Sue Smith - Women getting closer to getting top jobs in men’s football

The last seven days saw Doncaster Rovers Belles manager Andy Butler take caretaker charge of the men’s team while Darren Moore and his coaching staff were forced to isolate.
Manchester City's Jill Scott: Potential candidate. Picture: PAManchester City's Jill Scott: Potential candidate. Picture: PA
Manchester City's Jill Scott: Potential candidate. Picture: PA

Elsewhere in South Yorkshire, England women’s manager Phil Neville was one of the first names linked with Sheffield Wednesday after Garry Monk’s sacking.

It shows there can be a pathway for coaches between men’s and women’s football, and that is good for both.

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Nick Cushing left his job as Manchester City’s women’s coach in February to become assistant manager of sister club New York City and in 2018 Englishman John Herdman switched from Canada’s women’s to men’s team coach and national director, having previously had a spell in charge of the ladies’ team in New Zealand.

Sheffield United Women, in action against Lewes Women, are now managed by Neil Redfearn (Picture: Darren Staples/Sportimage)Sheffield United Women, in action against Lewes Women, are now managed by Neil Redfearn (Picture: Darren Staples/Sportimage)
Sheffield United Women, in action against Lewes Women, are now managed by Neil Redfearn (Picture: Darren Staples/Sportimage)

When Neil Redfearn spoke to The Yorkshire Post in the Spring he said he did not care if his next job was in the men’s or women’s game, he just sees it as a job in football. He is now in charge of Sheffield United Women.

You might say people are using the women’s game as a stepping stone but the more I think about it, the more I think: does it really matter? In every industry people use jobs as a way of progressing.

Coaches like Neville and Redfearn are going to make the women’s game better and it is not like they are blocking women because although numbers are increasing, we do not have enough top-quality female coaches.

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Being part of the set-up at a club – as Butler is at Doncaster, where he still plays as a centre-back – counts for a lot nowadays and I can understand why.

When Cushing left Manchester City there were loads of names linked but it was no surprise they made an internal appointment in Gareth Taylor, then their Under-16 coach, because he knows the club’s way of playing. I interviewed Caroline Weir this week and she told me City still play exactly the same way under Taylor.

When I played for Doncaster all we really seemed to share with the men was a ground.

Because the Belles are not in the top two tiers of women’s football it probably represents a good opportunity for Butler to find the style of coach he wants to be. He will have different things to cope with – like the challenges that come with part-time players – and the girls will respect him because he is bringing something they have not had before.

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Traditionally, the women’s game shows coaches more patience, although that is starting to change.

The question is whether it would work the same for a female coach.

Jill Scott is now Manchester City’s player-coach so is there a pathway for her to become manager then, if she wants to, in the men’s game as Cushing did?

Some people are very much of the opinion that women should coach women, and men should coach men but I disagree.

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Some of my best coaches were men like John Buckley at Doncaster Rovers Belles and Rick Passmore at Leeds United.

The big challenge is to show players you can improve them and if you do, they will get behind you.

In 2014, Corinne Diacre and Shelley Kerr became coaches of men’s teams at French Ligue 2 club Clermont Foot and Lowland League Stirling University. The hope was it would prompt others to follow their lead but it has not and both are back in the women’s game.

Imke Wubbenhorst was the first to make the jump in Germany, swapping the women’s for the men’s team at BV Cloppenburg in 2018, and remains in the men’s game with Sportfreunde Lotte.

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Chelsea Women’s manager Emma Hayes was in the odds to take the men’s job there a few years ago and perhaps that shows a little bit of a shift but it will take a lot of bravery on both sides for an English club to take a punt on a female manager. You just hope the opportunity is there.

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