I hope I am wrong, but as long as this man is in charge, I am afraid things will not change for the women’s team. Chelsea already are bringing an excellent coach. I won’t be surprised that next year he will also struggle against Arsenal and United, and perhaps also Aston Villa, if they strengthened their teams.
Obviously there is talent and quality in our team, but the coach has major limitations from early on during his tenure, and importantly he doesn’t learn and change: consistent bias towards some players, insistence on playing players out of their natural positions, low footballing IQ, poor game management, and absence of basic player management such as motivation and encouragement. He is getting to his FIFTH season with a single league cup to show despite having high quality players at least during 3 out of his first 4 seasons. Despite that, whoever has the power, extended his contract during the season for 3 more years, and that was a terrible mistake that defies basics of successful business. The one who agreed on that renewal should be at least investigated. At the meantime, there is a strong opinion on here that this coach is highly connected at the club, and basically untouchable. Unfortunately, considering the ongoing events, this notion appears to be true. I didn’t have the opportunity to watch the Aston Villa game, but I saw the highlights. I noticed that he again used Chloe Kelly in an important game despite her unhidden disinterest during entire season. I was sad to see the players down after the game realizing that winning the league was in hand, then was gone because of the coach’s poor management during Arsenal’s game. We needed a draw or better a win, but he failed again to come up with a successful strategy to secure that. It was also disappointing to see this smug walking around with a smile on his face after the game, despite the suffering of the players. What an idiot. He should never be in charge of this team anymore, but then…
What also baffles me is that some on BM keep defending and finding unsubstantiated excuses for his failures. They keep ignoring that he already spent four years with this team, not 1 or 2. If he had some mediocre (mediocre is really harsh considering the level of most the clubs in this league) players one year, he had excellent players in the other 3 years. Face it, the man is not at the level. It is not his first time. He showed the same pattern before when he was in charge of one of the youth teams. As I recall, the players disliked him, and the team just failed during his tenure. The club keeps proving that the women team is there only for PR and media purpose by insisting on keeping this nincompoop in charge.
