Chelsea FC are bringing back some of their smartest ex-players to work on the coaching and performance staffs. The Women’s team just added four significant members to Emma Hayes’ staff. Karen Carney is retiring as of today. The next step is obvious.
The Women’s World Cup third-place game will be the final appearance for Karen Carney, who announced her retirement on Friday. Carney’s career includes two spells with Birmingham City, Chicago Red Stars, Arsenal and Chelsea, over the course of which she won every English club trophy at least once. She has over 100 caps as a Lioness, including four World Cup tournaments.
Carney’s retirement is a bit of a surprise. She extended her Chelsea contract in 2017 to run through 2020. At 31, she is still well within the age range of many of her peers, particularly at the Women’s World Cup, where players over 35 are not unusual (albeit many of them are goalkeepers). Despite injuries, her creative form when in the Chelsea FCW lineup is as sharp as ever, and many times in this Women’s World Cup the Lionesses looked like they needed her vision and tactical acuity to provide new options entering the final third.
Phil Neville suggested she will play in some capacity in the third-place game. If he gives her more than a run-out, her performance could call into question Neville’s decisions not to use her more often over the first six games.
But Carney is already ahead of that possibility, knowing that one game does not reflect where she is at this point in her career. In explaining her decision, she said “My mind can still do everything but I don’t think my body can. My mind wants to continue playing until I’m 100 but my body tells me enough’s enough.”
Carney’s career has been intertwined with Emma Hayes for over a decade. Hayes coached Carney at Arsenal and the Chicago Red Stars before signing her at Chelsea. The two obviously have a high level of respect and rapport, and one of Hayes’ comments suggests this is not the end of their relationship.
"I have personally loved coaching every minute with her and will miss her presence on a regular basis considering we have worked together for so long. Kaz will always be involved with Chelsea at some capacity and I am sure she will go on to even greater things in her next career… – Chelsea FC"
Chelsea are welcoming back Frank Lampard, Petr Cech, Claude Makelele and Jody Morris, while promoting Joe Edwards and Eddie Newton to the first team. Karen Carney is in the same category as those Blues in terms of her accomplishments, intelligence, competitiveness and identification with the club. If the club want to include the Women’s team in this move towards greater club-wide cohesion and career pathways, Carney is the perfect place to start.
Last week the club announced four new additions to Emma Hayes’ staff. Only two of them, game analysis and strategy coach Lisa Fallon and physiotherapist Steve Hockham, have experience in the women’s game.
Part of the development strategy for women’s football at the club and country levels has to include hiring more players into staff roles. The Blues are somewhat belatedly recognizing the importance of hiring ex-players for the sense of identity around the team, which has very real effects on performance in addition to promoting goodwill among the consumers, er, fans.
At the same time, Chelsea are already giving their Women’s team more resources in the form of new positions (Fallon is the first analysis and strategy coach for the Women’s side) and experienced hires.
Merging all of these threads leads to the prospect of the club finding a role for Karen Carney. Adding her to Hayes’ staff or to work with girls in the Academy or Foundation would have much the same effect on the Women’s side of the house as the Lampard-Cech-Morris moves are having on young men at Cobham and those already in the first team.
Chelsea have another chance to leverage the success of their Women’s team to advance the women’s game and enhance the club’s reputation in the process. Before this summer, that would have been a near-guarantee the club would do something else.
But after the decisions of the last month, they may be in a smart enough mood to keep Karen Carney in Blue.