00:00 [music] Welcome back to the Women's Super League
00:05 Show with myself, Susanna Sealy. We are once again joined by National World Rider, Georgia.
00:12 It's been a long time, I think, since we've seen you on the show. I feel very pleased
00:17 you are back. We are unfortunately missing Graham this week. He was sorry he can't be
00:20 with us. We have lots to get into as the WSL returned last weekend, so obviously plenty
00:29 of match action to get involved with, as well as Emma Hayes becoming the first woman to
00:36 win the FWA Tribute Award. She said some lovely comments after, which we will get into in
00:44 just a moment, but what do you make of her becoming the first woman to win this award?
00:49 If there was going to be someone to do that, it would be Emma. There's not really much
00:55 else to say. What a woman. The WSL is really going to miss her. She's going to miss it
01:01 as well. I know we're going to touch on her quotes in a short minute, but that's one of
01:05 the things she mentioned, was how much she really is going to miss Chelsea. I know it
01:09 kind of probably is time for her to bring on a new challenge, but it's just going to
01:14 be so strange, somebody else being at Chelsea. I am just going to dive in. I know we said
01:20 we were going to wait, but she was upset, obviously, because it is the end of an era.
01:29 Sorry, I'm just pulling the quotes up.
01:32 Yeah, no worries. She said, "We're here, we can't go backwards." I think this is probably
01:40 one of the most poignant bits, is "All I really wanted as a child was role models, and to
01:45 think children today have them is my favourite achievement." She then went on to say how
01:51 she's going to sort of sob her eyes out the last few weeks that she's at Chelsea. "When
01:57 I was growing up and aspiring to play an Epic Cup final at Wembley for Tottenham and being
02:02 Glenn Hoddle, scores of young girls and boys are thinking now about how amazing Millie
02:07 Bright is or Sam Kerr is. I think those are the moments I pinch myself about more than
02:11 I do the achievements."
02:13 Yeah, and then WFA chair John Cross, I think what he said as well was poignant, as you
02:20 say. He said, "They demand more respect because of what she's done for the women's game overall.
02:25 She's completely transformed the landscape, not just for Chelsea, the WSL, the England
02:29 national team, but for football in general." Yeah, she really has. I mean, the fact that...
02:35 And this will stay with me forever, and I feel like I bring this up all the time, I
02:37 know we talk about Emma Hayes, but when she was linked to clubs, and I think Grimsby wanted
02:42 her, and somebody asked her during a press conference, "Oh, what do you make of these
02:47 links?" And she was like, "Well, I'm flattered, but I don't actually know where Grimsby is."
02:51 And that quote's just sat with me for all these years, I think it's hilarious. But it's
02:55 just, she's been linked to all these men's clubs over the years, and it's just been,
03:00 "No, no, no." And now she's moving on, and she's not going to a men's club, which is
03:05 another thing I think is worth mentioning, is that she could walk into a position, not
03:11 the Premier League, I don't think the world is ready to open that box just yet, rightly
03:17 or wrongly, but the lower leagues, for sure, she could walk into that and do an amazing
03:21 job, but she doesn't want to. She wants to stay in the women's game, and that's what
03:24 I love so much, and this is going to be amazing to see her with the USA, and the WSL will
03:31 be a much quieter place, I think, without Emma. And I mean that in the nicest way, because
03:39 she's such a big character, she's such a leader, and it'll be so strange, but let's see what
03:45 the USA can do with her.
03:46 - 100%, yeah, and as you say, she's such a strong figure, but I mean, there's no being
03:53 around the bush with her. What you see is what you get, and that is something that you
03:57 also really want to see. She's not someone that's going to come in with flowers all over,
04:03 trying to make the women's game something that it's not. She comes in, and she's produced
04:09 one of the finest teams we've ever seen, and they're winning all these awards, and they've
04:14 got some of the best players in the world, not just because of what she's done, but arguably
04:20 because of how she's worked it. How are Chelsea going to be when she goes? Obviously, we saw
04:26 a couple of weeks ago, Sam Kerr, the two of them were in a press conference together,
04:31 Sam Kerr making jokes that she's not allowed to speak to Emma Hayes after she leaves, but
04:37 it's going to be a huge loss for the club, and to see how far they've come, it's very
04:44 interesting to see what happens after.
04:46 - Yeah, it's like, I just can't imagine it, personally. I mean, I know it is the way football
04:54 is. You can't have the same players forever. You can't have the same manager forever, but
04:59 it's still just so strange. I feel like you can't imagine Chelsea without imagining Emma
05:03 Hayes, and it's got to be somebody of a similar calibre, I think. I've had these discussions
05:11 of who's going to step in, and I can't form an opinion, because I just can't imagine it,
05:17 just as much as I can't imagine her coaching anybody else. I can't imagine Chelsea having
05:21 anybody else. It's just so strange for me, but it's going to be an exciting one to watch,
05:25 for sure.
