Hayes’s free-scoring side claimed the FA WSL Spring Series title and made club history in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.

There has been the odd low point along the way, including FA Cup semi-final heartbreak, but with her 2017/18 squad unbeaten domestically this season and a Continental Tyres Cup semi-final berth up for grabs this weekend, the future remains bright for the Blues.

Hayes also discussed plans and aims for 2018, including some very exciting personal news…

We're almost at the end of the year for Chelsea Ladies. How would you sum up 2017?

It has been a fantastic year for us. We reached the semi-finals of the Women's FA Cup, won the Spring Series and we've qualified for the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the first time in our history. We're also unbeaten, domestically, during the current winter season, so we're very happy with how things have gone for us.

You didn't just win the Spring Series, you did it with a phenomenal record in front of goal while also conceding very few.

That really set us up for the winter season. We made a real effort to bring in a number of players in January, to give them that Spring Series to bed in and get used to how we do things here, but this group just clicked immediately. We've just gone on from strength to strength and the quality of those players deserves to be credited for how quickly we've gone to the next level.