Everton have sacked women’s team manager Brian Sørensen with the club ninth in the Women’s Super League. The club claimed their first home victory of the season on Sunday to move four points clear of relegation danger but it has not been enough to keep the 45-year-old Dane, who has been in charge since 2022, in his role.
The club’s chief executive, Angus Kinnear, said: “Sunday’s first win of the season at Goodison Park was important, but it has become evident that a change of direction is necessary to ensure the progression on the pitch we are all striving for.”
The club said the assistant coaches Stephen Neligan and Ashley Tootle had also left. Sørensen oversaw a sixth-placed finish in 2022-23, then back-to-back eighth-placed finishes.
Kinnear said: “We would like to thank Brian, Stephen and Ashley for their hard work and efforts in their time at the club.”
Everton’s Under-18s coach Scott Phelan will take interim charge for the remainder of the season, assisted by Jennifer Foster and the goalkeeping coach Ian McCaldon.
Phelan, a former England youth international and Everton academy product, has worked as a coach at Everton’s boys academy for more than a decade, including managing the Under-23s. The 37-year-old’s first game in interim charge is at London City Lionesses on Sunday, before the crucial visit of fellow strugglers West Ham to Goodison Park a week later.
Sørensen arrived in England before the 2022-23 campaign after leading Fortuna Hjørring to Women’s Champions League qualification in his homeland. He previously won a Danish Cup with Nordsjælland. Sørensen inherited an Everton who had finished 10th, nine points above relegation, and oversaw a relative period of stability after the short-term tenure of his predecessor, the Frenchman Jean-Luc Vasseur.
However, six straight home league defeats this season, after the club made Goodison Park the women’s team’s permanent home, left some fans booing at the end of January’s loss against Brighton.
