Manchester United announced their new manager, Eva Olid, but will she face the same issues as Marc Skinner and Casey Toney before her? The Spanish coach was the former Hearts manager, where she won Hearts' first Scottish Women's Premier League title. She is considered to have a reputation for developing players, especially young talents and building teams. Sources at the club had said one of the key requirements for Skinner's replacement is a coach with a history of developing players. But with a month to go to their opening match against London City Lionesses, she has a lot of work to do.
The longest-serving WSL manager, Marc Skinner, departed from Manchester United as head coach a few days ago, and one could describe it as the last nail in the coffin for the team. Sources made it clear that Skinner and the club were not aligned on the direction they were going in.
With players departing and no European football, what once was a promising team that rivalled Chelsea for the league title, missing out by just two points in the 2022/23 season, might just be falling into disrepair. He helped them win their first major trophy, the FA Cup, and guided them to their first Champions League group-stage progression, all the way to the quarter-finals, but in response to growing involvement in Europe, their WSL standing faltered, and they finished fourth outside European qualification, below the club's standards. A club that did not provide him with the depth in his squad to compete against the best teams like Chelsea or Arsenal.
Skinner had always spoken about his issues around the thin bench and the rigid recruitment parameters at the club "We need to be creative within the parameters, but what I'd say is we need to add to the group... Efforts were made in the summer, but changing market conditions blocked the planned signings. There's nothing I can do about it. Until that window, there's nothing I can do. We have to invest in the window. I've said that, and I'll be very clear on that. The club needs to support these players with their incredible talent."
All in all, given their budget was considerably lower than their top-three rivals (their wage bill was £5.9m in 2024-25, while Chelsea's was £14.5m), Skinner had done a good job in the face of widespread scrutiny from fans.
From winning their first major trophy in 2024 to losing the next two finals to Chelsea, the team looks a shell of its former self.
This summer window was no different; they lost some of the original 2018 team, ending the first United Women's team in the modern era, with Leah Galton and Millie Turner leaving, leaving only Ella Toone, whose presence is only due to the club activating a one-year extension in her contract. Probably the biggest loss will be Melvine Mallard, a key outlet from them in the goal department and with the fee of £850,000 being paid to them by Chelsea, one would hope they would have bought a player with that money, especially as they got a six-figure sum for Turn and Lisa Naalsund to Birmingham City. Plus there are strong rumours that Gabby George will leave the club this summer for Brighton. The club has only made two senior signings with their strict one-in-one-out policy. They have signed 22-year-old defender Andrea Medina and goalkeeper Janina Leitzig, who is presumably back-up to the established Phallon Tullis-Joyce.
This isn't a new revelation this season but has been going on for years. Back in 2024, Jim Radcliffe and INEOS bought stakes in the club and made it clear the women's team was not a priority for them. They moved the women's team out of their training building to allow the men to work there while it was being redeveloped, and women were put in portable cabins. To make matters worse, when Ratclidde visited the training ground, he failed to recognise Katie Zelem, the captain at the time, and asked about her role at the club; she was a lifelong United player since the age of eight and has 160 appearances for the club. He later decided not to attend the women's team's FA Cup victory at Wembley. He watched the men lose 1-0 at Manchester United instead of the women's historic 4-0 victory in London.
Other players who left include Alessia Russo. Instead of selling her in the January window in January 2023, they let her run her contract out and leave on a free, so they lost out on a transfer fee which could have been reinvested into the team or her future replacement. Mary Earps also departed United at the same time as Zele. She wrote in her book, saying her decision to leave was cited as “a lack of urgency from Skinner and the club to tie her to a new deal.” But her departure coincided with growing concerns over how the club's leadership valued the women's team.
Now the club has shifted; it has moved away from signing established stars and is focusing on younger player development and long-term aims and academy pathways, which the club describes as a sustainable model. This includes the women's academy training at the club's training facilities this season, as the club hopes to develop homegrown talent for the future but has neglected to think about the present.
This frustrated Skinner, who increasingly expressed the lack of squad investment he had. Following their 3-0 defeat by rivals Manchester City in March, Skinner said: "The team are giving absolutely everything they can. It's clear to me that if we get the right investment in the right areas, then we can meet those expectations."
He echoed the sentiment following their cup final defeat by Chelsea and again on the final day of the season as they looked ahead to the summer transfer window.
United say there has been "significant" investment in the academy, amid concerns that the current spending trajectory in the WSL is not sustainable.
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