Eva Olid Takes Charge of Manchester United Women's Team
Manchester United have handed the keys to their women’s team to one of Scotland’s most intriguing coaching exports, confirming Eva Olid as their new manager on a two-year deal with an option for a further 12 months.
The 40-year-old Spaniard replaces Marc Skinner, who left by mutual consent on Monday, barely a month before the Women’s Super League season begins. The timing is ruthless. The intent is clear.
From Edinburgh outsider to serial overachiever
When Olid walked into Hearts five years ago, she did so as a virtual unknown. She leaves as the architect of the club’s most successful modern spell.
Hearts had never been a major force in the Scottish women’s game. By the time she departed in May, they were leading the Scottish Women’s Premier League and had become the division’s great disruptors.
Her legacy in Edinburgh is bluntly measurable. Hearts claimed their first major silverware under her watch and reached their first domestic final, losing to Rangers in the 2024 Scottish Cup. They finished last season as the SWPL’s top scorers with 85 goals. Only Rangers, with 80, came remotely close.
This was not an accident. It was a philosophy.
Olid built her side on a bold, front-foot approach, most often in a 3-4-3 that demanded bravery from back to front. The goalkeeper was not a bystander but a fourth defender, expected to help Hearts play through pressure and drag opponents into uncomfortable positions. When it clicked, they overwhelmed teams.
United’s forwards will be licking their lips. Ella Toone, Lea Schuller and Elisabeth Terland now step into a system historically designed to create volume: chances, shots, goals. If Olid’s blueprint travels well, they will not be short of service.
A coach who can bend, not break
For all the attacking romance, Olid’s time in Scotland was not one-note. She learned to adjust.
Glasgow City were her immovable object. Across her first four seasons, Hearts simply could not beat them. Then came April. With the title race tight and the stakes sharpened, Olid went against type.
She set Hearts up to defend first, absorb, frustrate. It worked. A 1-0 win took them top of the table and delivered the statement result she had been chasing. It was also the day she told the club she would be leaving, admitting she could not go without tasting victory over City at least once.
That willingness to pivot when required will matter at United, where the demands are relentless and the scrutiny louder.
Built on development, not just results
Inside Old Trafford, the brief for Skinner’s successor was clear: a coach with a proven history of developing players. Not just winning with them.
Olid ticks that box emphatically. At Hearts, she elevated the club’s standards but also its individuals. Former captain Georgia Hunter, who left for Ipswich this summer, did not hold back in her assessment.
“She’s a great manager, very, very good,” Hunter told BBC Sport. “I learnt so much. The transition with all the players and [where] she took the club to is absolutely amazing.”
Her track record with youth is equally strong. The Husband twins, Erin and Jess, both debuted for Hearts at 15 under Olid, a clear sign of her willingness to trust talent early and mould it. United have been explicit that this strand of her CV is central to the appointment.
“Eva is the perfect coach to lead us into an exciting new era – she shares our commitment to developing exciting homegrown and young players,” said Matt Johnson, the club’s director of women’s football.
Olid has also spent time working with the Scotland women’s national team setup, experience that only sharpened her reputation. BBC Sport Scotland’s Amy Canavan was not surprised to see her land a job of this size, saying: “We were convinced she had somewhere special to go. She 100% deserves this chance and is ready for it.”
A leap into the unknown
For all the enthusiasm, there is a simple truth: Olid is untested in the WSL and has not yet managed in European competition. That makes this one of the most intriguing appointments of the summer.
She arrives popular and proven in the Scottish game, but the WSL is a different animal – deeper squads, heavier expectations, and the weekly grind of a league that demands consistency as much as inspiration.
United, though, believe they know exactly what they are buying. The club’s direction has been laid out with unusual clarity. They want a coach who can improve players week by week, who can build a style rooted in youth development, and who is not afraid to imprint a distinct footballing identity. A Spanish coach with an attacking bias and a development-first mindset fits that bill.
The process was swift. Skinner’s departure on Monday was followed by Olid’s appointment with barely a pause, her contract signed within 24 hours as United moved quickly through an already advanced recruitment plan.
Pressure from day one
Speed will not shield her from scrutiny. If anything, it intensifies it.
Skinner’s exit reopened long-standing questions about United’s ambition for their women’s team. Supporters have demanded more – more investment, more clarity, more seriousness. They will now demand answers from the dugout as well.
Olid steps into a dressing room that has been thinned out over the summer and a fanbase that has grown impatient. Her first tasks are stark: galvanise a depleted squad, integrate younger players, and install her ideas fast enough to be visible when United open their WSL campaign away to London City Lionesses on 4 September.
Four weeks. That is all she has before the talking stops.
For Olid, this is the dream job she has openly embraced. “The opportunity to become head coach of Manchester United Women is a dream come true,” she said. “There is already so much talent within our squad and I am excited to work with the players to support them to fulfil their immense potential.”
Dreams, though, do not last long in football without results to sustain them. United have gambled on a coach who turned Hearts from outsiders into contenders. Now comes the real question: can she do the same under the floodlights of the WSL, with Manchester United stitched across her chest?
