West Ham part ways with women’s head coach Rehanne Skinner

West Ham United have parted ways with women’s team head coach Rehanne Skinner after two and a half seasons in charge of the side.

The 46-year-old leaves West Ham 11th in the Women’s Super League (WSL) at the halfway point in the season with just one win in 11 matches, two points above winless Liverpool at the bottom of the table.

West Ham’s only league victory of this campaign has been a 2-1 win over Everton on November 16. They have drawn two and lost eight of their other fixtures.

“Recent results have not matched expectations and the board of directors believe that a change is necessary to help improve the team’s position in the WSL as soon as possible,” West Ham said in a club statement.

During her two and half season tenure, West Ham have an 18 per cent win record. Skinner was appointed West Ham manager in July 2023 after she was dismissed as Tottenham Hotspur manager in March that year following nine straight league defeats.

In her first season in charge West Ham finished 11th, avoiding relegation to the WSL 2 (then known as the Women’s Championship) by nine points.

Results improved slightly in the 2024-25 campaign as West Ham increased their points tally from 15 to 23 but finished ninth.

Skinner helped found Leicester City’s women’s team in 2004 before taking charge of the first team two years later. She joined Arsenal as an assistant manager in 2010 prior to the inaugural WSL season, which culminated with the side winning the domestic treble.

While at Arsenal and Leicester, Skinner also coached various youth age groups at international level with England, before moving to the United States in 2013 to coach young players.

She returned to youth coaching with Wales in 2016, also serving as an assistant with the women’s senior team, before again working with England youth teams between 2017 and 2020.

Skinner was then appointed as an assistant under Phil Neville with the England national team before being appointed as head coach at Tottenham Hotspur in November 2020.

Skinner has candidly spoken out about women’s football managers’ mental health.

“Mental health and wellbeing is part of performance,” Skinner told BBC Sport and Girls on the Ball podcast in October.

“Coaches are high-performing every week, just like players. Yet it’s not something that’s talked about.

“It’s a huge concern. Most of the time managers will talk to other managers because outwardly, where you go for that support, is really difficult.

“There’s only one place and that’s the LMA (League Managers’ Association). They are the only independent entity that recognises stresses that managers are under.”

West Ham face Manchester City in the League Cup quarter-final on Sunday.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

West Ham United, Women's Soccer

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