Why an underwhelming end to Emma Hayes' Chelsea career shouldn't concern the USWNT - or the Blues

After all, we are talking about a manager who has simply transformed a football club. When Hayes took over Chelsea in 2012, the Blues had never won a major title. When she departs this summer, she will do so having added at least 15 trophies to a rather bare cabinet, with there still the chance of another Women’s Super League triumph and, if they can rise to the near-impossible challenge of defeating Barcelona in the semi-finals, a first-ever Women’s Champions League crown.

Hayes has helped Chelsea become the dominant side in England, one that has won four successive league titles and three FA Cups on the bounce. Domestically, they’ve set the standard in the WSL era - and not just in terms of quality and winning mentality, but also investment and resources.

Even if this final season in charge ends trophy-less, Hayes will have guided Chelsea to 15 titles in nine years and a first-ever Champions League final. The 2023-24 campaign would have to be considered a failure, of course, but it would not be for a lack of trying, and it certainly would not impact the legacy she will leave.

Reading into Hayes’ press conference comments for signs of drive or otherwise is a dangerous game, too. Does a manager really need to be seething after a match to be seen as motivated? If that’s the case, conspiracies of her investment in the role would’ve been raised years ago, as instances of Hayes not boasting a calm demeanour in her media interactions are few and far between.

The Chelsea boss has long been one of the media’s favourite talking heads, with random questions about any hot topic in sport likely to pop up in her press conferences, and her comments are certainly under the microscope more than ever in her final season. But there was no need to get the lab coats on for Sunday’s remarks.

The passion Hayes has shown on the sidelines this season is another reason why Chelsea fans should not be worried about whether she is still all-in – and, across the pond, supporters of the USWNT need not be overly concerned about the spot their incoming head coach is in, either.

The Blues have had a target on their backs for a long time, having set the standard in England for several years. Their rivals have been tasked with getting better and better to try and compete for trophies, and they are now doing so. This is the most competitive that women’s football in England has ever been in the professional era and that is part of the reason why Chelsea are not having things all their own way this term.

In a way, the Blues are victims of their own success. At the end of the day, the level of Hayes’ team has not suddenly dropped dramatically. They’ve lost two games in two weeks and now everyone wants answers. It’s a sign of how good Chelsea have been for the past few years that this is seen as something of a crisis moment.

And those two defeats have been close, too. The Conti Cup final loss to Arsenal came in extra-time, after 120 minutes of football from which either side could’ve justifiably emerged victorious. Both had - and squandered - plenty of chances, until Stina Blackstenius broke the deadlock in the 116th minute.

On Sunday, credit had to be given to United and head coach Marc Skinner for their perfect game plan. The Red Devils chose to let Chelsea have the ball and played more direct when they got their chances, which resulted in two goals that they took clinically. Throw in Mary Earps’ outstanding goalkeeping and two big penalty appeals that Chelsea saw waved away, and this was another tight defeat. “We've lost a cup game that was fiercely competitive,” Hayes summarised.

These are not excuses but instead reminders of how the two results could’ve, on another day, gone the other way. It’s not as if the Blues have been battered and out-classed in these past two weeks.

Football can be a truly incredible sport. It can give us storylines that even Hollywood’s greatest writers could not script. But it can also be very unforgiving, dismissing sentiment as readily as it embraces it. One only needs to look at what is going on in the men’s game in England to see that. Jurgen Klopp is also in his farewell season at Liverpool, having enjoyed a remarkable nine years. Yet, as he prepares to say goodbye, the Reds have slipped up massively in the Premier League title race, are out of the FA Cup and on the brink of Europa League elimination.

“I'm grateful for everything I've had,” Hayes said on Sunday. “I want to keep pushing the team to the end, but you can't win them all. I think for a team that's not used to losing, it's par for the course. You saw it with Liverpool men's team this week, in the Europa League. You can't win them all.”

Hayes knows full well that there is no fairy-tale ending prepared for her time at Chelsea. She will leave the Blues this summer and she, her staff and her players will have to work hard, as always, for the two to part ways on a high. But as Chelsea’s rivals improve and the target on their back grows, it’s getting harder and harder to remain the dominant force in England.

There are things Hayes and the Blues could’ve done better in these two games, for sure, and perhaps the emotion of it being her final season in charge heightens the pressure a little for all. But there’s really not much more to it than that.

Ultimately, the coach that sat and dissected her team’s defeat to United on Sunday and the coach that was announced as the USWNT’s next appointment back in November are hardly different. What has happened in the six months since that news hasn’t changed Hayes’ ability to do her job, or the commitment she has to doing that to the best of her ability.

All good things must come to an end. Chelsea’s run of three straight FA Cup triumphs has now, and Hayes’ time at the club will very soon. But even if she bids farewell without a trophy in her final season, it will not diminish the achievements of her 12 years in charge, nor will it mean the USWNT are suddenly getting a worse coach.

Analysing the flaws in Chelsea’s two recent defeats and picking out what went wrong if the Blues do fail to pick up any silverware this season is all fair game. But when it comes to the bigger picture, these past two weeks don’t change the fact that Hayes is Chelsea’s greatest-ever manager, or that the USWNT is set to be taken over by one of the best coaches the sport has to offer.