Gareth Taylor in talks with Liverpool to take over as manager of WSL club | OneFootball

Liverpool have held talks with the former Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor about their managerial vacancy.

The Merseyside club have been searching for a new manager since the departure of Matt Beard in February, with Amber Whiteley placed in interim charge for the remainder of last season. Liverpool finished seventh of 12 in the WSL table.

Taylor was a Women’s FA Cup winner with Manchester City in 2020 and also led them to the League Cup in 2022, before a second-placed finish in the league in 2024. The 52-year-old had previously coached within Manchester City’s academy.

The former Wales striker spent just under five years at the helm at Manchester City, before being sacked in March, just days before this year’s League Cup final. During his playing career, he represented a range of clubs including Sheffield United, Nottingham Forest and Manchester City.

Liverpool are two-time former WSL winners, having lifted the title twice in succession during Beard’s first spell in charge of the club in 2013 and 2014, but they have not challenged for the title for a decade. They were relegated down to the second tier in 2020 but won promotion back to the top flight under Beard in 2022 and secured an impressive fourth-placed finish in 2024, and they were FA Cup quarter-finalists in that same year.

The Merseyside club were not the only WSL side searching for a new head coach this summer. Tottenham have appointed the Englishman Martin Ho, while Manchester City opted to hire the Swedish-born coach of the Denmark women’s national side, Andree Jeglertz, who will take over at Manchester City after Euro 2025. In WSL 2, Southampton have appointed the former Blackburn coach Simon Parker, Crystal Palace have hired the former Rangers manager Jo Potter and Bristol City have appointed the former Manchester United assistant coach, Charlotte Healy.

Header image: [Photograph: Ed Sykes/Action Images/Reuters]