For a team like Manchester City to go eight years without winning a league title is almost an eternity, and it seems that wait will continue for the women’s team this weekend, unless the final day of the Women’s Super League season has a few more twists and turns in store to cap what has already been a rollercoaster of a title race.
With two games to play, it was in Man City’s hands. Liverpool did them a huge favour in beating Chelsea at the start of May, meaning the Cityzens only needed four points from those last two fixtures. But, just a few days later, that all changed in a matter of hours. First, City conceded two goals in two minutes at home to Arsenal to throw away three points, and then Chelsea took advantage by putting eight past already-relegated Bristol City. It meant the Blues overtook their title rivals in the goal difference column that will decide the destination of the WSL title if both teams win on Saturday.
It will be a disappointment if the trophy is lifted by Chelsea at Old Trafford, of all places, then, rather than by City at Villa Park, as Gareth Taylor’s side were in firm control of this battle for the crown. Yet, to step back and look at the bigger picture is to admire the huge steps forward the Manchester outfit have taken this year.
After finishing a distant 11 and nine points off top spot in the last two seasons, respectively, City are right back up there again, and all signs point to them being extremely competitive over the next few years, too, as they look to finally bring that WSL title back to the north west.
Talent for the future
One big reason why that is the case is because of the young talent in this Man City squad. The average age of the starting XI Taylor has favoured in the latter stages of this season is 25 years old, featuring five players younger than that. It means that many at the club are still to play their very best football and are only going to get better.
This year alone, you have been able to see improvements. Khiara Keating (19), Mary Fowler (21) and Jess Park (22) have all been regular starters for the first time in City colours, and they have got better and better with each week.
Deadline day in the January transfer window was a huge indication of how much City are planning for that future too, as it saw them swoop for Tara O’Hanlon, a senior Ireland international at 19 years of age; Poppy Pritchard, a talented teenage striker who had been thriving for Durham’s Under-21s; and Laura Blindkilde Brown, the 20-year-old from Aston Villa who has already become a regular off the bench since her arrival.
This is a group that is going to grow as one and improve over time, so the club will hope that to still be in the title chase on the final day of this WSL season is only a sign of things to come.
Stability
And that group looks set to stay together, too, as the club has been active in tying down key players to new contracts. From that aforementioned preferred XI of Taylor’s, seven names have signed new deals in the past 18 months, as has the coach himself. It gives him stability to work with and means there’s no need for some of the chopping and changing of previous years.
The summer of 2022 was a hectic one for this team, with star names such as Georgia Stanway, Caroline Weir, Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh all moving on, while the experienced trio of Karen Bardsley, Jill Scott and Ellen White retired. It meant City had to bring in a lot of new faces, too, but Taylor noted at the time that every top team would have to have that busy summer eventually, to refresh the squad, and his had it then, setting them up for the future.
Good work behind the scenes
A year on from that chaotic transfer window, City appointed Nils Nielsen as director of football on the women’s side, a new role, and it is the former Denmark and Switzerland head coach who has overseen a lot of their smooth operations. He has not come in and started ripping things up; he’s simply done his job in an efficient manner, and that is reflected in the business City have done in the past year.
Nielsen faced the media when he was appointed in the summer of 2023, after the Cityzens had missed out on qualifying for the Women’s Champions League. A fourth-placed finish represented a really disappointing season, but the new man was calm about the process moving forward, an attitude which has aged well.
“Everything doesn’t have to happen this summer,” Nielsen said. “We are looking more in the coming year. Where do we need to get stronger? What do we need to develop in the squad? What do we have already? The main task in the beginning here has been the re-signing of players and that we have done a lot of work on.
“The long-term target is clearly that we want to be back on top, that we want to be the number one club in England,” he added. “That cannot happen overnight. We cannot just say, ‘Okay, we want that so it’s going to happen’, but we can work towards that goal and we can take the little steps every day in that direction. That is what we’re going to do also with recruitment, with little changes in the set-up and stuff that all will make a good situation better so we can go back to the winning ways.”
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Attractive project
Having that good structure, doing that forward-planning and generally knowing what the team is working towards is something that certainly helps the players feel like they are in the right place, too, and makes those contract renewals easier.
So many of those players who have chosen to stay at Man City have described it as the best place for them to continue to progress, and that is a huge compliment to the work that the club does off the pitch and behind the scenes, especially considering some of those players were linked with huge teams. It only helps with recruitment, too, as the club looks to add to this already talented and promising squad.
One of the best strikers around
Club success is connected to all of that stuff we don’t see on the pitch, but it can also be linked to the quite simple things, like having a world-class centre-forward who is going to score bags of goals to lead you to glory. In Khadija Shaw, Man City have that.
Strikers of her calibre are few and far between and they do not come cheap either. It was a steal when the Cityzens picked her up on a free transfer in 2021, and that she renewed her contract just last year was a huge boost for a team that had endured a tough season.
The old saying might be that defence wins championships – and City have the best in the WSL this term – but it is also rare for a team to win a title without a prolific goal-scorer. They will always have a bigger chance of silverware while Shaw is leading the line.
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Well-placed
All of the above is in Man City’s control, but there might also be some external factors that favour them in the coming years. While everything is rather settled in their neck of the woods, their biggest rivals in England are all facing different levels of uncertainty.
Chelsea, who look set to pip them to the title this year, are the most obvious in that sense as they are about to bid farewell to manager Emma Hayes after 12 years together. The Blues have an excellent squad and a lot of young talent, too, so any transitional period is unlikely to be massively disruptive, though it is not completely out of the question.
Arsenal, meanwhile, have struggled to really put everything together this year and there are more questions around them than answers right now. The shock news that Vivianne Miedema will leave the club at the end of the season has only added to it all, with the Dutchwoman even linked with Man City.
Then there is Manchester United, who might’ve secured an historic FA Cup win last weekend but have had a dreadful WSL season, on course for a worst-ever WSL finish of fifth. There are big steps forward for them to take before they can be a consistent title-challenger.
On their day, all three teams can cause problems and they’ve all shown they are capable of competing for silverware, too. However, you would have to say Man City are in the most stable position of the four right now. They’ll be keen to make that count.
