Manchester City’s Director of Football Nils Nielsen has hinted that the club could look to sign another prolific goalscorer this summer.
Nielsen was appointed the club’s Director of Football last week and his tasks will include coach and player development across the women’s first team set-up and player recruitment across the entirety of the women and girls’ pathway.
Earlier this afternoon, Nielsen spoke to the media for the first time since his appointment. He said that retaining out of contract players is an urgent task while in terms of external recruitment, Manchester City have their targets with a deal for a prolific goalscorer a possibility this summer.
“There are several (areas to develop) but everything doesn’t have to happen this summer,” Nielsen said. “We are looking at where we need to get stronger and what we need to develop in the squad over the coming year.
“The first task has to be re-signing players and we have done a lot of work on that. We also have a couple of players that we are looking at and are interested in but we will see what specific areas need addressing.
“I think most top teams would like to have a goalscorer, somebody that consistently puts the ball in the net and we would like that too but lets see which one we are going to get, we will have to wait and see.
“There are also other areas in the team over the next year or year-and-a-half that need to be looked at.”
Manchester City have a relatively young squad and while that bodes well for the future, Nielsen believes that more experience is needed in the team in the short-term.
He said “We need to always be competitive, every season. Right now, we are a little bit behind the best teams, just a few points but we need to catch up on that. That means that we have got to act short-term.
“There are some elements that we need to address right away and there are some that we can take a bit more time to solve. We have some very talented younger players but almost all of the older generation that were in the club have changed. If you don’t have as much experience in the squad, you need some time to develop it.
“That’s where we are right now, we have a lot of potential but we need a bit more consistency.”
Manchester City face an uphill battle to qualify for next season’s UEFA Women’s Champions League but Nielsen is not concerned about the impact of missing out on Europe.
“I don’t think it’ll change the recruitment at all, it won’t change what we will try to do,” Nielsen said. “I cannot say whether it affects how successful we are in doing it but I hope that the players and agents that we are talking to can also see the bigger picture and see that the club doesn’t change because there is a year where we don’t play Champions League.
“The club is still attractive and has everything that players need to be successful at Manchester City, so why shouldn’t they choose that? If they are looking at the next season’s Champions League and we are not there, they are not going to go to us but maybe it’d be a player that we wouldn’t want in the long run.
“Regardless of whether we are in the Champions League or not next season, we are still going to go for the same players that we are looking at right now.”
Manchester City are currently in fourth position in the Barclays Women’s Super League table. The Cityzens have the same number of points as third-placed Arsenal but they have played a game more.
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