Why the USWNT’s leadership believes Emma Hayes is worth the wait

Before U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker set out to make Emma Hayes the women’s national team’s next full-time manager, he already knew a few things about Hayes’ experience in this country.

But as he got to really know Hayes over the last few months, he learned more about that time and the rest of Hayes’ career and coaching acumen.

Soon enough, it became clear that Hayes was worth waiting for.

“I’d seen her in various coaching workshops, et cetera, when I was at the [English] Football Association but never had the opportunity to spend a significant period of time with her,” Crocker said in a news conference Monday. “It wasn’t that until we began this process that I started to realize not only was she a fantastic coach but also a great person and somebody with real gravitas and charisma.

It’s been 11 years since Hayes concluded the last of her many coaching and consulting jobs in this country and moved back to her native England to take over Chelsea’s women’s team. She made it clear to Crocker, as she did to the public in her hiring announcement, that she hasn’t forgotten any of it.

“It’s the result she looks out for outside of Chelsea,” he quipped at one point, amid many more serious remarks.

“From this whole process, what was really interesting is how well she currently knows the team and the wider roster in the U.S. and has clearly kept a keen eye on player development in the States,” Crocker said. “Obviously, she talks about being born and raised as a coach in the U.S., where she cut her teeth, so to speak. And she’s developed into arguably one of the world’s best coaches.”

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Hayes won’t move across the Atlantic until next spring, when her ongoing season at Chelsea ends. What happens until then naturally was a subject of much discussion. How much will she come over here between now and then, perhaps starting with next month’s home games against China?

“We’re very much hopeful — we’re just working some final details around her schedule,” Crocker said. “But, being really respectful to Chelsea, it would be an ideal situation for her to come and meet the players and staff, and we’re very hopeful that can happen.”

There’s more certainty about how interim manager Twila Kilgore will handle things, including plans for her to visit Hayes in London.

“Twila is our head coach and will run the program on a day-to day-basis, make decisions, but she will stay in close contact with Emma,” Crocker said. “And we’ll work out as, time goes by, as and when Emma can be able to come over and come into camp.”

He did not hide from the fact that this was not the original plan. Crocker said in September that he planned to have the full-time hire in place by just about now.

“I was really keen to make sure we had somebody in place for December, but then what became apparent was that the best candidate in this process wasn’t available right then,” Crocker said. “But just seeing Twila evolve and develop and show her leadership qualities, I became really confident that we could manage and have an interim plan that could ensure that we could have our cake and eat it and be as ready and prepared for the Olympics as we possibly can.”

» READ MORE: No Alex Morgan as USWNT brings in new faces for next month’s friendlies vs. China

The current expectation is that Hayes will be on the U.S. bench for four games next summer, two in June and two in July, before the Olympic team heads to Paris. She’ll have a lot to do with Chelsea before then, as she aims to pilot the Blues to a first Champions League title and a seventh Women’s Super League crown.

Kilgore, who was an assistant under Vlatko Andonovski, will return to the assistant ranks when Hayes arrives. For now, she said, “I absolutely feel empowered,” and Crocker backed her up on that.

“I think it’s important to remember that nobody’s irreplaceable, and the fact that Matt and Emma trust me to help move the team forward in the interim is really empowering,” Kilgore said. “It’s a very collaborative process. … We’re working on the overall environment, what it should look like when she comes, and we’re in alignment already as humans and football coaches.”

Still, there should be ample time for Hayes to ponder her new job. And with Mia Fishel and Catarina Macario on Chelsea’s roster, there will be time for the jobs to overlap.

“It’s not ideal, as we know, that Emma can’t start with us straightaway,” Crocker said. “But from my perspective, what was important is that we got the best candidate for the long term, rather than the wrong candidate for the short term.”

Crocker believes he succeeded. So do many other people who believed Hayes was out of the USWNT’s reach, until she reached them.

Now to wait to see if that’s proven right.

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