Why USWNT boss & WSL legend Emma Hayes won’t answer any more patronising questions about move into management with a men’s team

The 48-year-old has established a reputation as one of the world’s leading coaches in the women’s game. She is now filling the most demanding of posts, with the decision taken to chase the American dream in 2024.

Hayes’ first task was to navigate the United States through a gold medal bid at the Olympic Games in Paris, with that test being passed with flying colours. She is happy in that role and has no desire to consider what would be a historic career change – having previously been linked with positions in the men’s game.

Hayes has told The Times of the main differences between working in America and England, and why she is embracing that change of mindset: “Equality. We win the Olympics and in America they want to talk about the greatness of winning an Olympics.

"I come to England and have a week with the press and they want to ask me when I’m going into the men’s game! The morbid fascination with asking me that question… Going forward, I’m just going to refuse to answer it. Because I realise it’s just clickbait. And it’s sad that, as an Olympic gold medal-winning coach, the biggest priority for every media outlet in the British interviews I did afterwards was the men’s game. It’s small-minded in so many ways.”

Hayes has helped to raise the profile of women’s football in England, but continues to see it billed as “bronze-medal stuff” when compared to the men. She added on that misguided and outdated opinion: “I don’t know how playing in front of 43,000 to win the Olympics at Parc des Princes can be a bronze. Know what I mean? Like, not to take anything away from Shrewsbury Town or Grimsby - which is the suggested level I should go into if I became a men’s coach.”

Hayes won seven WSL titles across her iconic 12-year stint at Chelsea, along with five FA Cup successes and a couple of League Cup triumphs. She is already in the winning habit with a star-studded USWNT squad and has every right to ignore narrow-minded questions when it comes to career paths being mapped out by others.