Life as a Wag in the transfer window

"Owen was on the phone to the manager and his agent while I was in labour. They waited for me to give birth and then he went out on loan pretty much as soon as I was out of hospital."

Owen Dale's loan deal wasn't to a local club, but to Portsmouth - a city more than 200 miles away. His partner, Jessica Beaumont, had never even been there.

And the pair had only just got the keys to a house they had bought. They would end up staying in it for just one night.

"Since living together, we've moved five times in five years," says Jessica.

"You have to be prepared for anything in the transfer window. But it's also a really fortunate position to be in at a young age."

This period - when clubs are permitted to buy, sell and loan players - takes place twice a year, in January and during the summer, for clubs in the Premier League, the English Football League (EFL) and the Women's Super League (WSL).

While a select few stay in one place throughout their career, for most players moving from club to club is just part of life in the modern game.

Jessica met Owen when he was at Crewe Alexandra. A move to Blackpool soon followed.

"I didn't get together with him because he was a footballer so I never considered the footballer life - that he might just have to move at the last minute," she says. "We just met and we clicked."

But it soon became apparent that dealing with almost constant uncertainty would be part of that life.

The move to Blackpool was a loan, with an option to buy, so for six months - during which Jessica was pregnant with their son Xavier - they did not know whether he would be staying there or heading back to Crewe.

Blackpool decided to sign Owen, but he was soon out on loan again. This isn't uncommon, with loan deals a way for clubs to help young prospects gain first-team experience and get regular playing time elsewhere.

"When the move to Portsmouth happened it really hit me - I had to quickly realise that 'OK this is now my life'," says Jessica.

Just before Owen's loan deal to Portsmouth the couple had bought their first house together in Congleton - a town close to Jessica's family in Stoke on Trent, and commutable to Blackpool.

"We spent one night in there - we hadn't even unpacked," she says.

They decided a 10-hour round trip on Owen's day off in the week to see his newborn son was not an option.

"We thought 'if he's not playing well because he's tired, what's the point in doing this'?" says Jessica, who adds that they ended up renting out the Congleton house and have been living in rented accommodation themselves ever since.

"I was finishing my law degree and had a job at the time - I had to say to them I wouldn't be coming back from maternity leave," she says.

Post-natal complications also made it difficult for her to travel at the time.

"I had Owen on the phone basically saying, 'I've done a couple of house viewings. I've chosen this one. This is where we're going to be living' and showing me on FaceTime," she recalls.

"In that moment I did feel really out of control."

Uprooting her life at short notice and leaving her family behind was challenging and Jessica remembers spending a lot of time alone in Portsmouth when Owen was at away games.

But she remembers lots of positives from that time too, including when she became friends with another player's partner.

"I was so fortunate that she would often stay with me when Owen was away," she says.

"I say to her all the time that I'll appreciate that time forever because I was just so isolated.

"Our schedules were the same - when Owen went away her partner was also away - I didn't have to be fully alone and she got it."

Owen, now 27, has played most of his career in League One, with two stints in the Championship when we was with Blackpool and Oxford United.

Last season was spent on loan at Plymouth Argyle and he is currently a free agent - this means he is not tied to any club by a legal contract. Owen can now join a new team without a transfer fee because no former employer owns his registration rights.

Many of his moves have been on deadline day and he says he is "very aware of the sacrifices" his family make.

"There's always the risk that a move might not work," he says. "So I might uproot my whole family for this next venture and it all goes south.

"Over the years I've learned that until there's a contract signed on the dotted line, you could end up anywhere."

Previous image Next image Slide 1 of 5 , Owen Dale pictured with his partner Jessica and son Xavier after he signed for Portsmouth F.C. , Owen went on loan to Portsmouth in 2022 just days after Jessica gave birth to Xavier End of image gallery For now, Jessica's career in law is on hold, she instead has a job in social media and works from home.

She also posts about her experiences on TikTok, regularly using #wag and #waglife.

"My career can be picked up at any time - whereas his career is right now and you've really got to take every opportunity," she says.

"As much as people say it's a glamorous lifestyle you do make sacrifices so your partner can have their dream and get themselves as far as they can in football.

"At the end of the day, as much as I'm involved, it's his career. That means in order for me to support him properly I can't get emotionally involved."

This includes not getting too emotionally attached to where they live.

"We usually rent newer houses that are a blank canvas so we can make them our own, although this last season the accommodation was provided furnished by Argyle," she says.

"We put a lot of Xavier's toys and garden stuff in storage and referred to our Plymouth accommodation as 'the holiday house'.

"It can be hard when he asks us to get things like his trampoline which we don't have with us."

Owen's career is always the priority, Jessica says.

"When Owen was at Oxford he had one year left on his contract and I loved it there," she says.

"But the best thing was for him to go and get game time somewhere ...

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