Olid to leave SWPL leaders Hearts at end of season

Head coach Eva Olid will leave SWPL leaders Hearts at the end of the season by mutual agreement.

Olid, who will have been at the club for five years in the summer, beat Glasgow City for the first time on Sunday to move to the top of the table.

She signed a new deal until the summer of 2026 in April last year. There was the option for a further year in that contract, but that has not been taken up.

The Spaniard told BBC Scotland she "couldn't leave the club without beating City" having already picked up scalps against Celtic, Rangers and Hibs.

She told her players after the win of her plan to depart this summer.

Olid, who replaced Andy Kirk in 2021, also guided the Edinburgh side to their first domestic cup final two years ago when they lost to Rangers in the 2024 Scottish Cup.

There were back-to-back fourth place finishes in the league before a drop to fifth last term as city rivals Hibs finished first.

Hearts are top of the SWPL, one point above Rangers - who they face next after the international break - with five matches remaining.

When a bright-eyed, unknown Olid was announced as the new boss in July 2021, Hearts had just finished bottom of the league.

There was to be no relegation due to an agreement of expansion to 10 teams for the 2021-22 campaign, for which Hearts then finished eighth.

But it was over the next two seasons where Hearts, and Olid, really made their move and established themselves as the fourth force in the women's game, as they moved from amateur to semi-professional for the 2022-23 season.

Back-to-back fourth-place finishes were impressive enough, as was their rise to regularly claim city bragging rights over well-established teams in the women's game in Hibs and Spartans, but it was their first win over one of the 'big three' which made folk finally sit up.

Katie Lockwood's goal against Rangers not only delivered an historic victory for Hearts, but Rangers boss Jo Potter viewed it as "the one" which lost her side the league.

Six months later and Celtic were beaten, while Sunday's win over Leanne Ross' City was the last piece of the puzzle in what has been a total transformation of the team.

An incredibly attacking side - by far the league's highest scorers this term - Olid "didn't like" the defensive set-up which secured the win at Petershill Park. But she knew it was what was required.

It was evidence of her growth as a head coach and although her next destination is unknown, she certainly won't be short of suitors.

Not only has she changed the way the club see themselves in the women's game, but she's flipped the image for players.

Statement signings have been made in the last few years - Danique Ypema from Feyenoord and Mairead Fulton from Glasgow City - while she has never shied from giving youth a chance.

Erin and Jess Husband both made their debuts aged 15, while she lured highly-sought-after Scotland youth internationals Bayley Hutchison and Eilidh Shore to the club from Aberdeen.

She has been the catalyst for Hearts' rise to title contenders.

Ambitious from the start, her loss will be felt around Oriam. And whether she leaves with a league winners medal or not, the shoes left behind will be big ones to fill.