British Olympic gold medallist Kate Richardson-Walsh has hit back at Emma Hayes after the Chelsea boss said player-to-player and player-to-coach relationships were ‘inappropriate’

Hayes was one of several managers to speak out against player-to-coach relationships this weekend.

She expanding to talk about player-to-player relationships when asked at her press conference, stating that they came with ‘some challenges’.

Hayes’ description of the relationships as ‘inappropriate’ has provovoked a backlash.

Olympic hockey gold medallist Richardson-Walsh, who married her team-mate Helen, criticised the Chelsea manager’s labelling of play-to-player relationships.

‘Hi. Definitely not “inappropriate” and certainly not being “phased out”,’ Richardson-Walsh wrote.

‘And, for the record, relationships between staff and players are inappropriate. They are an abuse of power. Can’t wait to watch @ArsenalWFC v @ChelseaFCW tonight #BarclaysWSL’.

Richardson-Walsh’s post included a photo alongside Helen, with the couple celebrating their Olympic gold medals.

Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh became the first married gay couple to compete together at the Olympic Games in 2016.

They became the first same-sex married couple to win gold at the Olympics after Britain beat defending champions Holland in a penalty shoot-out in Rio.

The couple tied the knot in 2013 after starting a relationship just before the Beijing Games in 2008.

The pair insisted their team mates saw them as just ‘Helen and Kate the hockey players’ rather than a couple.

‘It’s just a non-issue – we’re two separate players on the team and that’s how staff and players treat us,’ said Kate, who captained the side, back in 2016.

Helen added: ‘We do talk about hockey at home, we’re both massively passionate about making the squad as good as it can be but we’re trying to get better at not doing that.

‘We’ve both always wanted to win an Olympic gold medal and that is an individual dream so we wouldn’t allow our relationship to affect that.’

Helen had previously worked with WSL side Tottenham after her retirement from hockey, serving as first team performance and culture coach between October 2020 to June 2023.

Chelsea Women’s star Jess Carter has liked a string of social media posts that called Hayes ‘beyond bonkers’ following her comments.

Carter, 26, is going out with her team-mate Ann-Katrin Berger, 33, with the pair having initially met while playing for Birmingham City in 2016 before reuniting at Chelsea three years later where they established their relationship.

Player-player relationships are relatively common in women’s football, with high-profile couples including Arsenal’s Vivianne Miedema and Beth Mead, as well as Chelsea star Sam Kerr dating West Ham star Kristie Mewis. Mail Sport understands there is at least one other player-to-player relationship within the Chelsea squad.

Hayes’ comments came on the eve of their crunch Women’s Super League match against Arsenal on Friday, which could see the Gunners leapfrog the Blues and go top of the table with a victory. Carter is currently Hayes’ only fit centre back.

Journalist Beth Fisher wrote: ‘Beyond bonkers to bring player-to-player relationships into this conversation in my opinion.’

The defender also liked a Tweet that said: ‘You don’t have to justify what Emma said by the way, it’s a flawed answer no matter how you spin it. There’s a fundamental difference between player-player and player-coach relationships and that’s imbalance of power. She could’ve said anything but that.’

‘Anyone aligning coach x player relationships with player x player relationships is fundamentally misunderstanding the power imbalances at play,’ reporter Jessy Parker Humprhreys wrote.

She added: ‘Anyway if I seriously thought player x player relationships were inappropriate, I probably wouldn’t have signed the well known girlfriend of my club captain for a world-record fee.’

While Carter and Berger’s relationship was initially platonic, they shared an undeniable chemistry and went on a date before their relationship blossomed.

The German goalkeeper has also had to overcome two bouts of thyroid cancer since the pair got together – remarkably returning to play for Chelsea just a month after announcing her cancer had returned in 2022.

Hayes is one of several managers to speak out against player-to-coach relationships this weekend, with Aston Villa manager Carla Ward stating that they ‘cross the line’ and are ‘unacceptable’, per BBC Sport.

Leicester manager Willie Kirk was suspended last week over an alleged relationship with a player in his squad.

In February, Sheffield United sacked their Women’s team manager Jonathan Morgan after it emerged he had a relationship with a player while at a previous club.

When asked about player-to-player relationships in a press conference on Thursday, Hayes said that they came with ‘some challenges’.

‘I think player-coach relationships are inappropriate, player-to-player relationships are inappropriate,’ the 47-year-old said.

‘But we have to look at it in the context of where the game has come from and say we’re in a professional era now where the expectations in place for players and coaches is such that all of our focus and attention has got to be on having the top standards.

‘And that’s why I’ve always been an advocate of making sure clubs have minimum standards, whether it’s code of conduct, player safeguarding, whether it’s player welfare.’

When asked specifically on player-player relationships, she added: ‘I think it’s about the challenges it poses.

‘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.

‘I think we all know those of us who have been in the women’s game for a long period of time, those things have been happening in dressing rooms. I think longer term it would be ideal, in an ideal world, where you don’t have to deal with that.

‘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.

‘Listen, we’re dealing with human beings, and every office place has different challenges to deal with, that’s one of the challenges I have to deal with in my job, it’s the same things you have to deal with at work, I guess, it’s just I have to manage it and like I said it presents challenges.

‘We do talk about it internally, I think long term, in an ideal world, it’s something we didn’t have to.’