The entire Manchester City team and staff stood to one side and watched as Chelsea lifted the League Cup trophy, showered by gold streamers. As soon as the celebrations started, City players headed down the tunnel, disappointment etched on their faces.
Yui Hasegawa, who was consoled by former City captain Steph Houghton, was visibly upset. Her sliced clearance from Mayra Ramirez’s cross ended up in her own goal which proved to be the difference on the day as Chelsea won 2-1, their first League Cup victory in four years.
It was harsh on Hasegawa, who has been one of City’s best players this season and cruel on the whole squad who have experienced plenty of change this week. This is the inside story of Gareth Taylor’s departure and Nick Cushing’s arrival.
It was just before 5pm on Monday when Manchester City’s women’s team attended a video call meeting on their day off following their 2-0 FA Cup quarter-final win against Aston Villa.
Only captain Alex Greenwood, who had been informed ahead of the call as a matter of priority, had an inkling of what was coming. The players had their cameras turned off while the women’s team managing director Charlotte O’Neill and women’s director of football Therese Sjogran delivered the news that head coach Gareth Taylor had been dismissed.
Just over an hour earlier that same afternoon, at around 3.30pm, Taylor had been asked to attend an in-person meeting with O’Neill and Sjogran. His first-team assistant Chad Gribble, who joined in August, was called in afterwards and informed that he, too, was to leave.
Moments after the players’ call, City published a statement announcing Taylor and the club had “parted ways”. The club’s former women’s team’s head coach Cushing has returned as interim for the rest of the season with a primary target of qualifying for the Champions League. His coaching staff is still to be determined but first-team assistant Nicky Ajose and goalkeeping coach Diego Restrepo were alongside Cushing in the dugout at the League Cup final on Saturday. Houghton, a club ambassador, was also on the touchline in an informal capacity.
The whole process was conducted swiftly — it took days, not weeks, to come to this decision — and evidently took Taylor by surprise. After City’s win last Sunday afternoon, he had spoken about having “a (League Cup) final and a (Champions League) quarter-final to look forward to”.
Ever since he was fired in November from New York City FC, also owned by City Football Group (CFG), Cushing had been having, in his words, “positive conversations” with CFG’s leadership about staying in the group. The opportunity to coach the women’s team, however, only arose “earlier in the week”, according to the 40-year-old who spoke at his first press conference on Friday.
“When a coach gets fired, it’s not a great situation for that coach,” said Cushing. “I say it because I’ve experienced it. My remit is looking forward. What went on before the start of the week is not my remit and, ultimately, I don’t need the detail in that.”
Cushing did not speak to the players prior to his appointment and Greenwood told media on Tuesday that she was “shocked” by the news of Taylor’s exit, describing the previous 24 hours as a “bit of a whirlwind” and “a lot to process”. But she trusted the decision made by the club. “I have to,” she said.
Other sources familiar with the matter who, like all consulted for this article, have been granted anonymity to protect relations, said some players were less surprised by the decision itself, but more bemused by the timing. They were given the same explanation delivered in the club statement: results were not up to standard and a change of direction was needed to secure Champions League qualification.
“What you get told, I get told also,” added Greenwood. “It’s purely results-based.”
Greenwood and former head coach Taylor (Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images)
There is a logic to that.
Recent performances following February’s international break were far from convincing. A 2-1 win against Tottenham Hotspur followed by a 1-1 draw with West Ham kept City outside the top three and the all-important Champions League spots. The decision, made by O’Neill and Sjogran, did not rest solely on those two games but, with the squad City boast — even if it was hampered by injuries to key players — they should be competing for the league title, not scrapping for European qualification.
Yet Cushing seemed satisfied with the position he has inherited. “I couldn’t give this group enough praise for getting where they’ve got,” he said on Friday. “The league position is not ideal but the reality is we’re in all four competitions and the Champions League place is still achievable.”
Interestingly, when asked why the team has lost its way recently, Cushing pointed to injuries. Other sources with knowledge of the situation felt the team environment was “flat”. A change in culture and an injection of new energy was needed.
That change is being led by O’Neill and Sjogran.
