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A back-and-forth battle has raged between the two clubs all season, with Manchester City hoping to prevent Chelsea from securing a fifth consecutive title.

“If you don’t improve, I’m selling you.”

A young Jess Carter sits in the middle of a white-walled room at Chelsea’s Cobham training ground, with a tactics board behind her, a fleet of analysts and fitness staff, all armed with laptops, positioned outside. quietly looking inside. Carter chews gum and looks bored, frustrated at being pushed aside to hear the same old message. In front of her is Emma Hayes.

“I want you to show every damn day that you care,” Hayes says. “You have to decide your future.”

Four years later, it’s clear what future Carter has decided to choose.

Emma Hayes managed to find a way to reflect on her achievements while seeing the big picture. Last year at Wembley, as Hayes sat with another winner’s medal around his neck – this time after Chelsea beat Manchester United to win their third FA Cup in a row – there was a moment when cut off from the relentless management of football and its daily demands. to focus on a wider journey. “When I sit at home alone and think about the work we do every day and the sacrifices we all make, I know I’ve given my life,” she reflected.

Can’t argue with that, not after 12 highly successful seasons at Chelsea, years climbing the coaching ladder in the United States in her mid-20s, countless hours before trying to find the bottom rung in England, volunteering on projects community events in her local Camden, doing her best to earn coaching badges and certificates. At that stage, there was no identifiable end point, no professional game to aspire to. It was just a goal, or even a calling, to make an impact in women’s football, maybe by winning a trophy or two.

Hayes now departs not just as the most successful manager of the modern era in England women’s football, but also as a pioneer and supporter of a game that changed beyond recognition while she was at its helm. When Hayes spoke, people listened, and in the years before Chelsea sold out Stamford Bridge for a women’s game or England won the Euros at Wembley, she shared a vision of where women’s football could go, what was holding it back. She encouraged others to dream of advancement and opportunity.