Eva Olid Takes Charge of Manchester United Women’s Team
Manchester United have handed the keys to their women’s side to Eva Olid, a coach who built a title-chasing machine out of Scottish outsiders and now walks into Old Trafford with a two-year deal and an option for a third.
The 40-year-old Spaniard replaces Marc Skinner, whose departure by mutual consent on Monday left United searching for something very specific: a developer of players, a builder of teams, not just a manager of stars. They believe they have found that in Olid.
From virtual unknown to serial disruptor
When Olid arrived at Hearts, she did so quietly. No big fanfare, no grand promises. Five years later, she left with the club utterly transformed.
Hearts had never been one of the powerhouses in Scotland. By the time she walked away in May, they were staring down at the rest of the Scottish Women’s Premier League from the top of the table. They had their first major silverware in the cabinet and had reached a first domestic final, losing the 2024 Scottish Cup to Rangers.
That rise was not an accident. It was a blueprint.
Olid built Hearts on an aggressive, front-foot identity, typically deploying a 3-4-3 that turned the goalkeeper into an auxiliary defender and the pitch into a canvas for relentless attacking football. The numbers back it up: Hearts finished last season as the SWPL’s top scorers with 85 goals. Only Rangers, with 80, came close. Nobody else was within 20.
That attacking edge is exactly what will catch the eye of United forwards Ella Toone, Lea Schüller and Elisabeth Terland. Under Olid, chances tend to arrive in waves. For a United side that has often lacked a clear, ruthless attacking identity, this is a statement of intent.
A coach who adapts, not just attacks
Olid, though, is not a one-note idealist. Her Hearts team could grind as well as glide.
Glasgow City became her personal puzzle. Across her first four seasons, she could not find a way past them. Then came April. Hearts needed a result to go top of the table. Olid ripped up her usual script, went defensive, and shut City down in a 1-0 win that changed the complexion of the title race.
That was also the moment she chose to reveal she was leaving. She admitted she could not walk away without beating Glasgow City at least once. It said plenty about her competitive streak – and her sense of timing.
Former Hearts captain Georgia Hunter, who moved to Ipswich this summer, made no attempt to hide her admiration for her old manager. “She’s a great manager, very, very good,” she told BBC Sport. “I learnt so much. The transition with all the players and [where] she took the club to is absolutely amazing.”
At Hearts, that “transition” meant more than results. It meant young players being pushed, trusted, and shaped.
United’s brief: develop, elevate, dare
Inside Manchester United, the brief for Skinner’s successor was clear: find a coach with a proven record of improving players, particularly young ones. Someone who lives in the details of development, not just the drama of matchdays.
Olid fits that profile. She handed debuts to the Husband twins, Erin and Jess, when they were just 15. She has worked within the Scotland women’s national team set-up. Her reputation in Scotland, as BBC Sport Scotland’s Amy Canavan put it, carried an air of inevitability about this step up: “We were convinced she had somewhere special to go. She 100% deserves this chance and is ready for it.”
United’s director of women’s football, Matt Johnson, left no doubt about the club’s thinking. “Eva is the perfect coach to lead us into an exciting new era – she shares our commitment to developing exciting homegrown and young players,” he said.
That word – “era” – is doing a lot of work. Skinner’s exit triggered fresh questions about United’s ambition for their women’s side, about investment, direction, and long-term planning. The club responded quickly. Olid’s deal was signed within 24 hours of Skinner’s departure, a sign that this was no panicked reaction but the execution of a plan already in motion.
Big job, bigger scrutiny
For all her success in Scotland, Olid steps into the unknown. She has never managed in the WSL. She has not yet tested herself in European competition. Now she lands at a club where every decision is amplified and every setback becomes a talking point.
The WSL will be a step up in pace, profile and pressure. United begin their campaign away at London City Lionesses on 4 September – four weeks from Friday. That opener will offer the first real glimpse of what an Eva Olid Manchester United looks like.
The expectations are already waiting for her. Supporters have grown increasingly vocal about what they see as underachievement and mixed messaging around the women’s project. The new manager must win over a frustrated fanbase, energise a depleted squad and accelerate the integration of young talent, all while installing a new style of play.
Her Spanish roots hint at what that style might be: technical, brave on the ball, structured yet expressive. At Hearts, the goalkeeper became a playmaker, the back three became a launchpad, and opponents were dragged into uncomfortable areas of the pitch. United will want that same clarity, that same edge.
A dream job, a demanding stage
Olid has called the move “a dream come true” and spoke of the “immense potential” already inside the squad. The romance of the opportunity is obvious. The reality is harsher.
She is walking into a club that expects to compete at the top end of the WSL and to do so with a clear identity. She must deliver development and results, style and steel. There will be no long bedding-in period. Not at Manchester United.
Yet this is exactly the kind of challenge her career to date has been building towards: take a team that has drifted from the top bracket, impose a bold idea, and drag it upwards. She did it in Edinburgh, arriving as a virtual unknown and leaving with Hearts “top of the pile.”
Now she stands at the threshold of the WSL, charged with turning potential into something far more tangible.
In a month’s time, at London City Lionesses, we start to find out whether her brand of football – and her belief in youth – can carry Manchester United Women where the club insists it belongs.
