Emma Hayes and former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger speaking to two-time World Cup-winning coach Jill Ellis in Sydney ahead of Sunday’s final

CAMDEN-born coach Emma Hayes described the current crop of England players as the “golden generation” that just needed “the right leader” when she met the press in Australia on Friday.

“Sarina is a fabulous manager and England women’s national team are deserving of her,” she added. “The women’s game deserves to have the best coaches, too, so long may that continue.”

The Chelsea boss had just been speaking in downtown Sydney about her coaching ideologies for a Fifa conference alongside Arsenal’s legendary former manager Arsene Wenger.

Presciently, given Sunday’s result, the former Parliament Hill School pupil and 2021 FIFA Best Women’s Coach spoke eloquently about facing defeat as a manager.

“Losing is what you have to do sometimes to be able to be at the next level,” she said, reflecting back on the 4-0 “pummelling” her side suffered in the Champions League final to Barcelona two years ago.

“As cliched as it is, you can’t get too high and can’t get too low and you’ve got to constantly work at staying in the middle of that,” she said.

“Everybody’s got an opinion, everybody is going to judge and protecting the team and each other becomes critical.

“It’s healthy to reflect on what didn’t work as well as you wanted it to, rather than everything seems so catastrophic. I say this about the World Cup, it’s seven games.”

Meanwhile, the 46-year-old has been linked with the vacant USA job after Vlatko Andonovski stepped down in the wake of an unprece-dented round of 16 exit.

But when asked after the conference if she would be interested in the role, Hayes insisted that she was “very happy” at her club.

“I’ve been there for 11 years, it’s my home,” she added.

“The US has the most wonderful players and perhaps the tournament didn’t go the way they would want, but my focus is on getting home and preparing the team for the start of the season.”