05:26 - Yeah, definitely, it'll be exciting. And I wonder, some of the other teams might look
05:31 at it and think that Emma Hayes is the reason for Chelsea's success, and hope that this
05:38 could be the way in to make the SSL slightly more, not more competitive, but Chelsea have
05:45 dominated it for such a long time. But on that note, obviously we should mention, talking
05:51 about Chelsea dominating, how they have come off the back of a win over Manchester United,
06:00 and last week on the show, Graham and I were talking about how massive this could be, not
06:07 just for Chelsea winning the league, but actually Manchester United's season in general. Lauren
06:13 James just went and got a hat trick, just because she can.
06:16 - Just casually.
06:17 - Yeah, just casually. But you watch her play, and she does all these amazing things, and
06:22 she's just so chill about it. I just don't get it. But yeah, so what does that mean for...
06:29 We also saw the sort of Mark Skinner out batter. So that result for Manchester United, what
06:35 is going to happen there?
06:37 - It's hard, isn't it? Because I think United fans have been unhappy for a while. I think
06:44 that the main thing for them was the fact that they let Rousseau and Batye leave. Yeah,
06:50 two big players who have come in and arguably not been replaced. And then there's been talk
06:56 of Ella Toon perhaps not being herself. She's shown flashes of the brilliance that we know,
07:01 but I know a lot of people have kind of been saying she's dipped in form a little. But
07:06 Mark Skinner's come under a lot of pressure. Do I think he's the right manager for Manchester
07:13 United? I'm going to say no. I just think it does... As I just said, you can't have
07:18 the manager all the time, and sometimes it is trying and seeing who fits the bill. And
07:23 I think maybe now... And we forget that United are still so young, and it is okay to still
07:29 be in kind of the trial and error period. They've come on leaps and bounds and people
07:34 forget that they are still only a few years old, really. But it is okay to say, "Thanks,
07:42 but this isn't working anymore, and it's time to bring in someone new and see what they
07:46 can do." But I think the whole Mark Skinner out banner, that's not... You see that in
07:57 men's football all the time. People are always...
07:59 Yeah. And I was going to say, actually, there does seem to be a much deeper unhappiness
08:04 at Manchester United, just in general. It's not just the women's game that we're seeing
08:07 it. We're seeing not so much ten hug out banners, but we do see sort of owners, like the Glazers
08:15 have come under so much fire, not in the past year, but pretty much ever since they've owned
08:21 it. And it doesn't seem that Jim Ratcliffe's input so far has made a sort of huge amount
08:29 of difference. I mean, I know it's only very new, but it hasn't made a huge amount of difference
08:33 in the sort of upset within the side. So I wonder whether that's a sort of a deeper issue
08:39 within the club that's like on both sides of the game, rather than it just being a sort
08:45 of Mark Skinner issue. I'm not sure.
08:48 It's a tough time to be a United fan, I think, for sure. Things don't seem to be going great
08:51 with either the men's or the women's side. I think my personal stance is because I know
08:58 there's been a lot of talk about Gareth Taylor as well at Manchester City, which is what
09:03 I wanted to get onto because he's come under a lot of scrutiny a lot longer than Skinner.
09:07 And correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen any like Taylor out banners or anything.
09:13 So the fact that it's now got to the point where this is being brought into the ground
09:16 and the fans are so unhappy that they are making a statement saying, we don't want you
09:20 at our club anymore. That just shows how deeply unhappy they are with whatever's going on.
09:25 I think maybe they'll take it to the end of the season, see where they're at. I mean,
09:32 United are still in, I'm just looking at the table now, United are still in a decent position.
09:37 You know, it's not over till it's over. They could still close that gap, get Champions
09:40 League. I know there's a bit of a difference between them and Arsenal and City at the moment,
09:45 but they're level on points with Liverpool, which is something I bet a lot of people wouldn't
09:49 have predicted at the start of the season. So I can appreciate the frustrations and maybe
09:54 this is more of a conversation for the summer to say, this hasn't worked. It's time to think
09:59 about something new.
10:00 A hundred percent. And obviously sort of have to answer the question as well, who potentially
10:07 might come in if there are those replacements, who could we potentially see replacing him?
10:14 I don't know. I hate these questions because like, just, I don't know, like, this is why
10:20 I always say I'm so glad it's not my job because I would just find it so difficult. There's
10:25 so much pressure. And on that note, I do feel we have to go to a break so we could pick
10:31 up after and I get, I get off.
10:33 Absolutely saved by the bell. But when we come back from the break, we will touch on
10:38 Man City's results as well as some of the other news, including Arsenal versus Leicester
10:44 in April.
10:45 [WHISTLE]
10:46 (upbeat music)
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