Manchester Metropolis boss Gareth Taylor is the WSL’s longest-serving supervisor after Emma Hayes’ departure from the Chelsea on the finish of the 2023-24 season.
Taylor, 51, has been in cost on the Academy Stadium for over 4 years, first appointed in Could 2020.
He has but to steer the workforce to a WSL title, however has loved loads of success since taking the job. Right here’s all the things you must know concerning the Metropolis coach and his profession to this point
Gareth Taylor: His profession to this point
Like a couple of of his fellow WSL managers, Taylor had a distinguished taking part in profession within the males’s skilled recreation earlier than turning into a coach.
Born in Weston-Tremendous-Mare, Taylor’s first professional contract got here at a West Nation membership, with Bristol Rovers providing him a deal. A four-year spell within the early nineties adopted, with Taylor then turning out for Crystal Palace and Sheffield United.
Then got here his first encounter with Manchester Metropolis, the ahead signing for the membership in November 1998 – with Metropolis struggling in Division Two on the time.
Thankfully the Residents obtained themselves promoted at Wembley in dramatic vogue through the play-offs, earlier than reaching the Premier League the next 12 months.
Taylor later loved profitable spells at Burnley at Nottingham Forest earlier than retiring in 2011 while at Wrexham. By that time his teaching profession had already begun in earnest, usually taking cost of Wrexham’s reserve aspect.
First re-joining Metropolis as under-16 coach, Taylor had numerous youth growth roles on the membership he performed for, earlier than he was supplied the ladies’s job in Could 2020 changing Nick Cushing.
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Inside months of his reign, Taylor had Metropolis’s first trophy within the bag for the reason that 2017 Girls’s FA Cup, successful the 2020 version of the identical event after a 3-1 win over Everton at Wembley.
Constructing an thrilling attacking workforce across the likes of Lucy Bronze, Keira Walsh and Caroline Weir, Taylor led Metropolis to a formidable second-place end in 2020-21, with the anticipated subsequent step being s league championship.
However harder instances adopted, Metropolis misplaced three of their first 4 video games the next season and had been out of the title race instantly, finally ending a distant third. Taylor then misplaced Bronze and Walsh to Barcelona after the pair helped England win Euro 2022 on house soil.
What has adopted since has been a gradual restoration to get Metropolis again to the highest of the home tree. Taylor’s workforce flirted with the title in 2023 earlier than back-to-back defeats away at native rivals Liverpool and Manchester United ended their possibilities.
Final season was arguably Taylor’s greatest as a supervisor to this point, successful 18 out of Metropolis’s 22 league video games. But on the ultimate day Chelsea had been but once more champions. That, coupled with 1 / 4 remaining FA Cup exit on penalties to Tottenham, means the strain is beginning to develop on Taylor to win some silverware in 2024-25.
Can he ship? With an assault of England stars Chloe Kelly and Lauren Hemp, Matilda Mary Fowler and goalscoring phenomenon Bunny Shaw, Metropolis and Taylor have a terrific likelihood.
