A year is a long time in football. When Gareth Taylor extended his stay at Manchester City last season, it looked like he had finally got the side on the winning path to league glory once again. Instead, their campaign collapsed at the death. As this season’s title charge lies in tatters, the club now find themselves on the hunt for a new manager after parting ways with Taylor. How did it all unravel so quickly, and where do Manchester City go from here?
As Taylor sat down to talk with the club media a year ago, life at Manchester City could not have been sweeter. The club were firmly in the driving seat for the WSL title, thanks to an impressive 1-0 win away at Chelsea and an eight-game winning run. A clear route in the Adobe Women’s FA Cup had opened up after having dispensed with Arsenal in the fifth round, and a home League Cup semi final awaited.
The team boasted one of the most potent attacks in the country, with the pace and trickery of Lauren Hemp and Chloe Kelly flanking the best striker in the League, Bunny Shaw. So really, it was no wonder Manchester City lost their nerve and awarded him a three-year deal.
“I’m very happy to be able to commit to City for another three seasons”, Taylor announced on the Manchester City website. “Our ambition was always to be right at the top and we’ve done that. It’s taken a lot of hard work from a lot of people behind-the-scenes. The players have really bought in to what we’re trying to do and achieve.”
Managing Director Charlotte O’Neill was equally optimistic.
“We’re very pleased to have Gareth continue his journey with City for another three years. Nils and I are very much looking forward to continuing our work with him for the rest of this season and beyond alongside this amazing group of players. I’m confident the future is very bright at this Club.”
12 months later, Taylor has been dismissed and that apparent bright future is now extinguished. What appeared to be the dawn of a new chapter proved to be merely the epilogue of a tenure that often flattered to deceive and leaves Man City’s season balanced on a knife-edge.
Repeated late fumbles defined missed opportunities
Taylor will naturally have regrets. His Man City side should have won the WSL last season. They should have beaten Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup quarter finals. They should have qualified for Europe the season before, instead of finishing behind an Arsenal side who by the end could barely field a starting eleven. They should have won more trophies. They should have been more successful.
Yet he departs with only two trophies to his name, as well as four and a half seasons worth of missed opportunities, despite possessing one of the strongest squads in the league, backed by one of the wealthiest clubs in the country. One League Cup and one FA Cup is a meagre return for a club possessing supposedly higher ambitions than that.
Taylor’s continued inability to get the required result at the end what defined his reign. Too many seasons saw his side start too slow, go on a superb run of form, only to crash and burn at the finale. In his debut season, City only won three of their first seven matches, only to then go on to win 14 out of their remaining 15. But that crucial other game was a home draw against Chelsea with three games left, which saw them ultimately fall short.
In 2023, City had a chance to leapfrog Arsenal into third place in the penultimate game but lost in injury time in the Manchester Derby. And of course, after yet another strong run of form, last season’s title was lost beyond the 90 when Stina Blackstenius pulled the rug out from under Taylor’s feet.
To lose out, both in a match and in a season, in that manner on occasion can be attributed to bad luck. To then persist is more than misfortune. Taylor’s steadfast loyalty to his processes and his style of play, even in the face of adversity, even when every season finished the same, as Chelsea held their title aloft, whilst City were left to contemplate what may have been, wasn’t just poor management. To expect different results from repeating the same methodology was madness, made worse by those above him who chose to indulge this insanity for this long, instead of severing ties at the opportune moment.
Injuries exposed Gareth Taylor’s tactical inflexibility
Injuries cannot be overlooked as a mitigating factor for Taylor’s failure to win a WSL title. Too often, the loss of a key player had undermined his team selection and seen his team suffer because of it. But managing a squad with injuries is as much a part of being a football manager as managing a team to victory. What matters is not the injuries, but how you work around them, be it tactically or in the market.
When Chelsea lacked a striking option against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge last season, they re-purposed Sjoeke Nüsken as a forward, won the game, and won the League. When Man City lost Shaw to a foot injury with three games left last season, Taylor failed to adapt for her absence, and saw the title slip from his grasp.
When Chelsea lost Kadeisha Buchanan to an ACL, they signed Naomi Girma and barring a cataclysmic collapse, will win the League again this season. When Man City lost Alex Greenwood to injury, they moved on Alanna Kennedy and signed Rebecca Knaak, and conceded eight goals against Man United and Arsenal.
It was not the injuries, but Taylor’s inability to work around them, to turn the tide when the chips are down, that proved to be his downfall. There is only so much sympathy you can procure from not being able to pick Shaw in first team for every game. The folly of having a single point of failure in a team was proved time and time again, and yet Taylor failed to see past it, failed to work around it, failed to adapt to the situation at hand. And ultimately, failed as a manager at Manchester City.
Nick Cushing is back, but is he the solution?
Manchester City must now pick through the wreckage of a season that had begun with so much hope and try to salvage what they can with Nick Cushing back at the helm on an interim basis. A League Cup and FA Cup double is not beyond the realms of implausibility, but with four games to come against the indomitable force that is Chelsea, it will be a struggle.
But beyond that, where do Man City go next? Attempting to keep Cushing beyond this summer, will surely be an option the club will be tempted to pursue, given his track record during his previous spell as manager and the success he brought to the club. But should Manchester City play it safe and simply go with what they know?
The manager has made his intentions clear- climb the ranks of the men’s game. Hiring someone with little ambition for success in the women’s game is surely not a strong statement of intent.
After all, this is what drove them to appoint Taylor, and why they opted to stick by him when others would have dispensed with his services. And whilst Cushing was a success in 2016, there’s no guarantee that will be the case 10 years on. If Manchester City truly want to ascend to the top once more, they must first break free from the yoke of repetition from the last 10 years, depart the comfort zone of familiarity, and forge a new direction to take their club. Otherwise, like Taylor, they will find themselves in same position, asking themselves the same questions of themselves, as yet another bright future fizzles out once again.
