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Chelsea reaping rewards of long-term loyalty towards Emma Hayes 

Given nine years in the job to build and craft her team, Hayes has led the club to their first Women's Champions League final

The Chelsea team gather to celebrate a historical moment for the club
The Chelsea team gather to celebrate a historical moment for the club Credit: ACTION IMAGES

When Stamford Bridge hosted the Women’s Champions League final on May 23 2013, Emma Hayes was sitting in the stands with Bruce Buck and Chelsea women’s general manager, Paul Green. As Wolfsburg beat Lyon that night to maintain German clubs’ dominance of the competition at the time, Hayes turned to Chelsea’s long-serving chairman Buck and said: ‘It’ll be us one day, Bruce, it will be us, so give me time.”

Just under three-and-a-half years later, Chelsea Women were on the hallowed Stamford Bridge turf themselves, playing at the home of their men’s side for the very first time, against Wolfsburg in the last 32 of the 2016-17 Women’s Champions League. Wolfsburg ran out comfortable 3-0 winners thanks to a devastating hat-trick from Hungary’s Zsanett Jakabfi. Evidently, Chelsea still had a long way to go.

But, in that moment, the club’s faith in Hayes was resolute, and she still recalls the loyalty she was shown after that game by Buck and Chelsea’s then-technical director, Michael Emenalo.

“I remember both Bruce and Michael Emenalo at the time came up to me and said ‘we’re going to support you, to get there’ and then I started that build,” said Hayes on Sunday, as she euphorically sipped a glass of champagne in her post-match press conference after toppling German giants Bayern Munich to reach her club’s first ever Women’s Champions League final.

Hayes was full of emotion after achieving a long-held managerial dream
Hayes was full of emotion after achieving a long-held managerial dream Credit: GETTY IMAGES

The Londoners’ enthralling 5-3 aggregate victory over Bayern is a culmination of nine years of hard work in the job for Hayes, whose side will meet Barcelona in Gothenburg, Sweden, on May 16 and become the first British club to contest a women’s European final for 14 years. But amid a wider football world where a culture of hiring and firing is all too prevalent, Chelsea’s success story is a fine advert for patience, perseverance and having faith in a long-term strategy.

“In the modern-day era, people might think nine years is a long time, but it’s not,” Hayes added. “Building a team from scratch, Bruce Buck has been immense for me, he really has, he’s backed me the whole way, and Marina [Granovskaia, Chelsea’s director] has supported us with the players we have brought in, and I think our club and our board deserve huge credit for why we’re in the position we’re in today.”

Moments after the full-time whistle, a jubilant and emotional Hayes had told BT Sport: “I have worked my whole life for today. This is thousands of hours of work. I am so proud and I am so fortunate to be working for a club I adore.”

By the end of this week, Chelsea may well have won a record fourth Women’s Super League title, as they sit two wins wins away from retaining the domestic top flight. They remain on course for a potential quadruple of major honours this term.

Meanwhile for example, their rivals Arsenal - English women’s football’s most successful club of all time - are currently searching for their fifth different manager since Hayes took over at Chelsea in 2012.

And just as the club have stuck by Hayes, her loyalty to her squad is paying off too, not least with the goal-scoring contributions of Fran Kirby, who was bed-ridden for much of last season with a viral illness amid fears she might not play again. After many a morning “crying in Hayes’ office” Kirby is delivering for her friend and coach and has found the form of her life, netting twice against Bayern at Kingsmeadow.

In-form goal-scorer Fran Kirby lays at the bottom of her team-mates celebrations
In-form goal-scorer Fran Kirby lays at the bottom of her team-mates celebrations Credit: GETTY IMAGES

Another player who has had an very different career at Chelsea so far but was equally key to their victory, was stand-in right-back Jess Carter, who is providing cover for injured Norway defender Marine Mjelde but was outstanding in not only keeping Bayern at bay but also crossing for Pernille Harder’s decisive goal that put Chelsea ahead on aggregate for the first time in the tie.

Former Birmingham defender Carter has been on the fringes of the Chelsea squad for much of the past three years, but Hayes said she was signed for European fixtures like this.

“Jess has been through a journey with us where she has had to put a huge shift in, getting her mentality right, getting her nutrition right, getting training habits right, and I think this side of Christmas all that has been right,” Hayes added.

“All the messages have been drummed into her even when sometimes she could have throttled me, but my job was to prepare her for days like today [Sunday] and she’s got the character, the will, the determination, the spirit, all of those things and she’s in the position she’s in because she’s earned it. One of the reasons we signed Jess Carter was for days like this. For sure, one of the reasons we signed her was for Women’s Champions League football.”

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