As for the Germans, their opponents in Thursday's European Championship final in Helsinki, it's not quite another day at the office, but they've been here so many times before. "We're a tournament team," says Germany legend Steffi Jones ahead of the match. She's not wrong.

Fantastic, yes, but are the Germans invincible? I believe not. And far more importantly, England know it. Despite Germany's superb record, England are the only team to have prevented them from winning a match at a European Championship or World Cup since 1999. That was a goalless draw during the World Cup in China two years ago.

Clutching at straws perhaps, but there's further reason for optimism if you're an England fan. That's because there's a new depth to Hope Powell's side. Six of her squad members are full-time professionals in the new pro league in the United States, while most of the others are now benefitting from FA central contracts. Worth £16,000 per year, central contracts mean those in possession only have part-time instead of full-time jobs, allowing them not only to train more efficiently but, crucially, to get proper recovery time. It's the sort of detail that fully professional sports people take for granted but that England's female footballers are extremely grateful for.

Not only are England fitter than ever before, they're also now more experienced than ever, too. This young squad, which finished bottom of their group at Euro 2005, has now matured and bonded into a much stronger unit. Eniola Aluko, for example, looks like a different player. She sat A-Levels during the 2005 tournament, which took place in on home soil. Now, four years on, she's passed her law degree with a First and is a full-time professional footballer with St Louis Athletica in the US. Anyone who saw her outstanding individual goal against Finland in the quarter-finals will have seen a player now brimming with confidence.

As well as individual improvements, England have also tasted some success as a team. Admittedly nowhere near the scale of the Germans, but they won the Cyprus Cup (an international invitational tournament) in March and relished that winning feeling. They're hungry for more.

Women's football in England suffered a blow earlier this year when the Football Association deferred the much-anticipated Super League by a year due to financial uncertainty due, in part, to the collapse of Setanta. But FA chief executive Ian Watmore, recognising that England have trailed behind their German, Scandinavian and American counterparts for so long in terms of development, uttered encouraging words this week when he said the new league will not be deferred again, as many in the game have feared.

We'll find out in the next couple of weeks whether the Super League does in fact get the green light to start in 2011. In the meantime, victory over Germany would provide the biggest boost the women's game has ever had in England. Maybe their time has come.

I've steered clear of the more traditional awards. Instead I've made up my own categories - just because I felt like it.

So this is my personal take on the 2008-09 season.

He lost the likes of Wilson Palacios and Emile Heskey mid-season and Wigan have understandably struggled to win games since then. But he accepts it's part of the job and still tries to drive the club forward.

In case you're wondering why not Fulham boss Roy Hodgson, it's because he's already receiving plenty of attention for his outstanding achievements this season. There are many other candidates, such as Eddie Howe of Bournemouth, Brentford's Andy Scott and Paul Tisdale at Exeter.

Most under-rated player
Nick Montgomery, Sheffield United midfielder. He's improved a great deal over the years I've watched him. He works so hard putting himself about and doing the dirty jobs that gain very little attention outside of the dressing room.

His team-mate Matt Kilgallon is another one, though Premier League vultures will be waiting to swoop for him if United fail to win the play-off final at Wembley.

Best manager to deal with
Steve Bruce - I've never heard a bad word about him. He's been great for Wigan and vice-versa, but I really hope he gets his chance one day at a club where he's able to build a team and challenge for honours.

Also Gianfranco Zola of West Ham. The nicest man around, though from a journalist's point of view that's not the most important thing!

Team that makes me feel tiny
Stoke City. Much has been made of the height and physical strength of their players, who've done brilliantly to avoid relegation, but I felt about 4ft tall in the corridor outside the dressing rooms waiting to do my interviews for Match of the Day. Talk about Land of the Giants!

Darkest horse
Nigel Pearson, Leicester manager. Clearly mistrusting of the media as a whole until he gets to know journalists individually. A totally different character on a social level, as we discovered at a recent awards event!

Coldest ground
Turf Moor, Burnley - January, v Swansea. I surreptitiously used my summariser Brian Little as a wind-break to protect me from the swirling, icy gale. He didn't seem to mind, or notice.

Worst car park to get out of after game
Leicester. I was stuck in there seemingly forever after the Leeds game without making any progress! Will remember to park further away next time.

Worst press box
Scunthorpe. I know that nobody outside the media cares about this, nor should you, but when you hear us broadcasting from this ground and wonder why we sound like we have our elbows jammed into our own ribs, it's because we have.

Best ladies toilets
Gillingham - the ladies' media lavs are very posh and there was no queue!

Worst ladies toilets
Portsmouth - they're well known for having the worst stadium facilities in the Premier League. After queuing for the whole of half time, it's a nightmare to try and clamber over people in the cramped press box for the start of the second half. Very friendly staff and fans, though.

