“Manchester City prides itself on competing at the top of the WSL and on its outstanding record of qualifying for European competition,” said Charlotte O’Neill, managing director of City Women.
“Unfortunately, results this season have so far not reached this high standard. With six games of the WSL campaign remaining, we believe that a change of management will breathe fresh life into our bid to ensure qualification for the 2025-26 UEFA Women’s Champions League.”
In other words: forget about the looming League Cup final against Chelsea, or facing them in the Champions League quarter-finals, the primary aim is to finish third or better, and be in the Champions League again next season.
This is not entirely surprising. The best players in the women’s game want to play at European level, not just in the domestic competitions. Take, for example, City’s new signing Kerolin Nicoli, who joined them from North Carolina Courage of the NWSL, the top division of the American club game, on a three-and-a-half-year deal in January.
“There were a lot of reasons why I chose City and one of those was to play in the Champions League,” the Brazil international said upon arriving in Manchester.
Given City’s recent record in the UEFA competition, you could be forgiven for wondering, if that was her motivation, whether she’d made the right move. This season is the first time they have reached its quarter-finals since 2020-21. In the intervening three years, they had either failed to make it out of the pre-group stage qualifying rounds or not even got that far.
It is easy to see how this kind of record disincentivises top talent from joining City, particularly when you can expect them to have offers from clubs who will be in the Champions League. Key City players including Bunny Shaw and Mary Fowler are out of contract at the end of next season.
City came out of that four-game run against Chelsea battered and bruised. They lost the League Cup final and were unable to hold onto their two-goal lead from the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final. The manner of the defeat in that competition was particularly galling. They conceded three goals in the first half at Stamford Bridge and allowed Chelsea to complete the match on cruise control.
But maybe the worst result of the four was their 2-1 defeat in the league at the Etihad Stadium last Sunday. Erin Cuthbert’s 91st-minute winner meant the gap between City and their rivals for a top-three finish and the Champions League spot that comes with it, Arsenal and Manchester United who both won their games that weekend, widened from four points to seven with five games to go.
Despite Chelsea dropping points to West Ham yesterday, a stoppage-time Shekiera Martinez equaliser seeing them draw 2-2, their six-point lead at the top of the table remains ...
