Departing Chelsea boss Emma Hayes is concerned that the number of female coaches in the Women’s Super League will dwindle. Hayes ends her trophy-laden 12-year career at the Blues with a trip to Manchester United on Saturday while on the same day Carla Ward waves farewell to Aston Villa, who host Manchester City. Both are parents.

Speaking at a press conference today ahead of the trip to Old Trafford, Hayes said: “I’ve been an advocate of not just the women’s game but how to do the best for women in the game and I still think we’re wide of the mark with that.

“I think there will be declining numbers of female coaches for sure, because of the demands. And if you’re a parent, forget about it, unless we have an openness and a willingness to consider different things. It’s really, really difficult to be a parent and full-time in this industry, which isn’t nine to five, it’s seven days a week.

“So I think being open to doing things differently – I’d love to see a co-coaching team, females coaching the game, maybe two mums. I think we have to consider those things.”

Hayes, who won six WSL titles with Chelsea, is becoming the new head coach of the United States.

The Football Association has announced a plan to phase out deliberate heading in matches involving players under the age of 12 over the next three seasons. The move follows the successful completion of a two-year trial instigated by the International Football Association Board (IFAB).

Implementation of the rule will be a gradual process starting with U7 to U9 levels from next season, followed by U10 level from 2025 and U11s from 2026. It will apply to all affiliated grassroots youth football, and will be supplemented by support for young players as they adapt to heading the ball during their U12 season.

Under the new rule, a deliberate header will be punishable by an indirect free-kick. If the ball is deliberately headed out of play, the opposing team will be awarded with a ‘pass-in’ or ‘dribble-in’, instead of a throw-in. The FA was the first national association to adopt the IFAB heading trial in 2022, and it was subsequently adopted by over 16,000 teams and 107,000 players. The introduction of the rule follows a series of consultations with representatives across the grassroots game, and has been approved by the FA Board and FA shareholders.

The FA said in a statement: “We first introduced the IFAB trial with the aim to help positively shape grassroots youth football – and to ensure that matches at this level are aligned to our current heading guidance for training.

“This was established in 2020 following consultation with the grassroots game, coaches and other experts across football, and recommends that heading is removed or restricted at this level. The gradual introduction of the new rule over the next three seasons will support the players’ journey as they adapt from deliberately heading the ball in grassroots youth football matches.”

(PA Media)

Suzanne Wrack

Jonas Eidevall has said he understands why there are a “lot of raw emotions” after the announcement that the WSL record goalscorer, Vivianne Miedema, will leave Arsenal at the end of the season having not been offered a new contract. The 27-year-old forward is believed to be joining Manchester City and a layer of Arsenal fans have been vocal in their displeasure at the decision to let her leave.

Eidevall called it a “unified club decision” but said he would not go into the details of why they made it. “It’s a unified club decision; we obviously took a lot of care in making that decision and we had to weigh a lot of different factors in that decision and what’s best for the club,” he said. “I don’t think it would be worth me sitting here and explaining why or why not we go in certain directions, because I think it would be overshadowing what has been a truly remarkable story with Vivianne Miedema and Arsenal.”

The manager praised the connection “between the team and the supporters and the club and the supporters” over recent seasons and said it was only natural that these feelings would extend to individual players.

“I understand that football is emotions and decisions like this leave a lot of raw emotions as well. My message would be that, when we are working, when we are taking decisions like this, it’s to build Arsenal as strong as possible for the future and we want nothing more than to be as successful as possible on the pitch. That’s the direction we want to go as a club … We’ll hopefully also have positive and encouraging news here in the coming weeks in how we’re strengthening the squad and the set-up around the team.”

Manchester United boss Marc Skinner has signed a one-year contract extension with the option for a further 12 months.

The 41-year-old former Birmingham manager succeeded Casey Stoney at United in the summer of 2021. The team, who were launched in 2018, finished fourth in the WSL in 2021-22, then second last season, as well as being FA Cup runners-up.

They are currently fifth in the table and Skinner has faced some fan criticism, but the news of his extension comes five days on from him overseeing United win their first major trophy, beating Tottenham 4-0 in the FA Cup final.

Skinner said in a statement from the club: “It’s an honour to extend my stay at Manchester United. I’ve always felt at home here, with our excellent players, staff, and fans. Being able to secure the team’s first major trophy at Wembley was a real career highlight for me and another sign of our continued growth, on and off the field.

“Thanks to everyone who has supported me on this journey, and I look forward to creating many more winning memories together.”

Matt Johnson, interim head of women’s football, said: “Everyone at Manchester United is delighted to see Marc continue as women’s team head coach and build on the success of the team’s historic FA Cup win. Congratulations to Marc on his contract extension and we all wish him and the team the best of luck going into the new season.”

