Nils Nielsen may have only spent one season as Manchester City’s women’s director of football, but his brief tenure looks likely to shape the club’s future for many years to come, with decisions being made to extend head coach Gareth Taylor’s contract, overhaul the backroom staff and sign several international players.
The former head coach of the Denmark and Switzerland women’s national teams is now enjoying some priceless time at home with his family in Denmark and taking great joy in seeing Manchester City at the top of the Women’s Super League table. Looking well-rested and relaxed, he explains the reasons for ensuring Taylor stayed in post and shares the inside story of their summer transfer business.
“I had 30 years beforehand where I woke up every morning and thought I had the greatest job in the world. That was not the feeling I had [as a sporting director] like I felt about coaching,” says Nielsen, who led Denmark to the final of 2017’s European Championship, when explaining that his decision to leave Manchester City was fueled only by a desire to return to coaching. “I will cherish the friendships I have there and Man City will always be in my heart, I will always be a fan of the club, but [leaving] was a good decision, I don’t regret it.”
That is not to say he did not enjoy many elements of a more office-based role, not least when part of the staffing group that persuaded the England forward Lauren Hemp to sign a new three-year deal in April.
“We wanted to renew as many of the key players as possible and that was a huge success that we managed to do that with Lauren,” he says. “She was chased by everybody. The fact that she has such a big heart for the club that she still believed in the project and chose to stay – that was a big thing for me.”
When Nielsen arrived in 2023, after a campaign when Manchester City had finished fourth, Taylor’s future in the dugout appeared unclear, with the former Wales striker signing a one-year contract extension for the 2023-24 campaign. But Nielsen was adamant, after spending time observing Taylor in action, that the club had the best person in charge.
“I was convinced – the right decision was to renew Gareth,” Nielsen said. “For me, it was quite clear after watching Gareth that he’s a top coach. He is very knowledgable and capable of getting the team to play the way he wants. Finding somebody that knows the City way of playing as well as him would be almost impossible.
“So, why would you change when you already have one of the best ones? I had no doubt, and I am very grateful that we managed to land it.”
The club also pulled off some eye-catching transfers towards the end of Nielsen’s time in Manchester, not least the capture of the WSL’s all-time leading goalscorer from Arsenal on a free transfer. Speaking before news emerged that Vivianne Miedema had undergone knee surgery, Nielsen praised her impact on the team since arriving from Arsenal and said: “I had analysed her so many times, trying to figure out how to stop her. That’s the player you want to have in your team, if the opportunity presents itself. So we went all in.
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“We were losing some of the more experienced players in Steph [Houghton] and Demi [Stokes], we needed some experience that could carry us when it was really difficult. And she will be that player, just wait and see. She’s going to bring titles to Manchester City.
“Of course, she needed to know a lot of things that normal players would never ask, but because she has a pedigree in the game that is second to none, she’s allowed to perhaps ask a few questions that I would normally not answer. We shared some plans and ideas, and she believed in the concept. That was really great.”
The club additionally signed three members of the Japan national team, which Nielsen says was not a deliberate plan specifically to sign players from that country but he does say their highly-technical way of playing “is a perfect fit for Manchester City’s style”. Backroom coaches Alan Mahon and Shaun Goater left the club and new staff such as assistant coach Chad Gribble and goalkeeper coach Diego Restrepo were brought in, and Nielsen is full of love for the “great people” who left but says there was a feeling new ideas could freshen things up.
And it is back on the training pitches where Nielsen intends to find himself soon too, concluding: “I want to have that feeling again in the morning when you wake up and have the greatest job in the world, helping the players achieve their dreams.”
