Hayes: ‘Let myself down’ over intrasquad relationship comments

Chelsea boss Emma Hayes has mentioned she let herself down by calling intrasquad participant relationships “inappropriate” and added that she’s going to now not be offering “clickbait headlines.”

Hayes, who takes over as coach of the U.S. ladies’s nationwide workforce in June, expressed her disapproval of romantic relationships between gamers on the identical workforce Thursday, including that it will be “ideal” if she did not must take care of them.

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Hayes’ comments seemingly did not go down effectively with Chelsea defender Jess Carter, who’s in a relationship together with her teammate Ann-Katrin Berger. The England worldwide preferred a collection of posts on X (previously Twitter) criticising Hayes for her views.

When requested about Carter’s response within the aftermath of Chelsea’s 3-1 win over Arsenal within the Women’s Super League on Friday, Hayes took the chance to apologise for her remarks however did not backtrack from them.

“I want to be clear to everybody in the room, I don’t want to create any more clickbait headlines for you guys. I think sometimes that becomes the case when we have honest conversations about things,” Hayes mentioned at a information convention.

“Of course, I’m disappointed about that, of course Jess and I have had a conversation today as I have with other players in the team.

“They know precisely who I’m and what my intentions had been. But I’ve to anticipate that — I’m imagined to be probably the most well-trained, non-clickbait coach and I let myself down yesterday. I did not assume it was proper for me to make use of the time period ‘inappropriate’ for the gamers.

“I don’t take those things back, but I have zero criticism for any player in my dressing room for anything — their professionalism regardless of their status, regardless of who they are in a relationship. I’ve been unbelievably supportive of all of the players, I’ve been a champion for equality and equity.”

Hayes pointed to the dominance her facet confirmed of their win over Arsenal at Stamford Bridge as an indication of the unity that continues to exist within the Chelsea squad.

“I do want to say I have an unbelievable dressing room and you saw tonight from everyone, that they were extremely focused on the things that matter. And, as I keep saying to our players all the time, even if we have disagreements in life, we mustn’t play them out publicly,” Hayes mentioned.

“We must have them conversations with each other but it’s an important thing you must do in a workplace and everybody understands and I think you saw from the performance tonight that everybody is absolutely invested in what we are doing.

“Tremendous efficiency from everybody, together with Jess.”