSL return had always been in the back of her mind. There were previous offers — with links to Manchester United particularly strong — but the timing wasn’t right. Until it was.
“I had been with the Courage nine years, in America 10 years, and really had a fantastic time there. I absolutely loved the club, won a lot of trophies, but coming to the end of the season with the Courage, I just had this feeling that I really needed a change.
“Look, the WSL is one of the best leagues in the world. It’s similar to the US league in standards, so I thought that was the best place to go for me.”
Initial conversations with WSL strugglers Liverpool were positive, from manager Gareth Taylor to Irish legend Niamh Fahey, who is now the Reds’ women’s technical coordinator, and international teammate Leanne Kiernan.
Across football and life, the benefits added up, and her decision was soon made.
“Speaking to Gaz on the Zoom call before coming here, I was very impressed by the way he wanted the team to play.
“The standards of the facilities here, genuinely, I think they’re one of the best in the world. Showing up every morning to the club, you just feel like a real professional, you’re really well looked after and everything you have is there. I come in at 9am, I don’t go home until 4pm. I don’t want to leave the place!
“Obviously, being 40 minutes away from my family was a massive push for me to go to Liverpool as well.”
There’s a classic Liverpool-United divide in the O’Sullivan clan. “I’m not sure how happy the United fans are,” she grins, happy not to be forced into sharing her own childhood allegiance.
“Nah, they’re all absolutely buzzing for me. I think they’ve been hinting at me going to Europe the past few years and this time I was just really ready.
“It’s such a massive club — the city here, the fans, they’re all about Liverpool Football Club.
While a football powerhouse, the women’s team are bottom of the league with four points – all from draws – and currently sit one point behind West Ham United.
They welcome fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur to St Helen’s Stadium on Sunday. (O’Sullivan’s family are making the trip for her WSL debut.)
Taylor has bolstered his squad in January, and will be hoping for an immediate upturn to avoid relegation: the bottom WSL side play a promotion/relegation playoff against the third-placed WSL 2 team in a change amidst expansion plans.
“Obviously sitting bottom is not what you want,” says O’Sullivan, “but I think the team has gone through a lot this year with a lot of injuries and a lot of stuff happening off the pitch as well.
“Getting these new signings, hopefully that injects positivity into the team and lifts them up and hopefully we can go on and win games from now on.”
While Liverpool is the focus right now, the countdown is on to Ireland’s 2027 World Cup qualifiers.
Carla Ward’s side open their campaign against France at Tallaght Stadium on Tuesday 3 March, with the Netherlands and Poland the other sides in their group as they bid to reach back-to-back World Cups.
You can sense O’Sullivan smiling down the phone when international duty is mentioned, just like when she’s detailing the “full circle moment” of joining Fahey at Liverpool, a player and a leader she looked up to and learned so much from.
O’Sullivan has now surpassed Fahey’s 115 caps, and with 128, is closing in on Emma Byrne’s all-time WNT record of 134.
“I can’t wait,” she says, looking ahead to March. “Going in to play for Ireland is amazing, and I love going to camp to see the girls.
“Look, we’re coming up against world-class oppositions in France and Netherlands (in the first window) — France at home in Tallaght Stadium. I’m really looking forward to that and hopefully, we can get off to a good start.”
One along the same lines as O’Sullivan’s Liverpool beginnings would be most welcome.
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