ON TUESDAY, it was reported that League Two side Crawley Town had shown interest in Chelsea Women’s manager Emma Hayes. In 134 years of the men’s game there has never been a female manager — so who will be the one to shatter the glass ceiling?

Hayes seems the most obvious choice, with 10 years of experience at Chelsea and, having secured 11 trophies during her tenure, the numbers speak for themselves. She laid the groundwork for her career during 2006-8, where she was assistant manager of Arsenal Ladies, going on to becoming head coach and director of football operations at the Chicago Red Stars, a women’s football team based in Illinois, for two years before taking over the Blues.

The 45-year-old has a strong relationship with Chelsea men’s manager Thomas Tuchel, and has won the praise of other top football stars including Brendan Rodgers, Ian Wright and Didier Drogba.

Despite her significant impact on the women’s game and key figures, she continues to have to prove herself in the eyes of others simply because of her sex. In this day and age, this is a disgrace, and only highlights the disparities which women continue to face in sport as a whole.

Earlier this year, she shut down rumours linking her to tier three side AFC Wimbledon, expressing that the reports were an “insult” to women’s football. But she’s right — why should she have to take a demotion? If making the crossover, one would at least expect to see her take on the challenge of a team that matched her qualifications and experience. She went about getting her coaching badges in the same way as the other male managers...

The view that a female professional — with heaps of experience — is not capable of managing a squad of the other gender is outdated and downright sexist. This double standard is reinforced by the fact that half of the managers in the Women’s Super League are male, so it is not even a matter of being told to “stay in your lane,” as that lane is shared with male counterparts.

The game itself is constantly evolving, managers developing new tactics and bringing in new players to implement them. If anything, football craves new ideas and fresh insight, and you could argue that the females excluded from managing top sides previously, could do just that. Across the game and even at the highest level in the boardroom, at West Ham and Newcastle for example, women have broken through to perform the most pressurised — and previously exclusively male — roles. So why not on the touchline, in the manager’s dugout?

Of course, I recognise the gap in terms of quality between the top flight men’s and women’s sides, but I refuse to accept that this is due to the fact that women are “biologically inferior.” It has everything to do with inequality in terms of funding, wages, a difference in the level of support and training for players coming up through the ranks, as well as the encouragement for young girls to engage with sports. The fact that women’s football has gained more of a platform recently gives me real hope that these things can change, and the gap will gradually close.

The difference between men and women and the skills needed to manage a team is not the same as those needed to display quality on the pitch. The inner workings of Emma Hayes have been captured in a new documentary titled One Team, One Dream. It only takes watching a two-minute clip to realise that this woman is going to go down in history as one of the greats. Displaying passion reminiscent of Antonio Conte, a relationship with her players like Jurgen Klopp, aggression like Louis van Gaal and composure similar to Pep Guardiola: she has all the makings of a great top flight manager.

As a female sports editor, I toy with the feelings of both pleasure and shame when a man raises his eyebrows, surprised by my occupation. It’s something a man could sympathise with, but never fully comprehend.

It is wrong and patronising to assume that women are only qualified to coach women, to write about or speak about or engage with women’s sports, to attend women’s matches. We are more than the boundaries that the patriarchy instils on us, and although the sports industry is becoming increasingly inclusive, we have yet to break into one of the most influential and well-respected roles — head coach of a men’s team.

I take inspiration watching women such as Clare Tomlinson, Laura Woods, Eniola Aluko, Alex Scott and countless others lighting up our screens with bold and intelligent observations, and paving the way for those to follow. I look forward to witnessing Hayes — or any other female for that matter — celebrating goals, having her name chanted by supporters, and witnessing a breakthrough for women’s equality on the touchline, sometime in the near future. Get ready, it’s going to happen.