Emma Hayes is England’s most outstanding coach, a woman who has essentially built Chelsea from the ground up, won six Women’s Super League titles, seven domestic cups and reached a Champions League final, turning the Blues into the dominant force in English women’s football. For some, then, it is unfathomable that she will leave that job to manage the United States women’s national team, not the Lionesses.
Instead of her next step being to lead her home country on the international stage, Hayes will take over the four-time World Cup winners next summer, hoping to immediately deliver Olympic gold in Paris. It’s extremely likely that, in the years to come, the 47-year-old will stand in between England and a major title.
But this isn’t a case of asking how the Football Association (FA) has let this happen. The fact of the matter is that being the head coach of the USWNT is the biggest job in the women’s game and it’s one that, for a number of reasons, it makes more sense for Hayes to occupy.