Emma Hayes admitted it might be a fairytale finish to her Chelsea profession by lifting the Girls’s Champions League for the primary time on the finish of the season.
Hayes will finish her 12-year stick with the west London membership after this marketing campaign to take over as supervisor of the US ladies’s nationwide group.
The Champions League is the one main trophy that has eluded the 47-year-old throughout that point, with the Blues having misplaced 4-0 within the 2021 ultimate to Barcelona and reached the semi-finals on three different events.
Talking forward of Chelsea’s opening Group D fixture towards Actual Madrid, Hayes advised a press convention: “It could be a fairytale to win it, in fact. However I did not develop up liking fairytales – my sister did.
“I would love nothing more than to be in a winning position with this team.”
Chelsea beat Actual 2-0 at Kingsmeadow final season courtesy of objectives from Sophie Ingle and Erin Cuthbert earlier than they drew 1-1 within the Spanish capital.
And Hayes, who highlighted the specter of left-back Olga Carmona, believes the expertise of taking part in Wednesday’s opponents has helped her aspect’s preparations.
She added: “We now have analysed final season’s match and Actual Madrid’s different matches, together with this weekend’s match (7-1 win v Actual Sociedad). We all know what to anticipate.
“I think having been here helps, it’s something familiar, but we don’t underestimate them.
“They’ve many qualities, however I believe they’ve the perfect on the extremes. The power to go upwards, particularly on the left with Olga.
“They have players looking for the back and putting balls into the area and they are very good in transition.”
Chelsea captain Millie Brilliant admitted the information of Hayes’ departure is “devastating”.
She stated: “It’s been a bit of a whirlwind. I was devastated.
“She is a mentor, a coach, a good friend, life coach – it is greater than soccer taking part in underneath her. It’s the laborious a part of soccer. I really feel privileged to have performed underneath her for therefore lengthy.”
Evaluation: Hayes a pioneer in English ladies’s soccer
Sky Sports activities’ Charlotte Marsh:
“It is unusual for a manager to announce their departure from a club so early in the season – but Emma Hayes has always broken the mould.
“And in a variety of methods, seven months is required to try to comprehend simply how huge of an affect Hayes has not solely had at Chelsea, however throughout ladies’s soccer in England as an entire.
“Her numbers for the Blues speak for themselves – trophies upon records upon titles. And wouldn’t it be the end to the fairy tale if she bowed out by winning the club their first Champions League title?
“By reworking Chelsea into the ladies’s powerhouse they’re, Hayes has championed and pioneered the requirements that your complete recreation is now being held to.
“Participant well being throughout the board, amenities, coaching strategies, staffing, transfers – you’ll be able to see Hayes’ affect in every space. Girls’s soccer would merely not be the place it’s with out her lighting the way in which.
“She has been at the forefront of the growth of women’s football, a voice others turn to for opinion and direction on the biggest issues facing not only the game, but women overall.
“Hayes too has proven that this will all be achieved as a mom, as somebody who battles towards well being points and private loss identical to us all. None of it has impacted her potential to do her job efficiently and displays the human component that may typically be lacking in soccer.
“Her confirmed move to the USA offers her a new challenge and one that will be incredibly exciting to watch unfold.
“However for now, the tributes and goodbyes will come flooding in over the approaching months and rightly so. Chelsea and girls’s soccer have loads to thank Hayes for.”