“All of our players were very good, but we had to identify the real performance players who were potentially of a high value in in various ways, and Jeremie was one that certainly was overlooked massively.

“When the big games came, he never wilted at all. He had so much energy on and off the pitch. [But] he wasn’t the fancied horse in the race, Jeremie, and no one really realised how good he could be. And before you know it, he was off playing for Celtic, doing really well, and goes on to become a top international.”

Taylor’s role was pivotal in supporting these young players at a crucial time in their youth career – the year the club made a decision on whether to retain or release them.

“When you got to Christmas time, you were doing your meetings with the players, and your squad effectively in the second half of the season just really broke up. You had lads who were going off on trial elsewhere, and City were really good, doing a lot of work to make sure that these lads who were being released had the necessary support to try and get a career elsewhere.

“You didn’t want these lads to lose any part of their development.”

Another challenge for Taylor working across these junior age groups was identifying how to use players who were still physically developing. Foden, he says, had the skillset of a central midfielder, but had been used on the wing as he was thought to be too small to play in the middle. Of course, Foden then went on a rapid rise to Pep Guardiola’s first team – where his versatility made him invaluable.

“Matchdays were tough for him, but even training days were tough because he was working with more physically developed players. He was the only player in my time there who skipped under 21s.”

Taylor took over as head coach of Manchester City Women in 2020, feeling he needed a slightly different challenge. He won a trophy in each of his first two seasons, winning the Women’s FA Cup followed by the Women’s League Cup (then the FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup), and narrowly missed out on the Women’s Super League trophy twice.

The gap between girls’ academy football and the women’s first team was significant when Taylor took over; there was no equivalent to the boys’ St Bede’s project. It meant recruitment at all levels had to be considered carefully.

With the talent pool in the women’s game shallower than in the men’s, as the professional global game is in its infancy, Taylor needed to find recruitment tools for the best players.

“There’s certainly a lot of things that we did there that were attractive to bring players to the club, which would be our identity and our game model and the way we play and how we improve individuals. We did a lot of work in the in the IDP phase, preparing individual development plans for each player, and we used to use it as a recruitment tool as well. We weren’t saying that other teams weren’t doing that either, but we felt we put a lot of time and effort into that, and I had experience of running those programs in the boys’ academy.”

One of the issues in his final season in the role was a lengthening injury list, and he thinks that his experience in the academy game helped him develop his players and adapt to the constraints under which they were working.

“The situations overlap to a certain degree. You’re asking a player, as an example, a midfielder to go and play right back for you. [But] it’s not like we’re looking at you in this position because we’re looking at it for your future development. I’ve always kept development in my mind even as a first-team head coach because you’re always constantly looking to improve players on a daily basis to help the team.”

“I’ve always kept development in my mind even as a first-team head coach because you’re always constantly looking to improve players on a daily basis to help the team”

Taylor used a ‘what it takes to win’ model with the women, using the data to design a template, which also fed into the individual development plans. Of course, this approach also meant building a coaching staff that bought into the same principles.

“There were such big changes in the women’s game and Manchester City as an organisation. In the first season we had one physio and one sports scientist; this season, there were three sports scientists, three physios, a head of performance, which we didn’t have previously. We had enhanced analysis support, player care and welfare support. We had a specific person who would drive female athlete health. These are some of the things as a male head coach that you need to be aware of when you come into the women’s game.

“In most clubs, the performance team has grown, and what’s been neglected is the coaching staff. It’s important you don’t over-saturate them. The balance was good at City; they really built our performance staff and the support the girls had off the pitch.”

Taylor discovered that it was key to make his players feel part of the process.

“The biggest thing that I’ve taken over the last few years is understanding that they’re people, understanding that they all have motivators that drive them, they all need to be treated differently.”

That principle applies to male and female players – but he did notice a big difference between the boys and the women when it came to feedback in their analysis meetings.

“With the lads on analysis, they just wanted to know what you wanted them to do, and they’d go and do it. Feedback sessions were important as well. They didn’t want to see too much of the stuff that they did really well, they wanted to know what they didn’t do well, whereas the balance was really different with the girls. You had to sandwich it a little bit more.

“The lads were interactive, and you’d have some who were really keen on it as well, and they would be really eager to be the one to answer, whereas it was tumbleweed with the girls.”

It took some consultation with a sports psychologist for Taylor to understand and adjust his approach.

“The most powerful meetings we had were where we broke the girls off into groups of four or five. It was a hive of activity of feedback. Then when you asked them at the end for feedback, it was massive. When you feel like you’re involved in the process and you feel like you’re being heard, I think that’s when it’s just such a magical place to be in because  everybody feels a lot more aligned to what you’re doing.”

Taylor says he has enjoyed a short break from the taxing “hamster-wheel” of being a head coach and all the support and input that requires. He’s also been reviewing his achievements at Manchester City, in the same way as he and his squads reviewed their training and their performances on a daily basis – a process that he says has been invaluable.

“There’s some real honesty in there from each other on what we could have done better. That’s going to help us so much going into what comes next. If you can gain as much clarity as you can, that’s going to help you and stop the frustration. There’s nothing worse than being frustrated on a daily basis as a head coach. The review process, for me, as I’ve got more experienced, is something that’s really helpful for me as a coach. How do you know if you’re improving or not if you never review?”