Worst European venue
Donetsk, Ukraine (I covered Spurs v Shakhtar Donetsk there in February). Expensive to get there, freezing beyond belief at that time of year, one of the grottiest airports I've ever seen (I've travelled extensively and nothing comes close to this), shocking food (cold cabbage for breakfast, anyone?) and definitely the worst hotel I've ever stayed in (apart from a brothel in Paris. That's another story).

If your club gets drawn to play there, it's worth coming up with a great excuse as to why you can't make the trip. The hamster needs feeding, you don't trust your Sky Plus to record Loose Women in your absence or you have to wait in for the delivery of your pizza.

Best to steer clear if possible, especially when it's -8 degrees and you're on an open terrace.

Best bit of gossip
A former team-mate of this high profile ex-international player told me that the player didn't actually qualify for the team he represented with distinction for many years. He'd lied on the form stating he was related to a certain family and it was never investigated.

It's not Tony Cascarino. I wonder how many other similar cases there have been. There are obviously far juicier bits of gossip, but they will never be published on the BBC Sport website or anywhere else!

Rant of the Season
No, not Rafa Benitez's pre-prepared and much-publicised rant about Sir Alex Ferguson, but Wolves manager Mick McCarthy's spontaneous outburst at a press conference after the 1-0 defeat at promotion rivals Reading in January.

Big Mick was at his lyrical best when asked about his views of Neill Collins' early own goal which ended up costing his side the game.

Unintentional put-down of the season
Teenage son of a friend to me: "When you commentate for Match of the Day, do you sit anywhere near the proper commentators?" I was too busy laughing to clip the cheeky monkey round the ear!

Black Country quip of the season
With swine flu very much in the news, a Mexican wave is starting at Molineux before the final game of Wolves' Championship winning season against Doncaster and a fan is heard saying: "We ay gonna catch owt, am we?"

"You don't know you're born" quote of the season
Sean Scannell of Crystal Palace in the May edition of FourFourTwo magazine.
"I've always been a big Chelsea fan. It was back in the days when Marcel Desailly, Mark Hughes and Gianfranco Zola were playing so you can't accuse me of being a glory-hunter." The poor love, having to grow up watching that lot!

Follow Jacqui Oatley at www.twitter.com/jacquioatley

The former Arsenal playmaker is taking the new United States professional women's league - the WPS - by storm, having scored three goals in her opening three games for the Boston Breakers, picking up a WPS Player of the Week award along the way.

Smith is joined in the new league by fellow England team-mates Alex Scott (also at Boston Breakers), Eni Aluko (St Louis Athletica), Anita Asante (Sky Blue) and Karen Carney (Chicago Red Stars).

Excellent experience for these players to test themselves against the best, but what have they left behind? The answer: a great deal of disillusionment.

While the WPS league was starting with a flourish, the Football Association in England was deciding to postpone its new women's Super League.

And how do you think this news has gone down with players, clubs, administrators and coaches? Having spoken to a range of them, I can assure you it's hit them like a ton of bricks. They're also deeply unhappy that they only found out via a newspaper report and hadn't been told directly. FA chairman Lord Triesman has since written to the clubs to apologise for the leak.

Tears have been shed by people who have worked tirelessly to try to make it happen. These are the same people who have been grafting for years to try to drag the women's game up to the standard of the Scandinavian countries and Germany.

One top player told me she's now regretting her decision not to pursue a professional career in the US in favour of remaining loyal to the supposedly exciting new game at home. Some England players are feeling demoralised and let down just four months before Euro 2009 in Finland.

The Super League is only one part of a four-year strategy to develop the girls' and women's game. The rest of the proposals, I'm told, are still going ahead as planned.

The idea was to have a semi-professional league of eight teams (initially) played in the summer with better playing surfaces and facilities, desperately-needed television exposure, with clubs receiving up to £70,000 each per season to help them become self-financing, rather than be dependent on their male counterparts. Look no further than Charlton as an example of the perils of relying on a men's team. The aim was to make the league more competitive, raise the profile of the game in England, encourage young fans to watch their idols and to prevent top players from wanting to play abroad.

It's certainly too late for that.

The first few words of the promotional publication for the strategy states in capital letters that "the FA must take the lead role in developing the women's and girls' game". Yet, the feeling is that women's game is the lowest hanging fruit and the first to be picked off the tree when cuts are made. Further down, the document reads "To be trusted to lead, we must: Lead with confidence to deliver the strategy". It seems that some in the game have had their confidence shaken.

Clubs are generally run by volunteers who had spent a great deal of time putting together their application to join the summer league. Three weeks before they were due to hand in their completed applications, they discovered, via a newspaper report, that all that time and money had been wasted.

The FA's public statement on the matter, which followed the leak, said that the league would be deferred until the summer of 2011 "as a prudent measure in the current global financial downturn to ensure that we are able to use our financial resources in the most appropriate and meaningful way".

