'No class!': Hannah Hampton's Chelsea boss labels Mary Earps' 'bad behaviour' claims 'unacceptable' - and criticises her 'lack of respect' for Lionesses manager Sarina Wiegman

Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor has launched a staunch defence of her goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, criticising Mary Earps' 'lack of respect' for her former England teammate and manager Sarina Wiegman.

Earps, 32, claims in her forthcoming autobiography All In, which has been serialised in the Guardian, that Hampton’s behaviour during England’s Euro 2022 campaign was ‘overwhelmingly considered disruptive and unreliable, with a risk of being destructive’.

The Chelsea boss, who has been in charge of the champions since May last year, was quick to defend the 24-year-old.

‘It’s tough because Hannah is an athlete but also a person, and it’s never nice to hear these comments,’ Bompastor said.

‘Since I joined Chelsea, she’s grown so much. She’s such a professional athlete and also a good person.

‘The other thing I would like to say is that it’s more about respect. What I read in terms of comments from Mary Earps, it’s not acceptable not to show respect to your teammate or your manager.

‘I just think when you use some words, saying something about someone who won the European Championship three times in a row, you should probably think about it before you speak.’

Bompastor didn’t stop there, going on to praise Hampton as the ‘best goalkeeper in the world', adding: ‘I think one of them is class, and Hannah is the class one.’

Earps claims in her autobiography All In, which has been serialised in the Guardian, that Hampton was dropped from the squad in 2022 due to ‘bad behaviour’. These claims were also reported at the time by the Guardian.

Hampton, 21 at the time, was reintegrated into the squad a few months later, with Wiegman insisting that she ‘deserves a second chance’.

Earps did not detail Hampton’s behaviour but told the Guardian: ‘We had a different idea of what being a teammate looked like … the goalkeeper dynamic was professional throughout and was difficult sometimes.’

Wiegman began to rotate the two goalkeepers in 2024 before telling Earps in April 2025 that she was no longer her first-choice goalkeeper ahead of the Euros.

Earps then retired five weeks before the Lionesses set off for Switzerland for their European Championship title defence, where Hampton played a starring role – including saving two penalties in the final against Spain.

Meanwhile, Hampton previously praised Earps following her shock retirement in June: ‘I think there's been quite a bit of scrutiny that she probably doesn't deserve, with everything that she's achieved in the game, as well as putting women's goalkeeping on the map for the younger generation.

‘Goalkeeping was never really a thing, and Mary has changed that,’ she said.

Bompastor also said that Chelsea will ‘find solutions’ to support Hampton and that she has the full backing of the club.