Carla Ward is stepping down as Aston Villa manager at the end of the season, the Women’s Super League club has announced.
The 40-year-old took charge in 2021 following spells as manager of Sheffield United and cross-city rivals Birmingham.
Ward led Villa to ninth in 2021-22 and then a best-ever WSL finish of fifth last term, with the club currently seventh with two games to go of what is going to be her final campaign in charge.
“To step down from my post here at Aston Villa has been the hardest decision of my managerial career, but I know it is the right one for my family and I,” she said.
“Managing a great club like Aston Villa has been a full-throttle job and I have always given the role 100 per cent dedication.
“However, I now believe it is the right time for me to prioritise the other important things – such as my daughter and the rest of my family life.
“I am immensely grateful to (president of football operations) Monchi and (director of football operations) Damian Vidagany who tried so hard to encourage me to stay in the role, but I know it is the right time to step down after our last game of the season.”
Villa said in a statement that Ward “has established the club as a force in the top-flight of women’s football” and went on to highlight her achievements in charge.
The WSL club said “an update on the manager’s position will made in due course”, with the home game against Manchester City on May 18 to be her final match in the hotseat.
Monchi, Villa’s president of football operations, said: “Carla came to us a few weeks ago and spoke of her plan to step down.
“We have had extensive dialogue with her to see if there was anything we could do to persuade her to stay, but she is adamant that she wants to take a break from the game.
“Therefore, on behalf of everybody at Aston Villa, I want to place on record our grateful thanks to Carla for everything she has achieved with us and wish her well for the future.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here