Emma Hayes admits Chelsea WSL title to Olympic final has been a ‘whirlwind’

Emma Hayes has described her journey from guiding Chelsea to the Women’s Super League title in May to standing on the brink of Olympic glory with the United States less than three months later as a “whirlwind”.

Hayes, 47, has not even had time to unpack her old locker from Chelsea as she prepares to lead out the four-time Olympic champions for Saturday’s final against Brazil at the Parc des Princes, looking to regain the title they last won at London 2012.

“I might make a trivial pursuit question one day!” Hayes said. “Going from my beloved Chelsea to the United States women’s national team, what a whirlwind, what a dream all at once.

“To finish my time at Chelsea with another WSL title and then be here competing for gold, honestly this is the stuff dreams are made of.”

The US came through the group stages with a perfect record but had to dig deep to beat Japan and Germany in the knock-out stages.

The American players have spoken of their English coach as a breath of fresh air.

They may not understand all of their Londoner’s jokes but they have embraced her move to ensure there is plenty of room for fun as well as hard work.

Central to that is the karaoke machine, with Hayes saying her go-to song was Vanilla Ice’s ‘Ice Ice Baby’.

Saturday’s match will be just her 10th in charge since she took over in June. She inherited a team still trying to rebuild its identity after last summer’s dismal showing at the World Cup, but her impact has been almost instantaneous.

“I don’t think like that,” Hayes said, when asked if she was ahead of schedule in the job. “I only every think about things within my control. I knew we didn’t have time to waste. We had to deliver in a concise way the methodology, the principles, all of that