United, who were eliminated in the Champions League qualifying rounds early in their 2023-24 campaign, conclude it on Saturday by playing Chelsea at Old Trafford in their final league game.

(PA Media)

Thomas Tuchel has confirmed he will leave Bayern Munich at the end of the season after failing to reach an agreement with the club to stay on as coach after talks this week. Good news for Manchester United? The German is favourite in the ‘next United manager’ betting, although an uncertain one at 7/2 ahead of 9/2 Gareth Southgate and 6/1 Thomas Frank.

Full details from Reuters below…

Tuchel took over last March and steered them to the Bundesliga title last season but Bayern will finish the current campaign without any silverware for the first time in more than a decade. Bayern bosses had informed Tuchel in February he would not stay on for the last year of his contract and would leave at the end of the season.

But after several prospective successors, including Julian Nagelsmann, Ralf Rangnick and Xabi Alonso, decided to remain in their current jobs, Bayern turned to Tuchel to discuss the possibility of him staying on.

“This is the last press conference here. The February decision remains,” Tuchel said. “There were talks again with the club in the past week but we did not reach an agreement on a continued cooperation so we stick with the February decision. We did not agree but I won’t go into individual points. That all happens behind closed doors.”

The Bavarians, who travel to Hoffenheim on the last matchday of the season on Saturday, are battling to hold on to second place in the table and are two points ahead of VfB Stuttgart. They crashed out to third-tier Saarbruecken in the German Cup and were eliminated by Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals, ending the campaign without a trophy despite spending a league-record 100 million euros ($108.41 million) to sign striker Harry Kane.

“The decision for me to leave was taken in February so you can imagine that my head, after processing, was 1000% behind that decision,” Tuchel said. “There was the theoretical possibility of a 180 degree turn now and the initiative came from the club. The reasons why it did not happen, I don’t know, are minimal. Maybe the reasons are not clear, also for the decision in February, but it is what it is,” Tuchel said.

Norwich sack Wagner

Ben Fisher

Norwich City sacked David Wagner hours after they were thrashed by Leeds in Thursday’s playoff semi-final second leg, with the club keen to embark on a fresh approach. Defeat abruptly ended Norwich’s hopes of a return to the Premier League.

Wagner, who led Huddersfield to promotion to the Premier League in 2017, was appointed in January 2023, replacing Dean Smith. He guided Norwich to 13th in the Championship last season.

Farewell Joel Matip. Liverpool’s centre-back is leaving the club after eight seasons with the Reds. The 32-year-old was among the first signings made by Jürgen Klopp in 2015, snapping the Cameroon defender up on a free transfer from Schalke 04. He went on to make 201 appearances, scoring 11 goals and setting up the second goal in Liverpool’s 2019 Champions League final win over Spurs.

Klopp has been fulsome in his praise of the defender, whose mazy dribbles towards opposition territory helped secure cult status with the Anfield crowd.

In all the years that I have been involved in football, I am not sure I have come across too many players who are more loved than Joel Matip. I’m not even sure it would be possible to say anything bad about him,” said Klopp.

A wonderful professional, a wonderful footballer and a wonderful human being – we have been blessed to have him with us for as long as we have and now all we can do is wish him well as he heads off in a new direction.

Joel’s qualities as a player are there for all to see and as a club we have benefited from them since the first moment that he joined. I don’t think he has had too many headlines over the years but he has only ever been a very famous figure within our group.

I have said before that if there was one person who wouldn’t care if he was underrated it would be Joel, but the truth is we could not have rated him more highly. Not only has he set the standards for himself, he has set them for others and this is one of the main reasons why his time here has been so successful.

If I had to choose one moment from his time here it would definitely be his assist for Divock Origi at the Champions League final in Madrid,” added Klopp. “This was the touch that detonated an explosion in the LFC family. What a moment. What a player.

We wish Joel and his family the very best for the future.

And for the final time in the 2023/24 Premier League season, matchday 38 of 38, we bring you hot build-up to all the top-flight weekend action.

By weekend, we mean Sunday: all 10 games kick off at the same time, 4pm. And by ‘hot’ we, erm, mean the race for sixth.

Okay, there’s still a title race to complete but Manchester City are 1/12 with the bookies to get the home win over West Ham that would leave Arsenal fans performing a collective ‘what more could we have done’ shrug. “Not lost at home to Villa,” says a Spurs fan out of the side of his mouth. And if Luton win 25-0, or something like that, they could still survive on goal difference and send Nottingham Forest down.

So, yes, it’s all to play for. Come on, you won’t get another of these until August so jump aboard, see what the managers have got to say and look for the clues that will help decide who will finish higher out of Brighton (10th) and Bournemouth (11th).