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Manchester United are set to appoint the former Hearts manager Eva Olid as their new head coach to replace Marc Skinner, following his exit on Monday, multiple sources have told the Guardian.
Talks with the 40-year-old are understood to be very advanced and she is expected to be introduced to the United squad on Wednesday.
United are confident that the Spanish coach is the right person to lead them into a new chapter, as first reported by the Telegraph, as the Women’s Super League club focuses on developing young, homegrown players.
Olid led Hearts to their first Scottish Women’s Premier League title last term on a dramatic final day of the season, but it had already been confirmed in April that she was to leave the Edinburgh club this summer by mutual agreement. She was in charge of Hearts for five years and also guided them to the 2024 Scottish Cup final, where they were beaten by Rangers.
She has previously coached in the United States with Houston Dynamo, working with their women’s team and their under-19s men’s squad, before she had a spell with the Catalan Football Association.
United are understood to be impressed by her playing style and her ability to develop and improve players, and they carried out extensive background checks on Olid prior to publicly announcing Skinner’s departure on Monday, with succession planning having already been well under way.
Skinner left partly because of frustration at United’s transfer strategy. The club are understood to feel the current level of spending across the WSL is unsustainable and they want a different approach, focusing on their own younger talents and improving their academy to deliver longer-term success.
United finished fourth in the WSL last term. They start the new season away to big-spending London City Lionesses on 4 September.
The news comes on the day that the United captain, Maya Le Tissier, said her team will “stick together” and be ready for the new WSL season, despite Skinner departing.
Le Tissier and the rest of the playing squad were informed by Skinner that he would be leaving, in a meeting on Monday morning shortly before the news was announced, and on Tuesday Le Tissier and her England teammate Ella Toone paid tribute to Skinner for his contribution to the club over five years in charge, which included winning the 2024 Women’s FA Cup.
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Le Tissier said the “energy he brought to the club was amazing”, while Toone told reporters: “He wanted to tell the team before it came out. It was nice that he was able to tell us [and] he was able to say goodbye, because he’s done a lot for the club. We can’t thank him enough for everything he’s done, the hard work and the passion that he’s put into leading this team.”
Le Tissier said that neither she nor Toone have been consulted on who the next head coach should be but added: “I think the club have been pretty clear with what they’ve said, bringing through the youth, that’s what something Manchester United has been kind of made for, and they’ve always done that historically. I think they’ve been pretty clear with that. When we speak to the new manager, the ambitions will be clear.
“Me and Tooney are at Man United because we want to win and we’ll be doing everything we can to make that happen. We’ve got a great team, a great squad, great girls. I’m ready to do that.
“No matter who comes and goes, we’ve always had that togetherness and that fight for each other and we stick together in tough moments. There’s been a few over the years and we’ve always come through as a team, and, yeah, this one might be difficult right now, we’re in the start of pre-season and we want to make sure that we’re 100% ready for the start of the season.
“We spoke to the girls today, we’ll stick together, we always do. We’ve got to go out on the pitch, enjoy playing football and being with each other and we’ll get through it.”
