What makes Sonia Bompastor so special? Record-breaking Chelsea coach eyeing a debut-season treble in Women's FA Cup final after invincible WSL campaign

Get even a glimpse into who Bompastor is as a competitor and it's easy to understand why she has been so successful already. As someone who represented Lyon, the eight-time European champions, as a player and a manager, it's no surprise that she has the winning mentality you need to be an elite coach.

In the build-up to this season, the Frenchwoman spoke about the desire to break records. While she literally couldn't improve the Blues' place in the WSL standings, with them having won all of the last five titles before her arrival, she could target other things. "You can always improve on being first with most points, most goals, most clean sheets," she said. "There are always ways to improve."

Bompastor might not have been on the money with the records she would break, only casually predicting the most points feat, but she was right. She could improve the team and she has. She's used those records to motivate her players, too. After clinching that 'invincible' season on Saturday, Keira Walsh revealed what the Chelsea boss said to the team before the game: "She said, 'It's not every day that you can go and break records. It's once in a lifetime, potentially'." That is someone who is obsessed with winning.

To get to those feats, though, Bompastor needed to understand the best way to build on Hayes' success. Many of the pieces were in place for her to continue to deliver trophies, such as the strong squad, the exciting pipeline of young talent and the winning culture in the dressing room. In that sense, it was almost trickier to make her mark on this team, because to change too much could be disruptive. Lucy Bronze put it perfectly when she told Sky Sports: "We're trying to develop something whilst not taking away from the legacy that Chelsea's always had."

It's a sentiment Johanne Rytting Kaneryd, signed by Hayes in the summer of 2022, echoed. "The way Emma built up this team and this culture, you can't just come and change it like that," she told reporters before Sunday's FA Cup final. "That's been very good. It's been natural as well. You never know when you switch the coach. I think, looking back, it was probably the best way possible. I think they both remind each other of each other."

That has made for what Millie Bright described as "the smoothest transition I've ever experienced". That's a huge compliment to many people - to Hayes, for leaving this team in a place that was so favourable for her successor; to Bompastor, for getting the players on board right away with her vision; to the club, for nailing a crucial appointment; and to the players, who have given everything to make this season a success.

“Change is how you want to take it really," Bright added, speaking to Sky Sports about the switch from Hayes to Bompastor. "You could make it a bad thing or a good thing. For us, I think it came at the right time. I think everyone accepted that and I think we needed that to go to another level. We needed something fresh, something different and, to be honest, I think everyone's taken their game to a new level this season. Collectively, we've become even stronger."

It's no shade to Hayes, who has been instantly successful herself in the United States, delivering an Olympic gold medal just weeks after taking the women's national team job. But sometimes a change is just needed to freshen things up, and Chelsea are benefiting from that right now.

That all said, this hasn't been a faultless first season for Bompastor. Failure in the Champions League is the elephant in the room, with the Blues handily beaten via an 8-2 aggregate scoreline by Barcelona in the semi-finals. That is the competition that was spoken about so much when Bompastor arrived, given she is the only person to win the women's edition as a player and a manager, at Lyon. However, she's not been able to give her new team what they need in Europe just yet.

There have been underwhelming performances in the competitions she has been successful in, too. Through the second half of the WSL in particular, it became a regular occurrence for Bompastor to bemoan elements of her team's display, a lack of ruthlessness or a goal conceded, despite never losing. That's a glimpse into the standards she has.

"I think next season we can push on and improve a lot more," Bronze told Sky Sports. "We've not been at our best the second half of the season. So I think Sonia's done well so far. I think she wants a lot more from us and I think we can give it.”

"She wants to play attacking football with a lot of intensity. Of course, a season is long. It's hard to be on your highest level all the time," Rytting Kaneryd added. "I think, somehow, the strength we have in this team is to always find a way to win. I don't know how many games we scored in the last five minutes.

"In the beginning of the season we were talking about how we always had a good start from every game. We scored in the first 20 minutes. Then, we had a tough period during the winter, and somehow we still managed to win. This winning culture... Of course, Emma was a winner as well and it was very clear with her as a coach, too. I think that just comes natural in this club. But I really feel like Sonia demands a lot and she's very clear with what she wants. I think that's really good to have."

Of course, it is also somewhat understandable that Chelsea haven't been the attacking machine that Bompastor wants them to be. There are occasions when her frustration has been rooted in missed chances or individual mistakes, but the Blues' ability to be at their highest level all the time, as Rytting Kaneryd said, has been hindered by some significant injuries.

It makes sense that Chelsea haven't been firing on all cylinders when they've been without Sam Kerr, Lauren James, Guro Reiten, Mia Fishel and Mayra Ramirez for significant periods, with Bompastor also still tentatively building Catarina Macario back up after her recent injury struggles. But that those absentees haven't been turned into excuses for defeats is what makes Chelsea the champions they are.

Those on the outside can argue that more attacking quality was needed to overcome Barcelona, but the Blues won't make those caveats themselves, instead proving their ability as the unit they are with a sixth-successive WSL triumph, a League Cup win and the potential to add an FA Cup to it all.

"It says a lot about the depth we have in this squad," Rytting Kaneryd believes. "We have so many good players, young players that really show that when they get the chance, they take it. That is a strength we have in this team and in this club. Just look at all the injuries we had and still, we managed to win. It says a lot about the team we have.”

That Bompastor has been able to make the impact she has this season - stepping into Hayes' shoes, dealing with major injuries, adapting to a new league as a manager, adapting to a new environment as a person and with her family, and amid all the pressure that comes with being at Chelsea - is mightily impressive. But even if she manages to lead her team over the line one more time this season on Sunday, to win a treble Hayes managed just once, she won't bask in it for long.

"I already started to reflect [on the season]," she told Sky Sports just minutes after Chelsea's WSL campaign concluded with last week's historic victory over Liverpool. "The thing is, and probably it will be difficult for you to believe, but we still have a lot of room for improvement in this club, even if we get the right support coming from ownership and from everyone behind the scenes. We have room for improvement in different areas: squad, mentality, staff, infrastructure. I think that's what is really positive for us to make a step forward."

It's no surprise that Rytting Kaneryd believes there are similarities between the two Chelsea managers. After all, both have this attitude, to always get better, to leave no stone unturned, to push every single area of the club to get better. That's what allowed Hayes to build this winning machine, one that became the dominant force in English women's football under her watch, and what can allow Bompastor to continue to take it forward, just as she has in her first season in charge.