The Chelsea boss is frustrated that her team won’t play at home now for five weeks, but other managers at top clubs are looking forward to the cup
Chelsea boss Emma Hayes has called for the FA to ‘get rid’ of the Continental Cup and instead focus on ‘one f**king league’.
The Blues welcomed more than 4000 fans to Kingsmeadow on Sunday as they beat reigning champions Arsenal 2-1 in a huge clash in the division’s title race.
But Hayes was left frustrated after the game when she was told that scheduling means Chelsea will not play another home game for five weeks.
Instead, her side will travel to Crystal Palace and Lewes in the cup, either side of an away league fixture at West Ham, before the November international break.
“I will say it again, get rid of the Continental Cup,” Hayes said.
“Get rid of it, make more league fixtures. How are we going to get continuity? Play [each team] three times.
“If you want the Continental Cup, play it for [the Championship]. Sell the WSL.
“Why are we diluting our product? This competition, that competition… Boom, one f**king league. It’s not difficult.”
For Chelsea, while they will attract fans when they play away in the competition, their home cup fixtures are not on the same level as Sunday’s game.
The Blues are the big fish in a small pond, in a group with Reading, Crystal Palace, Lewes, West Ham and Tottenham.
But for teams like Manchester United, who welcome current Continental Cup champions Manchester City in the competition this Sunday, it’s much different.
And with United having reached the semi-finals of the cup last year while still a second-tier side, manager Casey Stoney is in no rush to see the competition leave her team’s calendar.
“I can understand that you can’t get any continuity in terms of growing your crowd,” she said, sympathising with Hayes.
“We’re lucky. We’re at home and we’ve got a derby so I’m not complaining! But I can see when you’re trying to grow momentum it’s difficult.
“I remember when we came back after the 2015 World Cup and we [Arsenal, her former team] wanted to capitalise, but we didn’t have a home game for nearly eight weeks.
“There are things that still frustrate but I actually think it terms of league scheduling it’s probably the best we’ve ever seen it and that’s probably because there’s less international windows as well.
“[The cup] was brilliant for us last season. We needed it because it meant that we could play better teams.
“We’ve got a really difficult group this time,” she added, with United pitted against fellow top-tier sides Man City, Birmingham and Everton, the quartet joined by Championship club Leicester.
“It still gives us a great opportunity to play Man City three times, Everton three times. Unfortunately, the other groups are slightly weighted the other way.
“I can understand where [Hayes is] coming from.”
For City boss Nick Cushing, Sunday’s Manchester derby will be his team’s third game in seven days.
The Citizens have a difficult run in at the moment, having played the first leg of their UEFA Women’s Champions League last-16 tie with Atletico Madrid on Wednesday, in which they drew 1-1.
Now, they face Man Utd and reigning champions Arsenal before flying to Madrid for the return leg, but Cushing, who has won the Continental Cup three times as City boss, is not fazed at all.
“I don’t think we can lose, really,” he explained.
“If we go on and lose against Man United and lose against Arsenal, that’ll be the biggest kick up the arse this team needs and we’ll go on and be stronger than we ever have been.
“If we win the games, it’ll make us so mentally strong that we’ll go into every game thinking, ‘We’ve just beat Man United, Arsenal and Atletico Madrid. We can take on the world’.
“As the coach, I’ll always look at the positive in it.”
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