EMMA Hayes says Chelsea’s Women’s Super League title challenge is over after their 4-3 defeat to Liverpool at Prenton Park on Wednesday night.
The Blues were in contention for a quadruple at the end of March but Hayes is now set to end her twelve-year spell before she takes over the US side without a trophy for the first time in five seasons.
Chelsea lost the League Cup final to Arsenal, the FA Cup semi-final to Manchester United before Barcelona came from 1-0 down in the Champions League semi-final to win 2-0 at Stamford Bridge.
Hayes’ side, who are chasing a fifth successive league title, are six points behind Manchester City with three games to go, one more than the leaders who have a better goal difference of plus-eight.
“I have amazing memories of this football club and we won a lot of things and I’d love to win titles again for Chelsea,” Hayes said. “But that’s not going to be this year I’m afraid. My job now is to prepare the team for the last few games to continue to compete and enjoy.
“We will never give up, but the title is far from us. It’s not in our hands. City deserve it, their consistency has put them in that position. We will go to the end but I don’t think the title will be heading to us this year.”
Chelsea led at the break through Aggie Beever-Jones before a dramatic second half that was decided by an injury-time header from Gemma Bonner.
Hayes added: “I’m not going to be harsh on the players, for years they have delivered a lot for this football club and for me.
“And I know they want to win the title, but me being me, you can’t concede three set-piece goals, four in a half and expect to win a game of football. That’s why we’re on the losing end, but I’m going to be kind on my players after everything they’ve done. I don’t want to be too harsh on them.”
“We looked exhausted but I don’t make excuses. I want to remind our fans how much success we have brought over the years.
“It’s not to be this year but I’m sure Chelsea will continue to be at the top of the game and it’s important that we go out in the best possible way.”
“No other club in our league is playing in four competitions like us,” Beever-Jones said. “Arguably you can say that showed today, but we’re Chelsea and we want to be in four competitions. We still put a battle up that we can be proud of.
“It’s not over yet, there are still three games of the season and we’re not written off just yet. If teams want to write us off that’s fine. We can have this conversation when the league is done and we’ll see what the outcome is.”
