Column: USA and Emma Hayes, the most intriguing match up
While not official, the bombshell Emma Hayes is leaving Chelsea has been followed by news she will take over the USA in what would be one of the sport's most intriguing coaching moves...
The really exciting thing about covering a sport, any sport, but more so one of the fastest growing sports in the world is there is ALWAYS something to talk about.
It's never boring. It always moves on. There is always another game, another trophy, another final, another transfer, another bit of breaking news, and sometimes something comes out of the blue to really take you by surprise.
On Saturday, that happened, as Chelsea stunned everybody by announcing off the back of their 6-0 win over Aston Villa that Emma Hayes, who has been in charge for over a decade, would be leaving at the end of the season, with little warning it was coming.
With rumours the news of Hayes' departure to the USA national team job - more on that soon - it appears they swooped it to cut off any potential leaks, with even their own players only finding out soon after the game, and USA players finding out the same day.
But this has clearly been in the pipeline for much longer, and it will provide moving parts which will reshape the top end of both the club and international game.
Because while on the one hand the top national team on average over the past decade going after statistically one of the best coaches of the last decade should be little surprise, the sheer vastness of the reality makes it feel such a way.
And that is why it makes this appointment so intriguing, even if there's been no official confirmation yet by US Soccer. Hayes is a brilliant coach and a brilliant people person, but this is something so unknown to her compared to her 11 years at Chelsea.
It won't be on the grass every single day job, it will be in a ruthless environment and culture where anything but success is failure, and walking straight into an Olympic games where the USA need to pick themselves up off the floor after a poor World Cup, with very little preparation time for Hayes herself.
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She will of course get a year working with two of the USA's brightest talents in Catarina Macario and Mia Fishel, who will no doubt make up a big part of her team across the pond in years to come, and the prospect of Hayes taking those two, plus Sophia Smith, Alyssa Thompson, Trinity Rodman and co into their peak years is mouth-watering.
But it's still a massive step into the unknown for everyone involved, and that's what makes it such an intriguing and exciting proposition. A huge part of the women's football community, whether that be fans, the media or players and coaches themselves, have known little else but Hayes and Chelsea together.
Hayes though of course is reasonably well versed in the American game, having spent the best of a decade pre-Chelsea across the pond, coaching Chicago Red Stars, Long Island Lady Riders and at Iona College, as well as advisory roles at Western New York Flash and Washington Freedom.
For the English game, it's of course a colossal loss, but also huge to see one of our prized assets and our most decorated female coach head-hunted by the 2015 and 2019 world champions, when they could realistically have had their pick of anyone they wanted, such is the lure of the job, hammered home by the fact it's the one which has finally got Hayes to say goodbye to the only thing she has known for a decade and more.
Beyond that, while Hayes will see out what will be anticipated to be another trophy-laden season at Kingsmeadow, it also raises the question of who will take on one of the biggest club jobs in Europe, and replace someone who has enjoyed almost unprecedented success in the modern era.
It is, in every sense of the world, a huge gap to fill, but also a privileged one for whoever is chosen. They'll be walking into a leader of the women's game, a club which supports its women's team on and off the pitch and has the silverware to show for it. They will be inheriting a whose who of world class talent and some of the best young talent moving forward which Hayes has assembled over the past couple of years, such as Sjoeke Nüsken, Wieke Kaptein, Hannah Hampton etc.
The fact Hayes has so evidently been planning the club's future shows that while these conversations will have existed longer than we knew, they have perhaps not been going all that long, but it's a great position for someone to come into, even if the pressure to replicate the success of Hayes will be unenviable.
This move is one of the biggest managerial switches we've seen in the women's game to date, both for the international game and the domestic game here in England, and that's what we love about sport.
For Hayes, it's the opportunity of a lifetime, and it will be incredibly intriguing to see how it plays out.
The most successful manager in WSL history, and the second most successful one in modern English history, just behind Vic Akers, Emma will be sorely missed.