Guardiola of the women's game: Emma Hayes is the trailblazing manager who's turned Chelsea into a trophy-winning machine

Emma Hayes knew something was not right. The Chelsea manager had learned to cope but she could not hide her pain any longer. Her body had stopped fighting.

As she stood in the tunnel at Prenton Park ahead of her team’s first game of last season against Liverpool, Hayes confessed to opposite number Matt Beard: ‘I don’t want to go out there.’

Beard organised for a bed to be put in a private room so Hayes could rest. Somehow, she found the strength to manage her team through that match.

In her own words, Hayes, 46, spent the entire second half knowing Chelsea needed a goal but doing nothing about it. ‘All I could think was, “I’m going to lose more than this game if I’m not careful”.’

Two days later, Hayes told her players she needed an emergency hysterectomy and would require time off.

After the five-and-a-half-hour operation, Hayes was told she would probably have had a heart attack, fuelled by stress, within five years if she had continued to struggle on in ‘survival mode’.

Hayes missed six matches. General manager Paul Green and assistant Denise Reddy took the reins and won every game. In 11 years as Chelsea boss, Hayes has built a machine that keeps running, no matter who is at the wheel.

The story of her emergency hysterectomy — complicated by chronic endometriosis — is one of many details in Hayes’s audiobook, Kill the Unicorn, which gives a fascinating insight into her management and leadership style.

The title is derived from the concept of a head coach or leader being seen as a ‘magical creature able to solve any problem’.

Hayes says: ‘We’ve got to kill the unicorn. All leaders make poor decisions at some point in their careers because they are human. None of us have a crystal ball. Perhaps it’s best not to believe the