Manchester United have confirmed the appointment of former England captain Casey Stoney as the first head coach of their newly-formed women’s team.
The 36 year-old has left her role as assistant to Phil Neville with the England team to take up the United role and will look to earn promotion from the newly-branded WSL Championship at the first attempt.
Stoney is very respected within the women’s game, retiring last season in order to concentrate on coaching at the end of a highly-decorated playing career with Arsenal, Liverpool and England.
She will now have to build a team from scratch that is able to compete in the second tier and United are confident they will be able to recruit a number of high-profile players this summer, even though they are not in the top division.