Marc Skinner Departs Manchester United Women Before New WSL Season

Manchester United Women are heading into the new campaign without the coach who helped drag the team into the domestic elite.

Marc Skinner has left his role as head coach just over a month before United open their Women’s Super League season away to London City Lionesses on 4 September, the club confirming his departure after five years in charge.

The timing is brutal. The backdrop is anything but.

Skinner, who signed a new two-year deal only last summer, leaves having overseen the most successful spell in the short history of the modern United women’s side. Under his watch, United reached three consecutive Women’s FA Cup finals, finally lifting the trophy in 2024 – the club’s first major honour in the women’s game.

That win at Wembley felt like a landmark. A line in the sand. United had been building towards something tangible; Skinner delivered it.

The progress was not confined to the cups. United finished as WSL runners-up in 2023, pushing for the title and announcing themselves as genuine contenders in a league long dominated by Chelsea and Arsenal. Last season, they fell back to fourth, missing out on European qualification, but still went deep on multiple fronts.

Skinner steered United to the Champions League quarter-finals and the League Cup final, adding European pedigree and more big-occasion experience to a squad still learning what it means to live under the weight of the United badge.

The club’s statement reflected that sense of growth and gratitude. “Marc leaves having made a significant contribution to the continued progress of Manchester United Women,” it read. United highlighted his “professionalism, commitment and dedication” and wished him “every success in the future.”

No replacement has yet been announced, and the calendar offers little sympathy to whoever steps in next.

United’s opening WSL fixture at London City Lionesses on 4 September, live on Sky Sports, is followed by a home clash with champions Chelsea on 13 September and a trip to Arsenal on 19 September. Three games, three very different tests, one unforgiving start.

For a squad that has tasted a first trophy, a European run and a title push under Skinner, the next few weeks will define whether that period is remembered as a foundation – or a peak.