Yesterday evening, Southampton Women’s FC confirmed that Aaron Smith will leave his role as First Team Manager with immediate effect.
This massive news is something that I wasn’t expecting, Aaron has been pivotal in shaping the whole club since he took over from Simon Parker when he departed for Lewes in 2019.
The club’s website stated that the decision to depart the club after four years was confirmed on Sunday evening. Adding, that the committee has accepted Smith’s decision and thanked him for all his time and effort since he re-joined the club in May 2019.
To leave this close to the start of the season raisies many questions about the reasons why Aaron has left. Unless this is part of their succession planning and has been known internally for a while.
Southampton Women’s FC were established in 1970, making them one of the oldest and most successful women’s team in the county, winning the Women’s FA Cup eight times between 1971 and 1982. Only Arsenal have a better record in the competition.
Aaron recently guided the team to the Fourth Round of the Women’s FA Cup in 2019, the FA Women’s National League Plate Semi-Final and won the SDFA Cup in April.
It was with Aaron’s support that we were able to go ahead with our collaboration with Kit & Bone to create a football shirt to celebrate the club’s fiftieth anniversary of their victory in the first Women’s FA Cup.
This project saw Matt from Kit & Bone reimagine the club’s crest, this crest has now been adopted by the club and for that we are immensely proud to have impacted the legacy of the club.
Smith’s future is currently uncertain but I wouldn’t be too surprised to see him back in the game sooner rather than later.
Meanwhile, in the interim, the club has appointed Alex Rigby as caretaker manager while they seek a new manager. They are requesting interested persons send their CV to sotonwomenschair@gmail.com.