A spokesman told me that the FA is not picking on women's football and that this project is just one of several to be put back due to the "current financial climate". The National Football Centre at Burton reportedly being one of the others. Lord Triesman also stated in his letter to the clubs that the move was "caused by financial difficulties in companies with which we trade".

So the FA may not be singling out women's football for cutbacks, yet many feel the game simply can't afford another setback in its development. It has already suffered greatly due to a lack of investment over the years and many believe that this long overdue project should have been ring-fenced, with savings found elsewhere.

"I personally believe it's been shelved indefinitely," says Vic Akers, legendary manager of Arsenal Ladies who's won 30 major trophies in his 22 years at the club (it will be 31 trophies if they beat Sunderland in the FA Women's Cup final on 4 May). "It's sad that the girls' game always seems to take the mallet over the head. We've already lost five national players to the United States, including the iconic Kelly Smith. We'll lose more, and that can't be good for the game in England."

Casey Stoney, England defender and manager of Chelsea, is equally aggrieved. "We're struggling for survival," she says. "We had a plan for the financial year, now it's changed. Clubs need to know where they stand. We take two steps forward and five steps back."

Sue Smith, Leeds Carnegie and England winger, adds: "I'm gutted. Everything was set in place. We were excited about having the Super League to look forward to after we got back from Euro 2009. But not any more. We feel deflated".

The feeling amongst those I've spoken to is that the deferment of the Super League will hamper the growth of a sport so desperately needing a shot in the arm from the powers that be. The women's game is still trying to catch up on its development after it was effectively banned for 50 years until 1971.

The vibes are not all negative, though. Twenty England players are being awarded one-year contracts worth £16,000 each to enable them to cut down on their working hours so they can concentrate on their fitness. A major help to those who were getting run-down and ill due to working so many hours before and after training sessions. This should help avoid a repeat of the problems the players had at the World Cup in 2007, when their £40 a day pay left many struggling to make ends meet.

There are some extremely hard working, passionate people working on women's football at Soho Square and a set of highly professional, yet part-time, players who give their all for their country. They feel as though they've been let down again.

The great Dutchman is Chelsea-bound and will become a regular face and voice on our airwaves, for the next three months at least. From a journalist's point of view, that has to be a good thing. A man with vast experience of world football who speaks excellent English but doesn't suffer fools should go down well with the British football public.

What about other managers and their approach to the media? I, like many other reporters, was sad if not surprised to hear of the departure of Tony Adams from Portsmouth. In my experience, Adams was always polite and patient, on and off air, and tried to give his honest view. Perhaps he was too honest for his own good at times, answering questions such as "where do you think it went wrong today, Tony?" with "I really don't know."

To many, that was refreshing, to others (such as his bosses, no doubt) a little concerning. He had one habit which amused and frustrated broadcasters in particular. Adams would think so deeply about answering a simple question that, after speaking for a minute or so, he'd have to ask "what was the question again?" Whilst endearing, it led to reporters muttering "I hope he doesn't lose his train of thought like that with the players or they could be in trouble".

I was talking to a journalism student the other day who asked me "who do you most enjoy interviewing?" I immediately answered "Arsene Wenger". She told me that everyone said that. The reason is simple. The Frenchman will always answer the question, whether he's comfortable with it or not. His words are always considered and he'll often tell you something you weren't expecting to hear, although sometimes what you weren't wanting to hear! He's also quite happy to have a laugh with you if you're trying to tease something out of him.

Other personal favourites include Neil Warnock, who manages to verbally assassinate referees with a big grin on his face, and Mick McCarthy, who has a wonderful Yorkshire turn of phrase and a highly amusing ability to adapt swear words for the occasion! Someone should compile a book of his quotes and make sure the asterisk key on their keyboard is fully functional...

Seeing as I work for the BBC, I haven't interviewed Sir Alex Ferguson but have spoken to many reporters who have. The consensus is that the man absolutely terrifies them! One television sound engineer told me that Sir Alex has been known to amuse himself in a media conference by playing a little game. He'd randomly select one of the assembled microphones in front of him and casually pick at the foam protector whilst speaking. He'd then look around the room to see which sound man was going berserk, knowing his day's work was ruined!

Leicester's Nigel Pearson is an interesting character. It's fair to say that he's not too keen on the media. I realised this when I covered his side's recent FA Cup defeat at Crystal Palace. While I was doing my preparation, I listened online to an interview he'd given to local radio and, on hearing several sarcastic answers, thought "oh, he doesn't like the interviewer". I then heard him speak in person after the game and realised he doesn't like any interviewers! Leicester fans won't care a jot, though, as he's doing a fantastic job and they look a certainty for promotion.

That's the way it works for football managers. Win games and nobody cares about your public demeanour. Fail to win them and everything you say and how you say it will be heavily scrutinised. Just ask Benitez and Adams.