The unamed Chicagp WPS team annoucned Emma Hayes as their first coach. I think this is a great signing and very impressed with her. I would imagine that some of the players from the Arsenal women's team will end up in Chicago. http://www.womensprosoccer.com/newsitem_ektid2726.aspx?team=chicago
Great move. Saw her put on a couple of sessions at the NSCAA convention and they were excellent and she will bring an exciting style of play to Chicago based on the passing game of the Arsenal men's and women's teams.
Congrats Peter. Now hopefully the name will be announced soon. Getting Kelly Smith in Chicago would be something.
You have to remember Kelly Smith is the assistant academy director. With Hayes coming to the U.S., Arsenal may very well offer her the job now. And even if she doesn't get Hayes job, I have a feeling she won't be coming back. Though she speaks fondly of playing pro ball here in the U.S., she went through one hell of a depression while she was here and it took a lot of time for her to overcome it. But again, that's just speculation ...
I'm with redcard on this one. I would be very surprised to see Kelly Smith come back to WUSA. In fact, my money is on the foreign players that come this time around to be the young ones, the ones that don't have much holding them back in their respective countries. But the fact is that in places like Germany, Norway, Sweden countries have had another 5-6 years since WUSA to develop their leagues even further, and between national team and club pay, not to mention side jobs, many of the players are doing well enough that it would have to take one hell of an offer from a club to leave their settled lives and come over. With the new budget for the WPS sounding a lot smaller, I would say that the established stars who are older, such as the Kelly Smith's wouldn't be so inclined to come. But I guess time will tell.
Agreed completely. I think there will be some wild cards, but I don't think you'll see nearly as many big names come over as they did last time.
Here's another article about it. http://www.socceramerica.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=26556 Not sure if they get Smith. But I would think that with Emma Hayes being an assistant coach for probably the best women's club team in not only England but also Europe, the chances of some Arsenal women players ending up in Chicago is pretty good. Here's the announcement from the Arsenal site. http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?...827&title=Hayes+announces+departure+from+Club
Here's a couple more articles. http://www.womensprosoccer.com/newsitem_ektid2758.aspx?team=chicago http://chicagosports.chicagotribune...es-chicago-womens-soccer-club,1,4050515.story
Kelly Smith I wouldn't bet on because of the job she has at the Academy, it'd be a slightly foolish thing to do economically. But at the same time I still think it's possible because in all the post WWC interviews I saw with her I got the strong impression that she wasn't completely satisfied with her career and she was looking for a bit more of a competitive challenge on the pitch, and she just seems like the type of person who lets her competitive spirit get the better of her. There was also some article out there that she said probably not to the new American league, but that she wasn't willing to say absolutely no, meaning she could be convinced, and really who better to convince her? Emma Byrne, however, did say she would not.
Chicago signing Haynes is a great move, they will gain some great coaching experience from her. She did great with Arsenal. As for Kelly Smith, I have heard through the grapevine here in the UK that she might be moving over to play aswell as Alex Scott? Only rumours but who knows...I wouldn't be surprised if she did. She deserves to play at the highest level and get paid for it.