Emma Hayes: Chelsea Women manager rules out exit talks after winning FA Cup final | football news

Emma Hayes insisted there is “nothing to talk about” about her future at Chelsea after leading her team to the Women’s Super League and FA Cup double with a 3-2 win over Manchester City at Wembley on Sunday. .

Sam Kerr scored the winner in extra time as Chelsea clinched the FA Cup for the club’s second trophy in a week, after being pushed all the way by Gareth Taylor’s side who twice recovered from a goal against

It was the 11th major trophy Hayes has won since taking charge of Chelsea in 2012, but the 45-year-old was quick to dismiss any suggestion that it could mark the end of an era for her at the Blues.

“Everyone knows I have a contract at Chelsea, so what’s the speculation? Is there a job you guys are telling me I’m looking for that I don’t know about?” Hayes said.

“As far as I’m concerned, I don’t have to kill any speculation, I’m under contract at Chelsea and there’s nothing to talk about.”

In a game played in front of a new FA Women’s Cup final attendance record of 49,094, Chelsea twice took the lead through Kerr and Erin Cuthbert in normal time.

However, City struck back both times through Lauren Hemp and then Hayley Raso, whose 89th-minute equalizer forced the game into extra time, and it was Kerr’s deflected effort in the 99th minute that finally decided. the result.

Hayes paid tribute to the “incredible” Australian striker, whose match-winning brace capped a season in which Kerr won the Golden Boot as the WSL’s top scorer and was named the Football Writers’ Association Women’s Footballer of the Year.

“She’s ridiculous,” Hayes said. “I saw her mom and her dad in the crowd and her brother, they said he was too tight
and so tense. Sam probably won’t be too happy with those kinds of finishes.

“There was a moment in the game where I thought she was knackered, but she just digs and digs and digs and has everything. She has character, charisma, charm, courage in her game, we have an amazing center-forward.”

Manchester City manager Gareth Taylor, whose team finished third in the WSL this season, admitted it could be a big summer for the club in the transfer window, although he would prefer changes to be kept to a minimum for the sake of continuity. .

“Every summer is huge, there will always be player turnover, ins and outs,” Taylor said. “I’ve always said that if we could limit some of that, we’d be in a much better place. Normally we see the teams that work and operate at a decent level are the ones with the least turnover in the summer.”

“At the end of the day, the game is the game and the players have their ambitions or lifestyle that they can influence and for us we are very up front trying to secure these players, but the players come and go.

“We want players who want to be here, I think that’s the main thing and I think those players (in the FA Cup final), regardless of what happens in the future, showed real character and real personality.