Brentford set to appoint Bedford as head coach of Under-18s boys side

Brentford set to appoint former Leicester City women’s manager Lydia Bedford as the new head coach of their Under-18 boys side in a landmark moment

  • Brentford set to appoint Lydia Bedford as head coach of Under-18s boys side
  • She will be taking on most senior role ever at a men’s Premier League club 
  • Karen Carney believes it’s inevitable a women will manage in Premier League

Brentford are set to appoint former Leicester City women’s team manager Lydia Bedford as the new head coach of their Under-18s boys side in a landmark moment for women coaching within the men’s game.

Bedford will be taking on one of the most senior coaching roles ever held by a woman at a men’s Premier League club, according to the Telegraph.

It comes after former England international Karen Carney said it was only a matter of time before we had a women manager in the Premier League.

But Carney insisted any female coach would need huge commitment from the club that hires her to protect against the inevitable misogyny and abuse.

No female coach has ever managed a men’s professional side in England and, even at youth level, women in coaching roles of this nature at elite men’s clubs have been extremely rare.

Lydia Bedford (above) is set to be the new head coach of Brentford’s Under-18s boys side

Karen Carney (C) believes it’s inevitable that a women will manage in the Premier League

Bedford began coaching in 2008 and earned her UEFA Pro Licence in 2019.

She has risen through the ranks of women’s football to become one of the most highly rated, progressive young coaches in the game.

She went on to manage Leicester in the women’s top flight for just under 12 months but was sacked in November 2022 after a losing start to the season. 

Her replacement at the East Midlands side, Willie Kirk, oversaw Leicester’s survival on the final day of the campaign.

Bedford spent the final three months of the 2022-23 Women’s Super League season as part of Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall’s backroom coaching team as an assistant coach, working alongside the Swede as the north London club reached the semi-finals of the Women’s Champions League and finished third in the WSL.

According to sources, Bedford informed Arsenal’s women’s players of her departure in recent days.

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