At every level, Chelsea is about winning. Men’s team? Even legends like Frank Lampard can’t continue without winning. Youth teams? They really should be about development more than anything but they still are about winning. And the women’s team? Well, they do winning better than any other part of the club.
That doesn’t just happen of course. Winning requires patience, practice, and progression. But ultimately, it also requires a visionary to put everything together and get it all pointed in one direction. In Emma Hayes, Chelsea has found the perfect manager for that.
Chelsea’s most successful manager, Emma Hayes, has extended her contract. Her dynasty in blue will continue as she seeks to take over the world.
Patience has played a big part in the process for Hayes. It’s unusual for any manager in any side of the game to spend nearly a decade in the same role. Season after season, Hayes has seen her side improve more and more. The team she took over in 2011 was nowhere close to the juggernaut that it currently is.
Much of that comes tied into the practice. One need only listen to Hayes’ commentary on the Euros to know she is miles ahead of her co-commentators on understanding of the game. Far too often, coaches, players, and pundits stop keeping up with the game. They “settle” or simply believe they already know what they need to know. But the mark of a good coach, player, or pundit is that they constantly evolve as the game does. Hayes’ commentary, in addition to the tactics she has employed over time, shows that she won’t go the way of some special ones that see the game leave them behind.
But none of that would really matter without the progression under Hayes. As has already been stated, Hayes’ team is unrecognizable to the one she took over. Season after season they’ve improved tactically, sure, but they have also aggressively pursued the best transfer targets around. The team is stacked with talent from top to bottom and that isn’t stopping anytime soon.
The one piece of silverware missing from the trophy cabinet for Hayes is the Champions League. She saw her side reach the final last season, which turned out to be an unfortunate catastrophe against Barcelona. It signaled that there was still work to be done but also, while Hayes was building her Chelsea dynasty, others in the world began to as well.
The extension is already going to be the smartest piece of business the club could have done on the women’s side this season. Even with the unfortunate ending of last season, Hayes is the best person to get Chelsea from near perfect to perfect. With season tickets sold out, she’ll have plenty of support in the 2021/2022 season to take Chelsea to new heights and levels. This is her dynasty, built over time and constantly improving, and they aren’t stopping with all they’ve already won. They want more and Hayes is the person to lead them to it.