United fans come out to watch me - we can reminisce

It's a blessing and a curse," says Mary Earps. "Naturally, when you get named the Fifa Best goalkeeper, expectations do raise, and especially when you do it twice. People expect more of you.

- Suzanne Wrack

That is a pressure the England international, who joined Paris Saint-Germain in the summer at the end of her contract at Manchester United, deals with on a daily basis. But she does not want that to change. "It is a massive compliment but you do get criticised more and held to a higher standard," she says. "Then the extraordinary is expected. But the reality of it is that I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm really grateful for everything I've achieved and the exciting thing is that I still feel like I've got room for improvement."

Eyes are on Earps, who moved to France after five years in Manchester. Her new journey hit a first big bump when PSG failed to reach the group stage of the Champions League, losing 5-2 to Juventus on aggregate in the second round of qualifying last month.

"I can't really put it any other way than it was gutting," she says. "Especially with that being a massive factor into why I made the move. We didn't play our best and we got what we deserved, but it is really hard to get past."

The words "gutting", "disappointing" and "unfortunate" feature numerous times in a lengthy answer laced with all three in tone as well as content. Earps says there is "nothing we can do about it now, we can only go forward and improve", but the pain of the exit is still evident.

"New players and a new coach, those things are going to take time to come together and you could see that in the way that we played a little bit," she says. "We just need a little bit more time together and it'll click. As the season has gone on you can see that in the results and the performances. Since then, it's been steadily improving."

Champions League football was not the only reason Earps chose PSG when her contract expired after two years of will-she-won't-she talk. "It was down to the feeling I had and the conversations that I was having," she says.