AFC Wimbledon’s search for a new manager to replace the sacked Glyn Hodges continues.
Hodges paid the price for losing at home to bitter rivals MK Dons at the weekend. That opened up a vacancy at the League One strugglers and The Sun and the Express report that Chelsea Women’s boss Emma Hayes is on the shortlist.
Hodges to Hayes – AFC Wimbledon shortlist
It says a whole heap that about the advancements in the women’s game that a manager such as Hayes is being considered as an option for a football league club such as AFC Wimbledon.
It shouldn’t do, but it does. The women’s game has grown in both importance and stature and has become more mainstream in the coverage that has been granted to it.
More popular and better supported on the continent than on these shores, that trend has been chipped away at and women’s football is, at last, being taken much more seriously.
Part of that seriousness must account for the fact that Hayes is being mentioned alongside the likes of Neil Harris and Ian Holloway as contenders for the AFC Wimbledon job.
Hayes on merit – what the Sun says
Hayes has come from nowhere to be considered as amongst the group jockeying for position and a shot at the AFC Wimbledon top job.
She’s not there on sympathy either; Emma Hayes is there on merit alone. She’s shown that merit with how she has managed her Chelsea WSL side.
The female Blues are on an incredulous 33-game unbeaten run in the WSL and, predictably, top the table after humbling rival Spurs 4-0 at the weekend.
She’s been at Chelsea since 2012, winning two WSL and FA Cup doubles as well as walking away with a WSL and League Cup double last season.
The Sun’s William Pugh writes that whilst she is “reportedly” on AFC Wimbledon’s shortlist, he stresses that the understanding is that “Hayes hasn’t been contacted about the job yet.”
