Ex-Scotland women’s boss ‘lands key role at Prem club’ developing MALE players

HEARTS are set to hand former Scotland women’s head coach Shelley Kerr a key role developing MALE players.

Capped 59 times by her country as a player, the 55-year-old spent three years managing the Scotland women‘s team in which she led them to the 2019 Women’s World Cup.

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She’s already made history in the men‘s game once before, after becoming the first woman to take charge of a men’s senior team in the form of Lowland League University of Stirling.

And now she’s poised to do so again after it was revealed she’s set to land a key development role working with MALE players at Scottish Premiership side Hearts.

The Guardian are reporting that the Jambos are poised to confirm Kerr as their first technical development manager – making the Uefa pro licence holder the first woman to take on such a role at a major Scottish club.

She will also assist with the Hearts B team and monitor the progress of coaches at the training base.

It’s another massive departure at the Gorgie Club, who recently signed a deal to work with Tony Bloom‘s Jamestown Analytics and made the left-field appointment of Neil Critchley as manager.

Kerr has been working with the FA south of the border in recent years.

Her role has been involving managing the implementation and development of England Women’s ‘How We Play’ strategy across all women’s national teams and oversee the development of the women’s national coaches to ensure they are consistently at the forefront of technical excellence.

Kerr left the Scotland women’s job after the failure to qualify for the European Championship – but there was major controversy when certain players weren’t happy with her debrief after the nation’s World Cup exit.

Some squad members took exception to certain points raised by Kerr – while others felt their manager and her staff had too much alcohol before the meeting.

Kerr has spoken of her regrets, saying: “There were a few hard and fast conversations.

“That will always happen in a performance environment.

“On reflection, would I do things different? Yeah, of course.

“For me, there’s some heated discussions. That happens in football and high performance at times.

“On reflection, you’ve got to look at that and I look at that as the head coach, being responsible and saying maybe the timing because the emotions – certainly you look at the circumstances – were so unique.”

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