Emma Hayes isn’t the only highly respected manager to bid farewell to the WSL this season.
Aston Villa boss Carla Ward recently announced that this will be her final season in charge of the club, although she has signed a contract until the end of the 2024/25 season.
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The former midfielder took charge of the Villans in 2021 and has since led them to a ninth place, a fifth place and what will be a seventh place this season in the WSL.
But in a statement, Ward announced she would be taking a step back from football to focus on her personal life.
She said: “Leaving my role here at Aston Villa has been the hardest decision of my managerial career, but I know it is the right decision for my family and me.
“Managing a big club like Aston Villa has been full-throttle work and I have always given this role 100 per cent dedication. However, I now feel it is the right time for me to prioritize other important things, like my daughter and the rest of my family life.”
While Villa have had a tumultuous season in the WSL this year, the pinnacle of Ward’s tenure was last season’s fifth-place finish, which saw them challenge the established top four in a way few predicted .
Some of his notable signings included Lionesses trio Rachel Daly, Jordan Nobbs and Lucy Staniforth, whose impact on the club was immediate.
Villa have set a precedent in challenging the bigger teams that have been replicated by Liverpool this season – who can actually guarantee they will finish in the top four if they pick up at least a point in their final game.
But Ward’s announcement, particularly after news of Chelsea boss Hayes’ departure, leaves the league in a rather surprising situation when it comes to female managers.
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Of the five female managers who led the WSL at the start of this season, four have been fired, relegated or will leave at the end of the season.
As well as Hayes and Ward, Bristol City manager Lauren Smith saw her side relegated despite a valiant effort and former Brighton boss Melissa Phillips was sacked in a surprise move by the club in February .
This leaves West Ham manager Rehanne Skinner – who is incidentally the club’s first ever female manager – as the only one to remain in the job next season.
Leicester City assistant manager Jennifer Foster took over as manager of the club following the dismissal of Willie Kirk, but it is not confirmed whether she will take up the role permanently next season.
Next season is unlikely to be much different when it comes to these numbers.
Current Lyon manager Sonia Bompastor is set to take the reins at Chelsea and promoted Crystal Palace will bring another impressive manager to the WSL in the form of Laura Kaminski.
However, unless there are changes at one of the other WSL clubs, there will still only be a maximum of five female managers out of a possible total of 12 in the league next season – and this on the condition that Foster remains in charge and Ward is replaced. by a woman.
Despite the desire to attract more female managers to football, the WSL is still dominated by male coaches.
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But Watford striker and former Arsenal star Helen Ward admitted there could be a number of factors explaining this, including the speed at which developments on the pitch were being translated into other areas.
Speaking to former Lionesses and Arsenal striker Lianne Sanderson on talkSPORT’s women’s football show, she suggested we could start to see an increase in the number of female coaches within a few years of the strong growth in the popularity of women’s football.
She said: “I wonder if it’s a generational thing. Where we see the growth of the game and people like me and you, we’re of a generation where we’re just coming to the end of our career to then look at the next step and I haven’t yet gained that experience to then manage.
“Over the years we’ve seen (former Birmingham player) Remi Allen come in (as head coach) at the London City Lionesses and do a fantastic job. And you’re going to have more players like that -there who have done their coaching badges earlier and are ready, once they finish playing, to become a coach.
“Whereas before it was a bit of an afterthought or we didn’t have time to do the badges because we were working another job as well as playing.
“So I think and I hope that as we progress and the play on the field and the game gets better from year to year, I think the training will then follow that as people come out from a playing point of view, they will then go into coaching.
“My friend Elise Hughes at Crystal Palace, she’s 22, she’s got her A license. So I think more and more players are doing that and that’s where I think we’ll see it happen over the years “There will be more and more women coming out of the game and ready to take on coaching roles.”
You can watch talkSPORT’s women’s football show on Mondays from 7pm on talkSPORT 2.
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