O’Neill, responsible for business operations and decision making at an organisational level, was the only staff member to be quoted in the club statement and is Sjogran’s line manager.
Sjogran, who was only appointed in October, is responsible for recruitment across the women’s and girls’ pathway, as well as first-team coach and player development. When Taylor joined in 2020, City had a different head of women’s football in Gavin Makel. The club had a different women’s director of football, Nils Nielsen, when they handed Taylor a new three-year contract following a 12-match winning run early last year.
“I was convinced — the right decision was to renew,” Nielsen, who was influential in Taylor’s new deal, told The Guardian. Nielsen, now manager of Japan’s women’s team, left last summer while Makel departed in November 2023 to work as a director on the club’s entertainment projects.
There was a refresh of sorts over the summer as City released first-team assistants Shaun Goater, Alan Mahon and goalkeeping coach Chris Williams. The trio were replaced by assistants Gribble, Ajose — who joined in November — and Restrepo. Some sources around the club found it odd that Gribble was dismissed while Ajose and Restrepo remain in post.
Gribble, left, and Taylor ahead of City’s FA Cup quarter-final last Sunday (Molly Darlington – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
Yet it was the timing of the 52-year-old’s sacking that struck most as strange, especially in the week leading up to a cup final.
City have embarked on a run of four games against Chelsea, whom they also face in the Champions League quarter-finals and the Women’s Super League (WSL). There have been other windows of opportunity when performances were worse than of late. For example, when City finished the 2022-23 campaign in fourth, were knocked out of both cup competitions and failed to qualify for the Champions League group stages. Taylor’s contract was due to expire that summer but the club gave him a one-year contract extension.
Perhaps one would understand such a change if City had lost Saturday’s final and that run of Chelsea matches. But with a trophy, a place in the Champions League semi-finals and European qualification at stake, City chose to pull the plug just ahead of a season-defining 12 days.
Perhaps they reasoned that, having invested so heavily in the squad and facilities, they should have been doing better with what they had. During his four-and-a-half-year tenure — which made him the longest-serving manager/head coach in this season’s WSL — Taylor won a League Cup and an FA Cup as well as securing two second-place league finishes. Maybe that represented scant return. If so, then attention inevitably turns to the head coach.
And if they needed a reaction from the players, this was the time to inject new energy into the dressing room. It was stick or twist.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Taylor had interest from some National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) clubs, including Angel City, but no official conversations took place. They believe it would be very unlikely that would be a reason for his departure.
It is worth bearing in mind that players are also making decisions regarding contract renewals. Laia Aleixandri’s deal expires at the end of this season while Jill Roord, Jess Park, Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw, Greenwood, Mary Fowler and Leila Ouahabi are all contracted through to the summer of 2026. They will now wait to see who takes on the role permanently beyond this season before determining their futures.
The prolific Shaw’s contract expires in the summer of 2026 (Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)
Yet, as one source with knowledge of these matters pointed out, some may welcome the chance to work with someone new.
Taylor’s exit comes amid the backdrop of questions over his people management skills.
Every player has different experiences with coaches. Some players are happy, others are not. “I can’t speak for anybody else but myself: I had a positive relationship with Gaz (Taylor),” said Greenwood. “We got on well. He brought me to the club, he played me a lot, he trusted me, he made me captain of the club, which I’m very grateful for.
“I understand that sometimes not everyone’s going to feel the same because decisions are made about playing or not playing and ultimately, everyone wants to play football. At some point, people are going to be disappointed, and that’s how football works.”
Vivianne Miedema, who joined from Arsenal last summer, described her relationship with Taylor as “really positive”. “I’ve really enjoyed playing under him. I’m really grateful that he’s actually made me enjoy playing football again.”
However, others have publicly made their feelings heard.
The Athletic reported that Chloe Kelly’s relationship with Taylor had deteriorated far in advance of her move to Arsenal. Without mentioning Taylor’s name, she wrote on Instagram in January: “A key lesson I have learned in my life is that, while I can’t control someone’s negative behaviour towards me, I can control how long I am prepared to tolerate it.”
