Marc Skinner Departs Manchester United Women After Trophy-Winning Tenure

Manchester United Women are heading into a new era. One month before the start of their Women’s Super League campaign, head coach Marc Skinner has left the club by mutual agreement, ending a five-year spell that dragged the team into the domestic elite and onto the European stage.

Skinner, who still had a year remaining on his contract, departs with immediate effect, with United due to open their WSL season away to London City Lionesses on 4 September.

He arrived in July 2021 as the successor to Casey Stoney and walked into a club still learning what it meant to compete at the top of the women’s game. Across four seasons he turned United into regular contenders, reaching four domestic cup finals and delivering the first major piece of silverware in the team’s history: the 2024 FA Cup.

That Wembley win became the defining image of his reign. It was the moment United’s women’s side finally had a trophy to match their growing profile.

The club confirmed his exit on Monday, framing it as an amicable parting. In a statement, United said Skinner had made “a significant contribution to the continued progress of Manchester United Women” and thanked him for his “professionalism, commitment and dedication”, adding that they wished him “every success in the future”.

His impact stretched beyond that FA Cup run. Under Skinner, United finished runners-up in the WSL in 2022-23, a landmark season that secured Champions League qualification for the first time in the club’s history. The step up did not overwhelm them. In the 2025-26 campaign they pushed through to the Champions League quarter-finals before bowing out to Bayern Munich.

The domestic picture last season told a harsher story. United slipped to fourth in the WSL, missing out on a return to Europe’s top competition. They ended nine points adrift of third-placed Chelsea and 15 behind champions Manchester City, a gap that underlined just how unforgiving the top end of the table has become.

That drop-off has now been followed by change in the dugout. The club must find a new head coach with barely any runway before competitive football returns.

Skinner leaves with a mixed but undeniably significant legacy: a first major trophy, a first taste of the Champions League, and a team that now expects to be in those conversations every season.

The question is simple and sharp as the new campaign looms: who takes them the next step?