You can go home again, at least if you're former New York City FC Head Coach Nick Cushing.
Cushing is returning to women's soccer and returning to the job he held before he became Ronny Deila's NYCFC assistant coach in 2020, at least temporarily.
Manchester City Women's Football Club today announced they'd fired Gareth Taylor, the longtime manager of the Women's Super League team, and that they'd re-hired Cushing, who will serve as interim manager through the end of the 2024-2025 season.
It's an interesting comeback for Cushing, as he was relieved of his duties as NYCFC Head Coach on November 26, 2024, three days after his team's season ended at the hands of the rival Red Bulls in the MLS Eastern Conference Semifinals. Cushing ended his two-and-change seasons as Head Coach of New York City with a mixed record of 37 W-31 D-39 L in all competitions.
Oliver Strand
In the time since his firing, he's been busy on media duty. He appeared on talkSPORT in his native England, forced to sit through a red-faced rant from Simon Jordan about MLS and its place in the sporting and world soccer pecking order.
Cushing also gave an exclusive interview to The Daily Mail in which he said of his NYCFC firing, "I was a little bit disappointed that it was now after this season – just purely based on what we achieved this year – but it probably is a good time and the right time for me to take on a new challenge, move forward and test myself at the highest level."
The first post-NYCFC test for Cushing will be something of a make-up exam, or maybe just a second test on the same material that he mastered once but hasn't looked at in five years. That's how long it's been since Cushing last coached the Manchester City Women, as Gareth Taylor held the role since May 2020 when he replaced a bound-for-MLS Cushing.
Cushing had a strong first spell with the City women, leading the team for the first six incredibly successful seasons of its existence. Cushing won trophies aplenty with the Man City women, six total in his time in charge, which included capturing both the WSL title and the FA WSL Manager of the Year award in 2016. The Man City website did a nice feature on Cushing's first tenure with the women's team right before he came to New York City, which is worth checking out for a reminder of just how successful he was during his first stint in charge.
Caroline Oatway
He also coached some of the biggest names in women's soccer and continues to draw praise for his body of work in the women's game, so much so that he was rumored to be a target to become the next manager of Arsenal FC's women's team. Cushing denied links to that job when they emerged last fall, and Arsenal eventually settled on Renée Slegers as their manager.
Instead, it's a return to the warm embrace of City Football Group, an organization he's worked with since he started coaching in the Manchester City youth academy in 2007. His return is happening because the success the women's squad enjoyed under Cushing has not lasted under Gareth Taylor. The City Women currently sit in Fourth Place in the WSL with six league games left to play this season, outside the places required to qualify for the UEFA Women's Champions League.
In the statement announcing Taylor's firing, the objective for Cushing was laid out clearly by Charlotte O’Neill, managing director of Man City Women, who said, "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."
Cushing is tasked with guiding Man City up the table but he's also got big cup matches to handle, too. His second debut, or re-debut?, with the Man City Women will be in a cup final, taking charge just in time for Manchester City to face Chelsea FC in the Women's League Cup Final this weekend. What better way to kick off The Second Cushing Era than by lifting a trophy?
He did it during his last time serving as an interim coach, helping his NYCFC team win the 2022 Campeones Cup – so now he'll look to duplicate his interim success while returning to where his head coaching journey started in earnest in 2014.
