Arsenal WFC are looking to hire current New York City FC head coach Nick Cushing, according to a report by Charlotte Harpur and James McNicholas posted earlier today in The Athletic. Former Arsenal Women manager Jonas Eidevall left the team last week just five games into the 2024/25 season — and with two months left on his contract. In response, Arsenal made Cushing "their primary target," according to The Athletic.
But every rumor has a counter-rumor. According to the Daily Mail, "Cushing is happy and committed to his job at New York City," and that he "is likely to reject any advances."
The 39-year-old Cushing is in his third year in charge of NYCFC, where he is the longest-tenured head coach in club history with 103 games in all competitions. New York City will begin Round One of the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs this coming Monday after missing the postseason last year. NYCFC finished the 2024 season in 6th Place in the Eastern Conference, with 50 points from 34 games.
But Cushing's candidacy is based less on his time at New York City that at Manchester City Women, where he was the manager from 2013 to 2020 and his teams won the FA Women's League Cup (2014, 2016), the WSL title (2016), and the FA Women's Cup (2016-2017). His decision to leave Manchester City Women in 2020 to work as an assistant coach at NYCFC under then-head coach Ronny Deila took many in Great Britain by surprise. At the time he was considered one of the best coaches in the women's game, a gifted manager "known for an incredible attention to detail in the technical and tactical side of the game and a knack for nurturing young talent," according to the Guardian.
“I see him getting criticism off fans and honestly it’s the most baffling thing. I don’t understand how he gets criticized because if you ask any player at this club they’ll tell you what an unbelievable coach he is," midfielder Keira Walsh told the Guardian in 2020. (Walsh now plays for Barcelona Femení but was with Manchester City then.) “If you ask players who’ve left they’ll say that tactically he is head and shoulders above most coaches."
Oliver Strand
Cushing worked as an assistant coach under Delia for a little more than two years, then was named interim head coach of New York City in the summer of 2022, when Deila left to become the manager of Club Brugge. NYCFC finished that season in 3rd Place, and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals before losing to Philadelphia Union. He was named the permanent head coach before the start of the 2023 season, and signed a contract that ties him to the club through the end of the 2025 season.
Reportedly, Arsenal are willing to wait. "Such scheduling is not ideal for Arsenal but the club are willing to make things work with full confidence in assistant manager Renee Slegers as interim head coach," according to The Athletic.
That would allow Cushing to guide NYCFC through one more year — and add one more season to a rebuild that has substantially remade the team that lifted the MLS Cup in 2021. The squad he inherited in 2022 was largely disbanded before the start of the 2023 season, when New York City made a club-record 13 signings as they attempted to replace striker Taty Castellanos (now with SS Lazio), goalkeeper Sean Johnson (now with Toronto FC), and other key players. Last year, NYCFC failed to make the playoffs, ending a seven-year streak of advancing to the postseason.
New York City brought in another nine players before the start of the current season, and the squad this year is much improved over that of 2023. But a team with the second-youngest roster in the league struggled through a nine-game winless streak in the middle of the season, and the 6th Place finish this year is disappointing to supporters who watched the club win the title just three years ago.
A final year in charge of New York City would allow Cushing to manage a maturing team through another full season. And a move to Arsenal after could suit a head coach who found tremendous success in the WSL.
