No contact from Hammers over Ludlow bid – FAW
THE Football Association of Wales has received no contact from West Ham Women amid reports the English top-flight club is targeting manager Jayne Ludlow.
It had been reported by BBC Sport on Monday morning that Arsenal favourite Ludlow was set to succeed previous Hammers manager Matt Beard.
Former Wales international Ludlow, capped 61 times for her country while scoring 19 goals from midfield, has been manager of the senior women’s side since 2014.
BBC Sport reported on Monday that Wales boss Ludlow was set to be named as the successor to previous head coach Beard, who left the club by mutual consent in November after two and a half years.
It was later said that the London club will instead interview candidates this week after Ludlow, 41, was primed for the role.
While an FAW spokesman said it could not comment, WalesOnline understands the Association has received no contact from West Ham for Ludlow, which would be required.
The manager has two years remaining on her contract with the FAW.
Ludlow’s Wales side narrowly missed out on a play-off spot for the 2022 Women’s Euros earlier this month, suffering after dropping points early in their campaign, notably against Northern Ireland.
it marked the second successive narrow blow for Wales in a campaign, having gone right down to the wire to the last game against England in their 2019 World Cup qualifying campaign.
Rhondda native Ludlow had been director of women’s football and first-team manager at Reading Women before her role with Wales.
She has previously highlighted how her group of staff can, however, only spend around 25% of their time on their senior’s women’s duties as they also look after all of Wales’ Women’s age-group teams. It’s a situation which differs to a lot of the teams Wales face, who have a full-time manager in charge of those sides.
Ludlow previously told WalesOnline: “Because we look after the different age groups and the seniors, for us to really do a proper senior job, we should just be doing that senior job because it’s a fulltime job with how much you need to prep and reflect.
“Unfortunately for our players, that’s the environment the other teams we’re coming up against have.
“I don’t think they hold anything against me or my group of staff because of that. It’s an association decision. We’re a group of staff that have this responsibility - we will do the best we can.”
West Ham currently sit 10th in the 12-team Women’s Super League with two wins from nine games so far this season.