Chelsea defender Jess Carter has caused a stir after she liked several social media posts criticising comments from her manager Emma Hayes about player-to-player relationships.
Hayes, who is set to leave the club at the end of the season, said that both player-to-coach and player-to-player relationships were ‘inappropriate’ in a press conference on Thursday.
The comments came after Leicester City suspended manager Willie Kirk over his alleged relationship with a player in his squad.
The previous month, Sheffield United sacked Jonathan Morgan, the manager of their women’s side, after it emerged he had been in a relationship with a player when he was at a previous club.
There are several high-profile player relationships in the Women’s Super League, including Carter, who is dating fellow Chelsea teammate Ann Katrin Berger.
While the England international has not spoken out publicly against Hayes’ remarks, the 26-year-old has liked a number of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, that were critical of her manager’s stance.
One comment from sports presenter Beth Fisher read: ‘Beyond bonkers to bring player-to-player relationships into this conversation in my opinion.’
Another post liked by Carter from women’s football writer Jessy Parker Humphreys said: ‘Anyone aligning coach x player relationships with player x player relationships is fundamentally misunderstanding the power imbalances at play.’
Hayes suggested that relationships within a squad are nothing new but pose unique challenges that can be tricky to navigate.
‘One player is in the team, one’s not in the team. One might be in the last year of their contract, one might not be. One might be competing in a position with someone else, you don’t need me to spell that out, it presents challenges,’ she said.
‘It’s quite challenging for coaching teams to have to deal with it. You talk about it from a hierarchal perspective, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t present challenges, it does, I think you have to work an awful lot on how to manage those challenges in the locker room because they are far from ideal.’
Liverpool women’s manager Matt Beard, meanwhile, has suggested that he has ‘no issues’ with player-to-player relationships.
‘I think one in five people meet their long-term partner in a work environment,’ he said. ‘The key thing is that if there is a relationship it doesn’t affect your day-to-day job but for me, I’ve got no issues with it.’
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