Manchester City have today announced that manager Nick Cushing will be stepping down from his role at the beginning of next month in order to join Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise New York City FC as their new assistant manager.
The 35-year-old will depart the FA Women’s Super League side at the start of February having spent over six years in the role. In that time, he has led Manchester City to great successes, propelling them from relative obscurity within women’s football to where they are now, having become one of the dominating forces both domestically and in Europe.
Since taking over the role in 2013, following the club’s successful application to join what was then known as the FA Women’s Super League 1, Cushing has led his side to three FA Women’s Continental League Cups and two Women’s FA Cup wins, as well their very first top flight league title in 2016, for which he was rewarded with the FA Women’s Super League’s Manager of the Year award.
Under his tenure, City have also qualified for the UEFA Women’s Champions League every year since 2015. They reached the semi-finals on two separate occasions, in the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 seasons, on both occasions narrowly losing out to the indomitable Lyon.
Aside from his successes as manager, Cushing also has a long history with Manchester City that dates all the way back to 2007, when he was first employed by the the club as a schools coach. He then spent multiple years coaching within the academy, before taking on his current role.
His new role with New York City sees him stay a part of the Manchester City family, albeit a more remote one, with the club being another City Football Group franchise. He joins the Major League Soccer outfit in what is certainly a transition period, having lost a number of their key players as well as their long-time sporting director, Claudio Reyna, at the start of the off-season. In addition, Cushing will be part of a fresh managerial set-up, with the club also appointing a new head coach just days ago; Ronny Deila, whose previous roles have included managing Celtic’s men’s team.
Manchester City have announced that Cushing will remain in charge for their upcoming league matches against Everton and Birmingham City, as well as cup visits to Sheffield United and local rivals Manchester United, before he takes charge for the final time on the 2 February 2020, in an FA Women’s Super League match-up against fellow title challengers Arsenal.
The club have also stated that following Cushing’s departure, current assistant manager and former professional footballer, Alan Mahon, will take charge of the first team as interim manager until a permanent boss is found. In addition, Brian Eastick, an ex-England men’s Under-21s coach, will be brought in to provide further support, as well as a wealth of experience as both a coach and player.
It remains to be seen whether City will turn to somebody internal, from within the City Football Group or whether they will look elsewhere, perhaps to somebody with a strong women’s football pedigree, but whoever it is that does ultimately take the job can rest assured that Cushing has left the club in a strong position, and they will enter the role with City still firm title contenders once again.
Speaking to official club sources, Nick Cushing stressed that his decision to depart the Manchester club was not one which he took lightly, stating that it was “incredibly difficult given the fantastic players and staff that we have here and the incredible successes that we have achieved together.”
Upon announcing the decision, he also gave his thanks to both Manchester City and the City Football Group for what he says was “an amazing six-and-a-half seasons” with the club. He closed out his comments by telling the Manchester City website; “I will be extremely emotional to leave, but I’m very excited for my next role within the City Football Group.
“Linking up with New York City and Ronny [Deila] is a brilliant opportunity and I’m really looking forward to working in the MLS.”
By Lauren Coffman (@laurenjsport)