Fourteen things we've learned about West Ham Women and their 19-year-old boss

Britain's Youngest Football Boss is a BBC Three series that gives a unique access behind the scenes of the club - from the dressing room to the boardroom. Here's just a few of the things we've learned from the series so far. 

1. Jack's favourite new lilo is a unicorn called Philippa

In episode one of Britain's Youngest Football Boss, we get introduced to then 18-year-old Jack Sullivan.

Jack takes us on a tour of the Sullivan family home, including his initials tiled into his bathroom and, of course, his new lilo Philippa.

2. Rather than do A-Levels, Jack chose to do work experience at the club

Jack left school at 16 and explains how he was desperate to work - in some capacity - for West Ham. “I went around ticketing, retail, warehouse… as soon as that year was finished, I said, Dad, I want a task, I want to do something. That was running the ladies.”

3. Not all of the squad were totally au fait with what Jack did when he first took the job

In episode one, midfielder Julia Simic reveals that she's not entirely sure what the big man does. 

4. Rosie Kmita's posh phone voice is not very convincing

The young forward, who has played for West Ham since before they were promoted to the Women's Super League, is London through and through.

5. Leaving home for the first time is a big deal for some of these young players

In episode two, 19-year-old striker Leanne Kiernan talks about the culture shift of moving from Cavan in Ireland to Romford in East London, with all of its noise and sirens.

Back home, her family are pig farmers, which Leanne tells us would have been her summer job ordinarily.

"I suppose it was always a dream to even think about coming to England here," she explains, adding, "and when I realised you get actually get the opportunity, why wouldn't you want to play football?"

And she's made the most of that opportunity, earlier this year winning the Football Association of Ireland Senior Player of The Year Award. 

There have been some false starts though.

6. Jack believes anything is possible

It's probably fair to say that Jack doesn't always relish the spotlight and finds a lot of the on-camera stuff "a bit awkward". There's no hiding though, when you're the boss.

7. Jack’s match-day superstitions are fairly snack-based

"Lucky buttons?"

"Yeah. Gonna bang a Fruit Shoot as well."

After back-to-back losses, Jack wonders whether he’s a bad-luck omen and decides to watch from home instead. His lucky match day ritual also involves chocolate buttons and a particular type of fruit drink.

8. Kevin Costner is a big hit on the team bus

To be fair, we're not sure whether she's referring to the 1992 classic film or the BBC One series with Richard Madden.

9. Jack can now use magic outside of Hogwarts after turning 19

Jack recently hit some major milestones. With age comes responsibility. Especially when you have a football club to run.

10. Even the children of billionaires eat caterpillar cake on their birthday

David Sullivan splashes out on a caterpillar cake for his son's big day. "The best value cake and the nicest cake," is his official final word on the matter.

11. There's no love when it comes to facing partners on the pitch

In episode four, Alisha Lehmann comes up against her partner Ramona Bachmann, when West Ham play Chelsea. Ramona and Alisha met while playing for the Swiss national team and now live together in London. 

After Ramona scores two to beat West Ham 2-0, Alisha is pretty sore. 

The idea of couples playing competitively against each other is not something we've ever seen at the top level of the men's game. Captain Flaherty takes a typically unsentimental approach to the question.

"If I ever came up against my partner, I wouldn't think twice about smashing her and putting her in the stands."

12. Football runs deep in some families

In episode five, we meet Rosie Kmita's twin sister Mollie. Rosie and Mollie have previously played football together part-time at six different clubs. When Rosie signed professionally for West Ham at the start of the season, it was the first time they had not been in the same team.

"The fact that we've been fortunate enough to be in the same teams our whole life, we're grateful for that," says Mollie, adding that her sister struggled initially with the step-up from part-time to professional footballer when West Ham entered the Women's Super League last year. "She'd come home and she'd be crying."

"With football, you know it's not a job where you can say, 100%, in 10 years time, I'm going to be here," comments Rosie.

Rosie's hero growing up was David Beckham and she says she wants young girls to look up to her now.

13. There's no hiding when you're Jack Sullivan

After an embarrassing League Cup defeat to FA Women's Championship team Manchester United in episode six, Jack has to face some public scrutiny from a group of assembled Mancunians.

"Sullivan, what's the score? Sullivan, Sullivan, what's the score?"

We can only assume they recognised him from the documentary.

14. A few of the overseas players struggle with some of the foibles of English

Swiss forward Alisha Lehmann, 19, joined West Ham in 2018. She's just one of the overseas players in the squad who don't have English as their first language. In episode seven, new signings Cho So-Hyun, of South Korea, and Esmee De Graaf and Lucienne Reichardt of the Netherlands take language lessons. Key phrases include, ‘bang it in the mixer’, ‘we was robbed’ and ‘run the defence ragged’.

Watch Britain's Youngest Football Boss on iPlayer here