Emma Hayes reveals how she got her mojo back after calling time on her 12-year reign at Chelsea… and opens up on her new life as USA manager while pouring pints in a Camden pub

As Emma Hayes holds court in the World’s End Pub in Camden Town, it is as if she had never left these shores or indeed English football.

‘Thankfully it still smells of fart and feet,’ Hayes says about the place she spent many a night – and morning – during her youth.

Her press conference is taking place in The Underworld, the music venue in the basement of the World’s End, which has played host to a range of rock, heavy metal and alternative bands such as Foo Fighters and Radiohead.

It is a fitting venue for a manager that is like no other. Asked how it felt to be surrounded by her family and friends while she spoke to the media in this unique setting, Hayes replied: ‘F****** brilliant.’

In the space of 45 minutes, Hayes spoke on topics which ranged from politics and Donald Trump to the lack of female coaches globally and how she needed to leave her birth country to get her mojo back.

It was clear Hayes had become drained by the time she came to the end of her Chelsea career.

The ex-Chelsea boss enjoyed pulling pints as she returned to the pub she came to in her youth

A relentless 12 years had taken its toll, but the move across the pond has helped reinvigorate one of England’s most successful female managers.

‘I didn’t know what to expect,’ Hayes says of switching club football for the international game.

‘I was a little bit afraid of how was this rhythm going to affect me? I’m so used to getting in the car, driving to the training ground.

‘I worried that, it’s not 12 years, probably 25 years of doing that, six, seven days a week.

‘I worried about that for about four seconds and then I said: “OK, what’s the benefits?”

‘I get to get up and breathe, not rush. I get to take Harry (her son) to school. I get to go to the gym. I get to create my schedule in and around those things.

‘I don’t sacrifice the things that make me feel healthy. I definitely didn’t feel healthy at the end.

‘I actually felt quite unwell at the end of my time at Chelsea.

The 48-year-old admitted that the switch has helped her get her mojo back in management

‘I don’t want to say it’s pressure. I just think it’s the stress, the toll it took on me.

‘I just feel like I’ve had menopause and doing that during menopause I realised was even harder.

‘So to get on top of all of them things, I feel like I’ve got my mojo back and my smile back and joy back.

‘I didn’t realise how much I’d lost in that and to do that means that I’m loving football more than ever.’

The US are in town for a friendly against the Lionesses but both teams will be eager to get one over on the other.

‘I could sit here and say it doesn’t matter but I’m a competitor,’ Hayes says. ‘Of course we’re coming to win but it’s not my overarching goal. I want to qualify for the World Cup, I want to win the World Cup. I feel alive, I feel fresh, very invested in what I’m doing.’

When it came to Trump’s recent election victory, Hayes elected to stay clear of getting into the US national team’s complicated history with the incoming President, insisting she has not spoken to her players about it and probably won’t, given they have a busy week ahead of them.

Hayes undoubtedly became a spokesperson for women’s football in England during her years with Chelsea. While that is no longer a burden she carries, she will continue to bang the drum about issues she feels are important.

Hayes, pictured with Millie Bright, won the Women’s Super League with Chelsea back in May

But the boss was very pleased – and excited – to take on the new challenge across the pond

‘We need to develop not only more female coaches, ideally my successor, and ideally my successor is American.

‘But to do that, we still, I feel this is global, this is not about the US.

‘Go and ask how many pro-licence places there are in the UK for women, probably two per 20.

‘Is it OK, really? That’s the reality. We need to create equity, equality of opportunity.

‘This, for me, is something I want to be so intentional about so that there are more and more opportunities.

‘Not just for females to go into coaching, to do what you do or to do what he does, do what the guys behind the camera do, to enter our profession, but do it with a way that ultimately we can share what that female lens looks like and what the women’s game looks like and something that I still think we have nowhere near yet.’

Before Hayes went upstairs to learn how to pull a pint, she was asked about how her upbringing in Camden had shaped her. The answer she gave typified the person those of us in the room have got to know over the years.

‘I probably shouldn’t say this in a press conference but one of my friends used to live up in Delancey Street and she lived in a big posh house.

‘It was a nice five storey, it was lovely, it was gorgeous. And I used to go up there and maybe pretend a little bit about how maybe this would be a life for me one day.

Hayes’ USA will take on Sarina Wiegman’s Lionesses in an international friendly on Saturday

‘And I used to go home and come home with a little posh accent and my mum would say: “Your s*** still stinks.”

‘I’m from a home where you had to keep your feet on the ground and be humble and hardworking.

‘I cherish those things. I grew up in a household of dad putting money on the table at the end of the week. If you’d earned any money, if you didn’t, then we’d have to figure it out that week.

‘I don’t take anything for granted. I earned everything. I wasn’t gifted. I’m not from a privileged background.

‘As I’ve said, I think Camden’s the greatest place on earth. Not just the multicultural, diverse, eclectic place that it is, but the opportunities it gave me.

‘It’s not like I just went to an Olympic gold medal. I worked for Camden Sports Development.

‘I worked for Camden Playcentres for our kids in the community.

‘I care about people and community. Yes, without question, it shaped me.

‘You only realise that as you age. I promise you, I’m no different to the way I was at 15.’