Female managers in the WSL still a minority as Emma Hayes and Carla Ward both depart
Emma Hayes is not the only highly respected manager who is saying farewell to the WSL this season.
Aston Villa boss Carla Ward recently announced that this would be her final season in charge of the club, despite having signed a contract until the end of the 2024/25 season.
The former midfielder took charge of the Villans in 2021 and has since led them to a ninth place finish, a fifth place finish and what will be a seventh place finish this season in the WSL.
But in a statement, Ward announced she would be taking a step back from football to focus on her personal life.
She said: “To step down from my post here at Aston Villa has been the hardest decision of my managerial career, but I know it is the right one for my family and I.
“Managing a great club like Aston Villa has been a full-throttle job and I have always given the role 100 per cent dedication. However, I now believe it is the right time for me to prioritise the other important things - such as my daughter and the rest of my family life."
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While Villa have had a tumultuous season in the WSL this year, the pinnacle of Ward's tenure was last season's fifth place finish which saw them challenging the established top four in a way that few had foreseen.
Some of her standout signings included Lionesses trio Rachel Daly, Jordan Nobbs and Lucy Staniforth whose impact on the club was immediate.
Villa set a precedent of challenging the bigger teams that has been replicated by Liverpool this season - who can actually guarantee they finish within the top four itself if they picked up at least a point from their last game.
But Ward's announcement, particularly coming after the news of Chelsea boss Hayes' departure, leaves the league in a rather surprising place when it comes to female managers.
Of the five female managers who were managing in the WSL at the beginning of this season, four have either been sacked, relegated or will be leaving come the end of the season.
In addition to Hayes and Ward, Bristol City manager Lauren Smith saw her team relegated despite a valiant effort and former Brighton boss Melissa Phillips was sacked in a surprise move by the club in February.
It leaves West Ham manager Rehanne Skinner - who is incidentally, the club's first ever female manager - as the only one set to stay on into next season.
Assistant coach at Leicester City Jennifer Foster has taken charge of the club following the sacking of Willie Kirk, but it is not confirmed whether she will take up this position permanently next season.
Next season is unlikely to look hugely different when it comes to these figures either.
Current Lyon manager Sonia Bompastor is expected to take up the reins at Chelsea and the promoted Crystal Palace will bring another impressive manager to the WSL in the form of Laura Kaminski.
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However, unless there are changes at any of the other WSL clubs, there will still only be a maximum of five female managers out of a possible 12 in the league next season - and that is providing that Foster remains in charge and that Ward is replaced by a woman.
Despite a drive to get more female managers into football, the WSL is still dominated by male coaches.
But Watford striker and former Arsenal star Helen Ward admitted there could be a number of factors for this, including the rate at which developments on the pitch were translating into other areas.
Speaking to former Lioness and Arsenal striker Lianne Sanderson on talkSPORT's Women's Football Show, she suggested that we could start to see an increase in female coaches come a few years behind the sharp growth in popularity of the women's game.
She said: "I wonder if it's a generational sort of thing. Where we're seeing the growth of the game and people like myself and you, we're of a generation where we've only just come to the end of our careers to then look into that next step and haven't quite got that experience to then go and manage.
"Now as the years go on - we've seen (former Birmingham player) Remi Allen step in (as head coach) at London City Lionesses and do a fantastic job. And you're going to get more players like that that have done their coaching badges earlier and are ready once they finish playing to step into coaching.
"Whereas before it was kind of a bit of an afterthought or we didn't have time to do the badges because we were working another job alongside playing.
"So I do think and I hope that as we progress and the game on the pitch and the playing is becoming that much better year-in year-out, I think the coaching then will follow that as people come out of the game from a playing-perspective, they'll then get into the coaching.
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"My friend Elise Hughes at Crystal Palace, she's 22 years of age, she's on her A-license. So I think more players are doing that and that's where I think we'll see it happen as the years go on. There'll be more and more women coming out of the game that are ready to step into the coaching roles."
You can tune into talkSPORT's Women's Football Show on Mondays from 7pm on talkSPORT 2.