Emma Hayes: ‘The WSL is the best league in the world. This is a utopia’
“I struggle with putting these limitations on things: ‘don’t play in big stadiums,’ ‘don’t pay women too much’. Why? Why do we have these conversations? We should be aiming for the fucking top of the sky because you know what? If the product grows, so will the rest of it. Don’t limit it. In fact, invest more.”
Emma Hayes oozes passion for women’s football from every pore. A week after the Chelsea manager pulled off one of the biggest transfers in the history of women’s football, with the Australian striker Sam Kerr joining in January, she is sitting in the building at the back of the club’s Cobham training ground that the women’s team has gradually taken over, bursting with energy.
“What’s to sell? Seriously, look at this place … what’s to sell?” she exclaims gesturing around their home when asked whether it was hard to convince Kerr to leave Australia’s W-League and the US’s NWSL (which many play backto-back). “She’s not about easy options and she’s not about going anywhere she didn’t feel absolutely needed her. I think we’re a good fit, her and I. I look at some players and I don’t think they’ll suit Chelsea, but I look at her and I think: ‘You’re born Chelsea.’ That’s how I feel when I look at Sam, ‘you were made for the shirt’, it’s a big club, it’s a global club, it’s a diverse club, she’s perfect for it.”
Hayes has waited for Kerr. In terms of “wanting the player” it has been over two years. “Sometimes it can be that a player is available and you can get them next month – wow, that’s a bolt of lightning – but it doesn’t happen that often, it really does vary,” she says.
The 43-year-old has made no secret of her desire to win the Champions League. Last season the Blues came agonisingly close to turning around a 2-1 first-leg defeat to the holders Lyon at Kingsmeadow. But their poor league form early on, a blip Hayes has previously blamed on her struggle to balance being a new mum with the birth of a new season, meant they missed out on the competition this term. Uefa is reviewing the competition and Hayes believes expansion “needs to happen”.
Kerr is joining a club at the forefront of investment and innovation. Since the impressive 24,564 fans at Stamford Bridge for their first home league fixture, the club has recorded back-toback close-to-capacity WSL crowds at their regular Kingsmeadow home of 4,790 and 4,149.
“We all know about the league record audience at the weekend [the 38,262 at the Tottenham Stadium],” she says. “But the fact that for two home games running we are getting above 4,000 is an absolute testament to the strategy in place. I am an advocate of playing in big stadiums. It is more than just a token gesture.
“People say: ‘They only come to the game because it’s their first time in a stadium.’ They do everything to shoot it down. I’ve been so impressed with our marketing team this season. It’s not an accident. It’s not a coincidence.”
Where other managers shy away from confronting the issues around the growth of the game with such brutal honesty, Hayes sees it as a duty. She wants to leave a legacy. “I want to push, I always want to push, do more. How much more can we ask for? How much more can we drive? I think it’s showing, it’s exploding.
“I came out of the game at the weekend and thought it’s so easy to slaughter the officials but they’re paid £120 a game,” she says of their narrow win over Manchester United where a thirdchoice referee was forced to step up. “Make them full-time, stop having a go at them. I know I’ve been one in the past to do that but that was to drive a strategy behind that.”
Despite seeing so much more still to do, Hayes believes there is no question that the Women’s Super League is now the best league in the world. “There can be no doubt about that any more. It’s not just the game on the pitch, you tell me where they’re going to rival facilities like this or setups for their players? This is a utopia for footballers,” she says.
“We have a football association and clubs working in cohesion, everything is possible. The journey has been a collective one. I never felt like that when I worked in the US. I always thought there was a bit more tension – differently. Here, everybody has been committed to the path, there have been ups and downs but it has been unwavering.”
The demands of professionalism are stretching the players, so that coordination is necessary. There is an in-built conflict though, through the provision of central contracts by the FA for England players. That is something that Hayes wants scrapped now they are professional and no longer in need of the FA subsidy to the same extent.
“They are under contract with them and with us,” explains Hayes. “That needs to end, but the money needs to be reinvested, maybe supporting clubs or giving it to the clubs for their young English talent.”
Joining Phil Neville in bridging the gap between the national team and club development is the incoming physical performance coach Dawn Scott. “It is a gamechanger,” says Hayes. “I’ve worked with Dawn for a long time, she is the best in the business in women’s football in what she does. She will collaborate with us, she will communicate with us. It is what has been desperately needed for a long time. It is going to elevate England and it is a wonderful hire by Phil.”
Hayes herself is never far away from talk of England’s future. “I don’t know how long I will be coaching for but I don’t expect I will go on from Chelsea, Chelsea is my absolute home. I have made clear I don’t have national-team ambitions. Maybe towards the end of the day,” she concedes. “But not now.”