After leading the club to a double last season while pregnant, the manager now faces the challenge of rebuilding a squad after the departure of several key players

Last season everything came together for Emma Hayes’s Chelsea. On the pitch the team were dominant, unplayable at times, their exhilarating attack powering them to the title, unbeaten. Off the pitch, Hayes was on a more personal journey. Pregnant with twins, though tragically losing one in the third trimester, the mum-to-be balanced the emotional and physical rollercoaster of pregnancy with a double-winning campaign, giving birth to Harry two days after her team clinched the league. It really was a remarkable achievement.

But the 2017-18 campaign was also an important one because years of graft finally came together. “I feel like last season, if anything, was a culmination of five or six years worth of work,” says Hayes, sitting at Chelsea’s training ground, a plate of food balanced on one of her knees as she tries to fit more into a day than is probably possible.

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“To then go through an unbeaten season, plus win the FA Cup, plus make the semi-finals of the Champions League while being pregnant makes it special. To do all that knowing I was carrying twins was just really enjoyable.”

This season a baby at home presents a whole new set of challenges, as any working mum will know. “My God. My head’s above water. I’m not going to sit here and tell you things are all bells and whistles; I’m knackered, I’m taking it day by day, night by night. I love it and I can’t hide that but equally I’m not going to sugarcoat it. It is the best thing without a doubt I’ve ever done, though. When people say: ‘What’s your biggest achievement?’ Giving birth,” she says emphatically. “Forget the rest of it. And I’m not negating any of it.”

Hayes is often asked by Chelsea whether there is more they can do to make things easier for her and, although she does not feel she has the time to think, today she speculates on whether childcare should be provided by clubs.

“I don’t have the time to address what else can be done. I think there is more though. I’m in the middle of a first experience. Fortunately I have a good support network around me but am I sitting here and saying to myself: ‘Should every football club have a creche?’ Yes. I think that’s the starting point. There should be creches for people that work in football clubs. We put long hours in and we don’t get to see our children a lot and that’s something that I think could be considered within the game.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Emma Hayes and Chelsea with the FA Cup trophy. Photograph: NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Hayes’s family on the pitch is evolving. An experienced core of players who had been at Chelsea since she took over as manager in 2012 have moved on and she has the task of rebuilding a team to compete on all four fronts.

“I think when you lose people there’s always a sadness, there’s always a hole to fill because we’re talking about really big personalities and big characters, especially Raff [Claire Rafferty] and Eni [Aluko], but the time was right for that change and I’ve learned as a leader to not be afraid to let go,” Hayes says. “For the time that whole group was together, including Katie [Chapman, who won a 10th FA Cup as captain before retiring], we achieved everything we possibly could.

“It feels like now is the first real evolution in the six-year period. The first time we’ve had staff turnover, let alone player turnover, and it’s needed. It freshens things. It brings a new impetus. It creates a vacuum of space that others start to fill.”

Chelsea have recruited shrewdly and over the years Hayes’s signings have often seemed to fit seamlessly into her team. But the manager does not take talent alone; finding players who have the right personality is, if anything, more important. Hayes will ask around, sit down with potential players and watch them when they are losing to gauge how they cope and react.

“I’ve learned from my failures that if you get the wrong type of person in, the quality they may have as a player isn’t relevant; there’s only so many arseholes you can have in a group,” she chuckles.

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The depth of the 41-year-old’s squad was a key component of their success last term. But keeping everyone happy is impossible: “Players that don’t play aren’t ever happy. But we’ve got a cause, we’ve got a lot of games, we’ve got internationals that they’re having to juggle in a World Cup year. We need every single player.

“Not every player is going to play every week here – they have to accept that. They want to be part of a winning developed culture, so it’s important to just be honest and up front with them in the right moments, keep improving them on the training pitch, and I have to accept that if I spent my day making everybody happy I’d never make it home.”

Chelsea face a new challenge, attempting to defend their Women’s Super League crown in a now all-professional, 11-team division. “Winning becomes harder,” Hayes says. “Everyone gets better. You’ve then got to find another marginal gain but what does that look like? It can’t be the same as last year – it’s a different season.”

Although there have been criticisms, the change to women’s pyramid and increasing professionalism are vital, says Hayes. “It’s important. I wish we had 12 teams – I think that’s a missed opportunity – but we’re moving further and further towards professionalism.”

On Sunday Chelsea kick off their league campaign against last season’s runners-up, Manchester City. Hayes is critical of the decision to start with such an important game, so soon after an international break during which players have competed in crucial World Cup qualifiers.

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“I’m all about the players and the product and I think we’ve missed an opportunity,” she says, exasperated. “I’m not saying anything the FA haven’t heard me say but we prioritised the Under-20 World Cup, which I think was ludicrous. The priority should be senior football and the senior international teams. This should be a Continental Cup [League Cup] weekend so that players who have just gone and travelled 15 hours and played two games are given the time to recover properly, instead of, again, creating maximum risk of injury. It’s preposterous.”