Ellie Roebuck, who left City for Barcelona last summer, told BBC Sport in February that her relationship with the head coach became “fractured”. “I don’t know whether that was me, maybe not hearing the clear communication or the fact that there just wasn’t clear communication,” she said. “I got my head down and I just tried to work every day, but I think it was a badly managed situation.
“I’ve always been professional. I just felt like the respect wasn’t reciprocated in that same sense.”
An overarching feeling from one former City player consulted by The Athletic was that she found not knowing where she stood with Taylor unsettling. “I get how Chloe Kelly felt at times,” the former player said. “There were times I didn’t feel valued at the club. You just think, ‘What do I actually offer in this environment?’
“Being made to feel small affects your confidence and performance which ultimately affects your love of the game and your livelihood, so you can see how that’s quite a slippery slope.”
Sources familiar with Taylor’s management have said he would “isolate players, cut off communication and blow hot and cold”, while another said, “There was a lack of communication when you do not play but you feel like a coach favourite when you do”.
It also did not go unnoticed that, at the end of Taylor’s second year in charge, England internationals Lucy Bronze, Keira Walsh, Georgia Stanway and Scotland’s Caroline Weir left the club. Their reasons for leaving may have been multi-faceted, but such an exodus of senior players raised eyebrows.
Yet, according to a source close to Taylor, he has received over 50 messages of support from current and past members of the City playing staff. He also created a leadership group of six captains for communication purposes, and held interactive analysis sessions as well as individual player development plans, including personalised analysis clips.
In an Instagram post published on Thursday, Taylor said he was “disappointed to have parted ways” but “excited to see what the future holds”. Only time will tell if he remains in women’s football. City and Taylor’s representatives declined to comment when approached by The Athletic.
Taylor holds the 2022 women’s League Cup after City’s victory over Chelsea (Catherine Ivill – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
For the club, making the choice to part with Taylor the same week as a cup final was offset by bringing in Cushing who has a proven track record and won every domestic honour as head coach of City women between 2013 and 2020.
According to sources close to Cushing, City were the only side in the women’s game he would have considered joining given his emotional attachment to the club and previous success.
“My daughter was born on the day of the Conti Cup (League Cup) final in 2016,” he recalled on Friday. “We were in this stadium here, went to extra time. She was born five minutes after I got to the hospital after we lifted the trophy.”
It has been a whirlwind week for Cushing.
On Tuesday, his first day, he met the team in the morning and spoke with Greenwood — the England international is recovering from a medial collateral ligament injury — about what he expects from her as captain.
So quick was the turnaround, however, that Cushing said on Friday he did not know the “complete detail” of where Greenwood and Lauren Hemp, also recovering from a knee injury, are in terms of their rehabilitation. His coaching staff have been filling in the gaps regarding personalities and who can play two games in quick succession.
He spoke to the team, three of whom — Park, Hemp and Laura Coombs — remain from his first stint in charge, about the focus on the flurry of games against Chelsea to come. “If I didn’t believe in the group and that this was going to be an exciting challenge, I wouldn’t have taken it,” Cushing told the players.
Cushing at the League Cup final on Saturday (Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)
Miedema told The Guardian that Cushing “kickstarted” their new journey together “really well”, while new January signing Kerolin Nicoli liked his forward-thinking mentality and found his playing style “exciting”. His first training session on Tuesday was less tactical and more focused on getting players running and on the ball.
“He’s really open for what the players want and also what they can do,” said Kerolin Nicoli. “We have a balance in terms of what the players are good at and also the game plan.”
She also noted a lift in mood. “When I was training I saw some players smiling and the energy was high,” she said.
Sjogran will lead on recruitment for a new permanent manager but, on Friday, Cushing was coy about his long-term future beyond the end of the season. “You never know what is around the corner,” he said.
All Cushing knows is that they have to face Chelsea again on Wednesday in the Champions League quarter-final.
“It’s mine and the staff’s job to swing this into being motivation rather than almost the deflation of losing or the fear that we’re playing a better team,” he said after Saturday’s loss.
“This feeling that you get when you lose in finals, if that’s not enough motivation to take you into the next game, then we’re playing the wrong game. I see in the players’ eyes an incredible hunger and belief that they can win. It’s tough to lose finals but you’ve got to dust yourself off and move on.”
(Top photo: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)
