Emma Hayes ends her 12-year reign at Chelsea this summer. Photo: Getty Images/Naomi Baker
Liverpool women rejoice Their stunning 4-3 win over Chelsea on Wednesday night and a dejected Emma Hayes lost – perhaps a little prematurely – the Women's Super League title to Manchester City easily parallels were drawn with Hayes' sadness and the disappointing end to the season that Merseyside men's manager Jurgen Klopp is simultaneously experiencing.
Many people are wondering if there is a correlation between both teams looking set to miss out on the WSL and Premier League trophies respectively, given both managers' summer departures were announced months earlier, and whether these two cases are a repeat of what followed. this failure. Sir Alex Ferguson's original announcement to retire in 2001-02
But this comparison is lazy and I don't buy the argument that Chelsea are losing matches because their players know Hayes is finishing its 12th year season. will become manager later in May.
To begin with, the circumstances of these two great modern managers are completely different, and I don't just mean that Klopp is already accustomed to narrowly losing titles, while Hayes winning four league titles in a row is not the reason for this. as their teams' recent disappointing results are multifaceted.
Let's first distinguish between two opposing exit scenarios. Klopp, on his own terms, had the freedom to choose the timing of his announcement that he was leaving Liverpool because he understandably said he had run out of energy. Whether he could announce the news later in the season is a legitimate conversation.
Hayes, on the other hand, is leaving because she was offered another job, a bigger one, and so the announcement hypothetically couldn't happen until May. College football is unlikely to ever wait six months to announce its next head coach.
Hayes's personal choice last fall, while she was mourning the death of her father, was to decide to either move immediately across the Atlantic, which she feared would leave her Chelsea colleagues in the lurch in short order, or wait, until the end of the season and the resolution she hoped would be a positive outcome. Choosing the second route gave Chelsea enough time to select players to replace Hayes.
There's another key difference: Chelsea's WSL rivals have been able to focus on the league this season – Manchester City failed to qualify for Europe at all, and Arsenal and Manchester United failed to reach the Women's Champions League group stage – so Hayes' side are the only team in the WSL to juggle the rigors of European football, and so Chelsea could never be expected to just cruise to the WSL title.
They were declared favorites at the start of the season, but the truth is that Arsenal and Manchester City should have been expected to finish above Chelsea this season in a year where the league was their main target. Chelsea, perhaps a victim of their own success, have a target on their back and other teams are finally catching up.
However, where there are certainly similarities between Klopp's and Hayes' situations is the recent results, which have certainly been disappointing to say the least. Both were in contention for the quadruple just a few weeks ago, but the Klopp League Cup may now be the only piece of silverware they will both see this season. However, in the case of both teams, it is of course better to fall in the final furlongs than never race at all.
Chelsea reached the League Cup final, FA Cup semi-final, Champions League semi-final and finished second in the WSL behind Manchester City. By the high standards they've set, it's a below-par season, but in the real world it's still a campaign most teams can only dream of, and that's before we've even factored in the small profit from their three cup defeats . ; An extra-time loss to Arsenal, a 2-1 away defeat to Manchester United and a loss to defending champions Barcelona with just 10 players on the pitch.
However, it is also true that Chelsea did not perform at their best and their defense was abysmal in Wednesday's 4-3 defeat at Prenton Park. Her team looks mentally fatigued – perhaps understandably so after a thorough assessment that includes playing Barcelona head-to-head for 180 minutes. They've had a lot of injuries too – Sam Kerr, Millie Bright and now Lauren James to name a few – although to be fair that's true of a lot of other teams too and their team wouldn't want to make excuses. They also lost in the League Cup final.
Then there are some strange things Hayes has said recently that have rightly been scrutinized, be it her controversial comments about “male aggression” after the League Cup final, or her criticism of relationships between players, which she later admitted to. shouldn't have spoken – or weirdly read a Robert Frost poem at a press conference. She also displayed an unusually defeatist spirit with which she accepted the title in her post-match press conference on Wednesday night. These incidents did not reflect well on the 47-year-old.
But as bizarre as some of these media incidents may be, Hayes deserves to be judged on the last 12 years, not the last 12 years. weeks.
Hayes said some strange things that she will probably regret. But English football would do well to remember what she did for the sport, how far she helped push women's football and what a debt the WSL owes to its most innovative coach. She may not necessarily go out in a blaze of glory, but her legacy will continue to burn brightly.
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